Hello back again for the
second half of the upcoming movie year. This time I have a bit less actually
material but a lot of big names and much more excitement for each of them. If
you see this post for the first time then I can only recommend to look into
PART 1, for all the others. Have fun with my list and be sure to tell me your
opinions about my selections.
December 26, 2012
December 18, 2012
Movies 2013: My Expectations (Part 1 of 2)
The year nears its ending
and I use the chance to look forward, to a point we will never reach but
hopefully will come. The next year of movies looks as exciting as every year
and most of them will disappoint the audience with their brilliantly made trailer
and marketing efforts for obvious facts like a actual storyline and bad acting.
But what movies are worth to keep an eye on? Here is the first half of my list
for the next year:
December 14, 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Review
The Hobbit:
An Unexpected is now in cinemas after several
years of yearning for it. It’s the prequel to the glorious LOTR Trilogy, which
had a lot of problems on the way of production. Peter Jackson got ill through
stressing himself, Guillermo del Toro dropped the position as regisseur, overcame
a boycott of actors who demanded more, got a big budget for whole three long
time running movie at a near bankrupt firm and a lot more that we never heard
about. That’s a lot of problems for someone who just wants to enters the great
world of Middle Earth once again. Is it worth joining him on his journey? Definitely
yes, and here is why:
December 11, 2012
Wreck-It Ralph - Movie Review
Wreck-It Ralph is a movie about an 8-bit antagonist who is tired of being the bad guy. He wants to be the praised hero that the kids love. To achieve that he needs to travel to other arcade games, like a sugar coated racetrack and a bug contaminated gritty world.
The movie is Disney's try to create a similar experience to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and the "Toy Story-Films" for the rich world of Gaming. I'm a gamer myself and was quite skeptical if it would succeed with such classics. The expectations for it are high enough, so hopefully it doesn't disappoint me. Read if it could meet my expectations.
December 2, 2012
Ted - Importance and risk to reach both genders
Seth MacFarlane is the creator of Family Guy and several other cartoon series, recognized for his immature and vulgar jokes. Ted is not that different in this regard, but a lot better at it than his other works.
Looking at the box office results shows clearly that he made a lot of money out of it, which success many never expected to be as high as they got with strong competition like The Dark Knight Rises. The question is, how he could get even woman to be excited about his newest work.
November 25, 2012
Writing Tip: Keep the Words Flowing
[A Guestpost by T. S. Bazelli]
Help, I don't know what happens next!!
This is a problem for both pansters and plotters, and trust
me, I've been both. No matter how you write, it's likely you'll discover gaps in
the plot while you're in the middle of writing. I'm not talking about writing
block, but story blocks, when suddenly you've run out of plot, or don't quite
know how to get to the next part.
November 22, 2012
Cloud Atlas: Movie Review
Germany is known for its cars, beers and movies... the last one actually not at all, but we have a few "famous ones". Recent examples are Inglourious Basterds, Anonymous, Unknown Identity and The Three Musketeers. All of them have two things in common. They were produced in the film studio Barbelsberg and weren't directed/produced by Germans at all. The latest fact isn't bad, because there is only one genre that German filmmaker can capture well and that is historical stuff like Valkyrie or The Reader. Now another big production arrives on the silver screen, but this time everything is different. Tom Tykwer, a well known German director created a movie, that is different than all the other seen before. To accomplish that he needed a lot of German/American money and the help of the well known Wachowski Siblings, who became famous for creating a One-Hit-Wonder. Read for yourself if they could manage to create something spectacular or if they just made the most expensive Indie film ever.
November 11, 2012
Writing Tip: 5 signs to recognize that you are a writer
There are several signs for hidden talents that slumber within us. Many of them are awoken since the beginning, like artistic child's that draw pictures since they are born. Some of them build sand castles and become architectures. But there are some signs the need time to develop bit for bit.
Not each of them is recognizable as clear as day. Some need to be discovered by careful observation, but these 5 ones are the most common signs to watch out for.
[Image by after-the-party]
November 6, 2012
James Bond 007: Skyfall - Movie Review
A lot of big budget movies get a big budget marketing plan. Avengers had one, but it became mostly popular through mouth to mouth propaganda till it was everywhere. The Lord of the Rings was pretty famous with several TV-Clips and documentation about it. But Skyfall is different. It has such a big marketing budget that it is nearly everywhere. There are so many posters and billboard that you could believe Germans would decorate their houses with them. There is even a title song that made it to the charts. TV shows send non-stop commercial about "How to be like James Bond". Even though it runs in 8 different auditoriums at the same time and that in just 1 movie theater i couldn't get a good place till Monday. Thats ridiculous how many people want to see it and it isn't even in 3D. But with a great hype comes a great responsibility. Can it live up to it? See for yourself.
October 28, 2012
Writing Tip: Deus Ex Machina
How many books did you read in which the situation looked as worse as it possible could be for the hero and even then he manages to escape in a ridiculous way by the help of a unknown powers? Certainly you read that at least a hundreds times and that only in this year. These moments are not only bad for the credibly of the story but that situation also bury the chance of develop the character through a dramatic scene or kill of unneeded characters. The method is practically found everywhere and is called Deus Ex Machina.
[Picture by Praetoris01]
[Picture by Praetoris01]
October 21, 2012
Looper - Movie Review
Looper was besides "The Dark Knight Rises" and the upcoming "The Hobbit" the one i wanted to see the most this year. I love Bruce Willis. I love Joseph
Gordon Levitt. I love movies where you need to think to grasp it
fully and this could be such one since Inception. What could go wrong? Actually not that much, but the few things added up to a bitter taste in this otherwise super delicious sweet cake. Why the movie has such a small bitter taste and why i would call it the bread between "Inception" and "Matrix" will be explained in the rest of the review.
October 14, 2012
Taken 2 - Movie Review
Taken became a hit later on a box office hit with its dvd sales. The first one was great in regard of the well thought through story and a different reason for his fight. Getting back his innocent daughter from slave traders was a refreshing and different approach then the usually vengeance plot.
The main character was a nearly perfect soldier but sometimes even he made mistakes or got knocked over. Besides his paranoiac thoughts and the resulting interactions with his daughter were just hilarious to watch.
The main character was a nearly perfect soldier but sometimes even he made mistakes or got knocked over. Besides his paranoiac thoughts and the resulting interactions with his daughter were just hilarious to watch.
October 9, 2012
Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter: Movie Review
Timur Bekmambetov directed and produced a lot of films since Wanted, but none of them got popular. Now he is back at the big screen with a great anticipated movie and teams up with the Tim Burton, although he name is the only thing that left a remark on the movie.
Short Conclusion: The movie is like the will-never-be-created wanted 2. More about the reason for the vast similarity despite its different time and setting will be answered in the blog post.
October 3, 2012
A Thematic Approach to Science Fiction-Workshop Review
A guestpost by Katherine Hajer about the Writer Workshop "A Thematic Approach to Science Fiction". Twitter / Blog.
I’m fortunate enough to live in a city with a nigh-legendary science fiction bookshop (Bakka Phoenix),
several great indie publishers, and a number of respected,
well-established authors. When all three of these forces come together,
it creates an event legitimately billed as A Very Cool Thing
The plan is for these writing workshops to become a series, but the very first one featured Robert J. Sawyer (SFwriter.com). Seats were limited to about twenty attendees.
September 25, 2012
Author Interview with Fatima Lacoba
Hi
Fatima, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself.
Well, I originally began my career as an archaeologist. I worked in the
Middle East, southern Europe and Britain, before taking on teaching. I’ve
always loved writing, although it was almost impossible for me to dedicate my
time to it while working in a busy secondary school. Only four years ago I took
the massive leap into the unknown by resigning and taking up the pen. Actually,
I’d enrolled full time back into university to complete my postgrad studies – a
Master of Philosophy in Ancient History (I’m a Roman specialist) – when during
the summer break this incredible story popped into my head. It comes out in
print at the end of August. So, for the time being, my MPhil is on hold.
September 16, 2012
Expendables 2 - 5 Rules to improve your story
I guess you ask yourself, how a action movie with a poorly storyline like Expendables 2 could help improve your nearly perfect book story? The story is so old and clichee that no one will ever write a eassay about it. So how could it help yours? Its easy, because it does great what it does and you should do that too! Its isn't such a problem to execute my rules. I listed 5 Points and a Bonus one for you to check. If you follow these simple rules, than you could greatly improve your own story in a way you never expected to improve it.
September 10, 2012
Making up nomenclature for a fantasy story
A guest post by Heidi C. Vlach
In our modern Earth lives, we have words for concepts that we don't actually consider to exist. Stuff like dragons, magic and demons. Those familiar words can make us feel like we already understand things we've never seen.
But sometimes a fantasy writer wants to create something new -- an animal, a metal, a scholarly subject, a type of energy. That new thing will need a name. And, of course, the new name should sound believable. When fantasy nomenclature sounds like some goofy word an author made it up, it can ruin a reader's suspension of disbelief. Good fantasy nomenclature, on the other hand, blends seamlessly into its story.
August 27, 2012
Author Interview with James Tenedero
Thanks,
Patrick; I’d be happy to. I’m currently a PhD student at McGill University in
Montreal, where I’m studying processes of organizational learning and
innovation in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. I’m in the
final stages of the doctoral program, so my research generally keeps me fairly
busy these days, but I still devote a substantial amount of time to my fiction
writing and to promoting my most recently completed novel.
Like most
of your readers, I’ve been a writer of some kind for as long as I can remember
– my creative writing assignments in grade school would inevitably end up in
long stories with fairly detailed character development and (what I think were)
pretty sophisticated plot lines. I’ve tried to maintain that rigour as I’ve
matured in my writing, but there’s always more to learn about the craft.
As far as
my professional life goes, I’ve worked in corporate finance, strategic planning
and analysis, and management consulting roles in the past. My aspiration after
the PhD has been completed is to find an academic position that will allow me
to continue to teach and research in the field of management.
August 13, 2012
Author Interview with Robert Chazz Chute
Thanks so much for
interviewing me, Patrick. About me: I have a fairly useless journalism/philosophy
degree and neither of those things pay anymore. I’m the author of Self-help for Stoners and several short
story collections and now the crime novel Bigger
Than Jesus. Everything I write falls under the umbrella of suspense. I’ve
won awards for my writing, mostly of little significance, but I cling to that,
somewhat pathetically, to make me feel better about myself.
July 28, 2012
Dark Knight Rises - Movie Review (Spoilers Marked)
This year comes the conclusion the Nolan-Saga that the fans have long awaited. Who expects a better film than the brilliant predecessor, will be disappointed. The last part of this series can not reach its heights. Why this is the case, you can read in this review. The story begins eight years after the second part. The peace returned to Gotham City and Batman retired, but a villain again begins to threaten the city. Now is more the time then ever that Batman is needed, to rescue Gotham of the hands of the ruthless mercenary called Bane. In difference to Joker, who symbolized Chaos, tries bane to archive anarchy through calculation. He give the people of Gotham many possibilities to hope for the better so he can crush them even more. His characterization is a double edged sword. For once, he is different than the joker and attacks Batman in different ways than him. On the other hand, were joker does all kind of crazy things all of a sudden, banes calculated everything, which makes all of his moves expected.
July 17, 2012
Author Interview with T. Michelle Nelson + Giveaway
Hi Michelle, first of all, could you tell us a
bit about yourself.
Hi Patrick,
thanks for having me. I’m the
author of Life and Death of Lily Drake, a mom, a wife and I work
full-time.
What do you think makes your genre special?
What I love about paranormal romance is
typically the novels are set in a normal world with these fantastic
supernatural elements. They also
tend to cross genres into science-fiction or horror.
July 4, 2012
Q&A with Rosalind Smith-Nazilli
Hi Rosalind, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself.
Hello Patrick and thank you for interviewing me.
I have always been a writer in one way or another but until I moved out to live in Turkey I didn't have the time to pursue it fully. I am originally from the UK. Since retiring from nursing and taking on an almost completely stress free lifestyle, I am free to give my ideas the attention they have been craving. I am approaching my fifty seventh year (shock, horror) and married to a wonderful man.
What do you think makes your genre special?
I write mostly flash fiction, a genre I feel still not fully accepted by some. A story in fifty words is a challenge and one I really enjoy.
June 18, 2012
Author Interview with Charles Sutherland
Hi Charles, first of all, could you tell us a bit
about yourself.
I am the son of a coal-miner's son, who escaped a life in the dark Appalachian mines by joining the U.S. military. Like most military-families, we moved around a bit. Eventually we settled in a small Virginia town called Hopewell, noted for its myriad chemical factories. After high school, having no desire to work in those factories, I choose to join the Air Force, which allowed me to see much of the world and do things most men have only dreamed about doing. Thirty-two years later, after retiring from active duty, they paid me handsomely to be a contractor helping the Air Force reorganize their strategic forces for maximum effectiveness. Eventually I chose to leave those comfortable paychecks lest my life pass me by before I could write my books.
I am the son of a coal-miner's son, who escaped a life in the dark Appalachian mines by joining the U.S. military. Like most military-families, we moved around a bit. Eventually we settled in a small Virginia town called Hopewell, noted for its myriad chemical factories. After high school, having no desire to work in those factories, I choose to join the Air Force, which allowed me to see much of the world and do things most men have only dreamed about doing. Thirty-two years later, after retiring from active duty, they paid me handsomely to be a contractor helping the Air Force reorganize their strategic forces for maximum effectiveness. Eventually I chose to leave those comfortable paychecks lest my life pass me by before I could write my books.
June 12, 2012
Snow White and the Huntsman - Review
Snow White and The Huntsman is after Mirror Mirror and Grim's Snow White the third Snow White movie this year. The trailer with the dark fairy tale forest, in which all these wonderful creatures live, drew me into its spell immediately. Naturally that this movie was one i really anticipated. To make it short, the movie doesn't fulfill anything i hoped it would and that the trailer suggested to me. In fact, it was one of the worst movies i saw in the last years and this is why...
The story is known to everyone and therefore not very surprising, but even this is easy knitted story is riddled with errors. It almost seems as if no one read the script.
June 1, 2012
Author Interview with Liz Long and Giveaway
Hi Liz, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi Patrick! *waves frantically* I'm 27 and an indie author living in Roanoke, VA with my husband and dog. I've had all sorts of interesting jobs (newspaper, radio, book stores, publishing) and am now happy to say being a writer is one of them!
Why do you write fantasy books and what do you think makes them special?
I always read fantasy books as a kid. Other books were fine, of course, but there was something about losing yourself in a kingdom or adventure not found in reality. I think escapism is important--as a kid raised in a divorced household, I often ran away to other lands and times when I had to shut out my own reality. I loved the idea of giving people a place to hide for a while! I also think it's really important to stimulate creativity--I'm personally hoping my publishing fantasy stories will later appeal to my nephews, who I hope never lose their imaginative streak.
May 29, 2012
Liebster Blog Award
I'm happy to receive the "Liebster Blog"-Award from Mary Lou Dickson.
The award is not a highclass award with several rounds of selection, but more like a nice idea to connect with other blogs and to show people what you like. So how can you participate?
May 26, 2012
Men in Black 3 - Review
After
ten years
the dynamic duo Agent J. and K. Returns back
to the big screen, this time in 3D.
(Quick Note: There are some very impressive 3D scenes which don’t feel as forced as in so many other films. MIB3 is one of the films in which the 3D effect is better implemented, but don’t justifies the higher ticket price.)
(Quick Note: There are some very impressive 3D scenes which don’t feel as forced as in so many other films. MIB3 is one of the films in which the 3D effect is better implemented, but don’t justifies the higher ticket price.)
Again,
it's their job to protect the Earth from strangely designed aliens and not just in the present. This time it's up to Agent
J (Will Smith)
to protect his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones) against the return
of his most powerful enemy. The twist this
time, Agent J has to travel
back in time to change
the future. The film doesn’t stiff about explanation or alternate
scenarios, but uses it for a fresh setting. It stiffens the film is not too much time on
alternate strands, but also uses it for a
fresh setting. The bulk of the film plays the
sixties, the time when the MIB
was established, providing many explanations for its predecessors. It also
portrays the racism and old-fashioned technology of that time.
The story is very thin like
its predecessors and serves only as a ride on the fast track and
action-packed roller coaster. As it is typical for villains, also this time they will be shot and pursued. Despite
the beautiful action orgies
the jokes are the real highlight of the film. They
are more numerous and funnier than
before, which is mainly due to the fact that they are not
so childish anymore. Just think
of the "egg-neck monsters" from the second movie. Also the creatively designed aliens
are just as successful as the
jokes. Especially the bad guy
stands out for the first time and looks terrifying.
The
actors all play their roles well.
This is the first film with Will Smith in the lead that I like since I Am
Legend. He acts the best as a Klutz, much better than is last social dramas. Josh Brolin, who plays
the past version of Agent K. knows how to shine. The
Positive surprise was Michael Stuhlbarg, as
a slightly strange alien. He will probably be seen in more movies from now on. Shortcoming is the unspectacular film music,
which languishes in the
background and sometimes the partly
bad computer effects.
The latter will not
be noticed by most viewers.
All
in all MIB3 is an entertaining popcorn movie. People, who already liked the predecessor,
will be thrilled by the new adventures of the men in black.
May 17, 2012
Author Interview with Christopher Waltz
Well, I’m twenty-four-years-old and have been writing since I was
about eight. For some reason, it never really occurred to me that I could be an
author someday until after I had
graduated from college. I got my degree in secondary education, but wasn’t sure
teaching was for me, so I currently work with a non-profit organization,
training and placing new volunteers. It’s something that I love doing, but
writing is still my main passion in life.
Why do you
write?
For some reason, that seems like a really difficult question. I
think one reason why I write is because I had such a hard time learning to
read. I struggled with reading up until about the third grade, which is also when
I started writing for fun. I think that once I got the hang of reading, writing
came very naturally to me. I also love telling stories that people (hopefully)
want to hear.
What do you
think makes a great story?
A great story has to be character-driven. If you write the most
interesting story in the world, but have characters that no one cares about,
then no one will care about your story. When I write, I try to make my
characters as real and human as possible. If people like them and can relate to
them, then I am more likely to have a great story.
What is your
latest book called and could you explain to us in 20 words what it is about?
My debut work is actually a novella called Come as you are. I’m working on publishing a novel as well, but
I’ll talk about Come as you are since
it is coming first. In twenty words, it is a story about the crumbling
relationship between two brothers and their mother and how they try to fix it.
Which kind of
reader do you think will enjoy your book?
I typically write with “young adult” readers in mind, but all of
my test readers are around my age and they seem to enjoy it as well. Anything I
write tends to be on the bubble of what is considered young adult literature
and what is a little too mature for young people. I never write anything hoping
someone will think it’s too mature for their child, but people need to
understand that today’s teens know a lot more about life than what we give them
credit for.
What
influenced or inspired you writing it?
I think I’m influenced by everything that happens in my life. I
also have a very creative imagination, so when I see something or read
something, I can always add to the story and recreate it to fit the story I am
trying to tell. Come as you are is
based on a news story I read last year. I took the idea and fictionalized it to
fit into what I wanted to say.
Why did you
choose especially this title? Was it your first choice?
I chose this title because it speaks a lot about the subject
matter of the story and because it also happens to be the title of a Nirvana
song; one of the main characters of the story loves the band Nirvana, so I feel
it is a very fitting title. However, it wasn’t my first choice. Originally, I
was going to call it Better Days,
based on a quote by Mark Twain.
What was the
hardest part for you working on your book?
The hardest part was deciding whether or not I wanted it to be a
novella or a full-length novel. In the end, I chose for it to be a novella
because I didn’t want to force more out of the story than what I wanted to say.
I could have added another couple thousand words and made it a novel, but in
the end, I would have still been telling the same story.
Do you
already know what to do next?
I have a couple of ideas for what to work on next. I’m publishing
my novel this summer and have already been thinking of ideas for a sequel for
that. I’m also planning to write something else about a group of teenagers in a
private boarding school who make some bad, scary decisions their senior year.
Where can we
find more about you and your books?
You can find more about me and my writing through my blog www.cpwaltz.blogspot.com and through
twitter, @Christoph_Waltz
Any last
words?
My only last words are for potential writers to keep working on
their goals and never give up. There were a lot of times that I questioned why
I was writing and wanted to stop because I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere.
But it gets better and it gets easier, so never stop
writing.
Thanks
Christopher for taking your time.
by Christopher Waltz
When his
younger brother August runs away from home after a disastrous argument with
their parents, Connor is the only person not worried. After all, August is
known to take off without notice all the time, and he always comes back. However, August doesn’t show up
again until two months later, having drunkenly fallen from the Young Street
Bridge in Aberdeen, Washington. Connor and their mother travel from California
to pick up the teenager, unaware that the next twelve hours will cause them to
reexamine their own lives and strained relationships, all while Connor and
August’s time together leads to a reconnection between brothers and a
revelation that Connor never saw coming.
Links:
April 19, 2012
Battleship, Movie - Boardgame Comparison
This comparison is only intended for people who have already played the boardgame and want to know
how the film deviates
from it. Possible spoilers for the story are clearly marked as spoilers. Despite the fact that there was no such thing as "story".
The film begins with the introduction of the shallow and humorous main character, Alex Hopper. A no-good, as it appears in the book and could not be stereotyped. Within a time jump, full of wonder and magic, he is suddenly the most talented marine in the whole US and maybe beyond that. Of course, he has learned nothing and begins still plenty of fights. Because of that he will be released of the Marine the next day. In spite of all that he is allowed to participate one last time in an exercise and commands a battleship. him touching a mystic tower like building in the middle of the sea awakes the aliens and everything goes henceforward wrong and it's up to him to save the world in the remaining 90 minutes of the movie.
The film has surprisingly much in common with the board game. As in the board game, there are two players. The first one are the stunning and brilliant graphical effectsthat outshines the second player, the story. It's like a adult playing battleship with a kid, that doesn't know the rules and absolutly don't want to behave at least. The only thing he does is randomly shouting out coordinates that miss, sometimes he calls them a second time and a third with the same result. One would think there would be no authors involved, but the story is too well filled with every imaginable cliché that there is, that it could be just a random arranged words. You have a beautiful woman, a disabled past box champion, the maniac scientist, the philosophical japanese officer and many more.
Spoiler: A great example would be the pensioner introduced in the beginning, honored for the work in the marine. They are the only ones who can help the main character to navigate a antique destroyer to defeat the aliens. They also need to lift a heavy rocket through the ship with teamwork and patriotisim only.
As a author my eyes began to bleed, not only because of such a unoriginal plot, but mostly because of disregarding such obvious story telling rules. The main character is supposed to be a underdog that struggels to archieve such a magnificent ending, but he does nothing for it. Every heroic act and talented is only reported by other, but not shown. It's like parents telling their child that he can sing pretty well, but the only thing you see is a kid who clearly can't sing anything.
Liam Neeson couldn't save the story, because he isn't really that much involved in it. Regardless of that he played his role as good as always. He is one of the few likeable characters, because he hates the main character as much as i did. On the other hand we have Rihanna, who suprisingly appears all the time in a really unimportant supportive role. She didn't acted that bad, but was far from being a great actress. He dialogue felt stiff and forced but maybe she will become as good as Justin Timberlake, who also started as a singer.
On the other side we have the technical aspect of the film. Gorgeous CGI Effects that won't stop. Everytime you see transformer like robots crawling and biting into the ships, blasting them off into tiny bits with phenomical sounds. There are so many Explosion all the time that you pretty easily forgett the plot holes and just like it.
For everyone who wants to know how a transformer fast paced action movie could have anything in common with the boardgame, this is the answer:
Spoiler: The alien space ships jump across the water. Without radar signals the japanese officer determine their position through the wave motion. He only can measure their location in a square tolerance zone, which looks on the map exactly like the board of battleships, with letters and numbers as the coordinates. The only thing that really suprised me =)
Should you watch the movie?
If you like special effects as I'am, than you definitely should! They the best i seen since Avatar and the sound is also great. With so many battles going on you can survive the boring parts easily, which are only around 40 minutes cutted in several parts. Otherwise you also should go. Everything the movie do regarding story are parts you can learn from to never do.
March 25, 2012
Hunger Games, Movie - Book Comparison [Contains Spoilers]
This comparison is only intended for people who have already
read the book and want to know
how the film deviates
from it. Basically, the film
follows the story of the books exactly and
contains no surprises,
so I will not use spoiler warnings. I hope I got all the
names right, because I watched the german version and there could be minimal
changes in the names.
In general:
The film was good, but far
below its possibilities. At first
I thought that the production studio was to
blame for the PG-13
rating, but with the further errors occur, the director is not entirely innocent
of it. Especially people who
have not read the
book may have problems. The beginning feels rather stretched and bored and later parts got less screen time. A movie
which relies on visuals should show more of the arena than about dialogue in
district 12 in my opinion, which was the opposite.
The fights are completely shown
in a shaggy cam. They are just a mess
and don’t let the movie look dynamic. It’s sometimes like a bad youtube video
in which the camera holder forgets to stand still for a second. It was great to
see the character dying, because the fight was over and you could watch
something, not just a mess of pixels. Blood is seen only rarely, or
hardly at all. Too bad, because a slightly higher rank than PG-13 would certainly have been sufficient, without degenerating into an Saw orgy. Most of the characters
fall in an unconscious rather than dying. Furthermore, not many things are explained. Examples: The importance of the camp of the career tribute and
their inability to hunt.
At this point I may ask a question about the book. Why do the career tributes put their stocks onto a mine field, without even fearing to lose them entirely? There could be about 18 enemies and only one of them needs to be a crazy starving bastard to run into it, to cut off their entire supply. It’s like destroying your own base to kill a single person. In my opinion a big disadvantage, especially given that most others could hunt to survive.
Now I tell
you more about the comparison. The fire
which serves katniss
to distract the carrer tribute is revealed
only in retrospect to the audience. Furthermore, it’s not shown that the transporters collect the dead
bodies. The Mockingjay brooch is given to her by
Greasy Sae, who
owns these in
huge quantities. Madge Undersee
was cut out, which wasn’t bad, as the
Avox girl. Rue's
death is a little differently, but no
major change. Basically, the above mentioned
things aren’t a big problem, but they
were, due to lack of inner monologues. I don’t understood
why they didn’t used them, because they needed so many tricks to explain a lot
of things, which would be a lot easier to handle with inner monologues. They
just don’t care and show it without explanation most of the time.
Some changes to the characters:
Cinna: I'll start with him because he was
the weakest character integrated into the film. He appearing is not only explained,
also his role is nearly cut off.
He says something along 5 sentences in the whole movie, in which he mostly praises
Katniss beauty and of course the obligatory farewell before she enters the arena. His
appearance was unexpected normal.
His Role as a huge supporter of her is not that clearly shown and explained by
the movie. The dresses were nice with some CGI effects,
but they never made
such a lasting impression as they
needed. Showing them felt forced and happened rather
along the way.
Haymitch: In the beginning he is
shown drunk on
the train. Visually not like as
I would have expected him, especially after years of alcohol addiction. Although
he behaves calmly and defiant as in the book, it looks in the movie
more like that kind of cool uncle guy, the one envied
by all cousins, than a good for nothing,
who he looked like in the books at the beginning. His
alcoholism is in
fact shown, without further negativity effects on him. Precisely
because of his eloquence, the
looks and Athletic ability, he seems to be fine with drinking all
day. In the second half of the
film his glass of whiskey disappears without a hint and he
is no problem without it, as if there wasn’t anything at all.
There are two smaller scenes added in which he talks with sponsors and the game master. The good point is that he is as
funny as in the books with his statements towards Effi and her moral concerns
all the time. Overall he was one of the crowd’s favorites.
[Question: Had Haymitch in the first book an eye patch, or was that later? If not than this
part would also be missing. ]
President Snow: He got a lot more screen time than
in the books. After the descriptions of the
book, I would have expected him
to be a slick botulinum infested
Armani carrier. He was portrayed more
as a wrinkled Santa Claus, who predicts the following problems
with Katniss. Mathpahern about the spark as it will be told in the
second book.
Peta: He is basically the same as in the book, but with the
exception of the final battle. This
time he doesn’t lose his leg. One change I absolutely liked, because I had problems
to understand the need of it in the book, which just
looked forced to me. Something like there can’t be a “perfect” happy ending
happen to them. It also makes things easier in future installments.
Buttercup: The cat was indeed shown, but only briefly. It’s questionable
why it was kept,
since it occupies an insignificant role.
Seneca Crane: I can’t remember the fact that his beard was described
in the book, but his look is fantastic in the movie. He was granted quite a few new scenes, in which he directs
the outcome of the arena or has deep dialogues with
President Snow. The only blemish was his surprise
at the Wolf Mutts, as if he was not the one who instructed the worker to create them.
They also looked more
like bulldogs and were teleported in a magical way out of the ground. Human eyes were also missing. All in all, he was one
of the most successful added aspects.
And the highlight at the end!
Flickerman Caesar: He also got more screen time. Things that were usually told in
the book by inner monologues
were explained by him instead of Katniss. Be it the Wolf Mutts or the Tracker
Jackers Mutts. He
was the most positive enrichment for
the film.
All the other characters were felt exactly like in the book
and hadn’t any changes. For example Katniss,
among others like Primrose, Gale and Effie.
i hope you like it. If you have any unanswered questions left, just contact me and i will try to help you! Tell me what you liked and disliked about the movie or something i forgot to tell in the comments below please.