Thursday 5 December 2013

Brief Thoughts on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

1. I would pay good money to watch Donald Sutherland and Jennifer Lawrence glowering at eacjh other on a continuous loop. Hollywood, take note.

2. God, this is harrowing. Why does something about people killing each other for entertainment have to be so harrowing?

3. Woody, you are doing interesting things to me with your face. Never stop. (Ellie thinks this is a weird crush. I say, NOPE. Perfectly normal.)

4. WHY DO YOU KEEP MISSING STUFF OUT? HOW ARE WE MEANT TO BE SHOCKED ABOUT DISTRICT 13 IF YOU'VE NEVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE?

5. This is still so HARROWING. Must I cry more over Rue's death? MUST I? (Yes)

6. I am totally shipping this Johanna/Katniss thing. I mean, 'Love is weird'? COME ON!

7. I love Jeffrey Wright beyond anything that's reasonable. THERE HE IS, HI JEFFREY!

8. Finnick, I like your dimples, and your simple devotion to old ladies. Carry on.
YES I DO.

9. I'm not sure how much I like this Plutarch- 'I'm going to help mastermind a revolution by encouraging the hurting and/or killing of the people who have already been hurt the most.' Hmmmmm... (But then again, since this is a major theme in Mockingjay, I guess I can deal with it)

10. Actual thought- I think this movie has done a really good job of showing Katniss's unwillingness to be a symbol, and the amount of personal responsibility this makes her feel for every death. She doesn't really get that things are happening around her rather than her being the cause of them because, you know, she's a teenager. Poor Katniss.

11. CINNA, NOOOOOOOOOO (did I mention how harrowing? So harrowing.)

12. Tick Tock, this post is a clock. If you read one point on the hour, every hour. But why would you? Weirdo.

16 comments:

  1. I thought Catching Fire was a much better film that The Hunger Games partly because I prefered the book but partly because it felt more...full? It didn't seem like they left out as much of the book stuff. Although they're already having issues over the stuff the left out or changed in the first film.

    When I read the book I hsd so much trouble picturing the arena, for some reason I always imagined it was a semi-circle (and so did someone I saw CF with, so maybe it was a dodgy description) so that was good. Also, silly Plutach spinning the centre island doesn't do shit WE CAN STILL SEE THE 12 O'CLOCK TREE.

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    1. Oh oh oh and Jeffrey Wright was so good in this. You should see Only Lovers Left Alive, he's in it and quite hilarious. Plus Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and John Hurt as vampires.

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    2. WHAAAAAT YOU'VE ALREADY SEEN ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE?! I spent a good hour yesterday hunting around the interwebs trying desperately to find an ACTUAL RELEASE DATE and not a single thing could I find except "Well, it might be February. But it could also be April." WHYYYY ARE YOU DENYING ME ROCK VAMPIRE HIDDLESTON?!

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    3. I don't even know what to say about Only Lovers Left Alive except OMG JEFFREY WRIGHT (like, seriously.)

      But anyway- I think Catching Fire was definitely better than The Hunger Games, although the more I think about the first movie, the less I like it, so there's that! The arena WAS really good though- I like to think that I imagined it sort of like it was in the film, but you know, I probably didn't hahaha! And also YES I totally thought that because OMG the big tree! Fucking hell!

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    4. It was screening at the Brisbane film festival a few weeks ago, so I rushed to get tickets because it's basically everything I ever wanted in a film. Definitely see it if it ever gets a screening date, or search online for a copy. So good

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    5. I think the general consensus is "Yes, we will give you awesome actors being vampires sometime in the first half of 2014. Watch this space." *stares determinedly at space and wills it to HURRY THE HELL UP*

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  2. "Tick Tock, this post is a clock..." GOLD STAR FOR YOU. :)

    I don't actually massively think the Haymitch thing is a weird crush, per se, but it made Ellie Bookworm snort so... Actually, Harrelson does NOTHING for me in real life, but with the Josh Holloway hair and the 'sweetheart' drawl and the Byronic Torment thing going on... OH YES. This isn't one of those THOR HEMSWORTH HEMSWORTH THOR WHO CARES LOOK AT HIM things, it's definitely Haymitch that floats my boat. :)

    Whenever I see Cinna on screen I can't get over the ZOMG KRAVITZ thing, which is possibly going to be a problem for me this time where FEELS are concerned. I can't wait to see that Mockingjay dress though, and also the moment all the tributes line up on the stage hand in hand, which my sister assures me is just as spine-chilling on screen as it is in the book. I WAS MEANT TO GO SEE THE FILM ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND NO ONE WOULD GO WITH MEEEEE! And the cinema times are changing this week to more crappy ones, and I have a horrible feeling I'm not going to see it until the DVD comes out, which SUCKS. *eyes Haymitch again and pours a drop of whisky into her tea in tribute before disappearing to sulk for a while*

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    1. *wears gold star proudly*

      Ah, ok, I'm glad you're not ashamed of your Haymitch thing cause yeah, he's pretty hot. Even if he's totally drunk all the time :(. I'm not even really sure how I feel about Woody Harrelson in general, but I know I'm into Haymitch!

      Awwwww, Ellie! I would have totally gone to see it with you cause I went with my sister and her bf which was marginally annoying (actually, they were fine. But it felt like it should be annoying, so it sort of was? I don't know!) But anyway, stop being all northern and come and live down here!

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    2. Most excellent. *pokes tongue out at Ellie Bookworm and decides to come and live over here where Haymitch crushing approval is high*

      See, I could have gone to see it on Tuesday, but NO CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. I could have seen it on Wednesday night, but NO EVERYONE IS TIRED AND NO ONE WANTS TO GO OUT. Then I could have seen it when we sneakily took the day off on Thursday but NO PAINTING THE KITCHEN. Then I could go and see it this Tuesday morning, but NO CATS NEED VET VISITS. I could go see it on Tuesday afternoon, but NO PHYSIOTHERAPY MUST HAPPEN. I could go see it on Wednesday night, but NO MUM IS HAVING CHRISTMAS MEAL FUN IN TOWN. Are you starting to sense the problem here? *waves bottle around and slurs lots of vaguely miserable insults at the world for coming between one woman and her awesome-movie needs* *steals back gold star to reward self for accepting this nobly and with the dignity befitting a 26 year-old businesswoman* :P

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    3. Awwww, I hate it when there are all these REASONS why you can't see stuff and you REALLY WANT TO and everything is just lame. It's happened to me before and it sucks, is what I'm saying *empathy face*

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  3. Haymitch or not, I'm throwing my hat in the Woody Harrelson has that dirty-sexy thing going on. No shame.

    Loved this post. Possibly more than I loved the movie, which I thought was good but weirdly paced, minus the AMAZING PART WHERE JENA MALONE GETS NAKED IN AN ELEVATOR. Because, you know, that part just really made me laugh.

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    1. NO SHAME indeed.

      I kiiind of know what you mean about the movie being weirdly paced, and I think the first one was too- it's quite a weird situation though, and they go from like poverty->splendour->killing fairly rapidly so I'd imagine it's kind of hard to make a movie from? But I was definitely like WHEN WILL THE KILLING START? because, you know, I'm evil.

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  4. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch is one of my favorite things in Catching Fire - especially loved Haymitch's look and gesture of approval he gives to Peeta after Peeta's shocking "revelation" in the interview w/ Caeser. That whole interview sequence (Johanna's rant, the tributes joining hands) was one of the best parts.

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    1. Yessssss the whole interview bit was really good! The tributes joining hands gave me goosebumps, and just yeah. So brilliant.

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  5. OH this was so good! They did just a fantastic job, especially with casting. Finnick is PERFECT. And somehow in this movie, Effie made me cry the most. And nooooooo, Cinna! That was too sad.

    Also, Woody Harrelson is only a mildly weird crush. But I definitely like the kids of movies he's been doing lately... Zombieland, Seven Psychopaths, etc. He's good at being crazy.

    Okay, I wanna go watch this movie again. I wonder if I can talk my brother into going next weekend.

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  6. I HAVE TO SEE THIS. Love your review btw x

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