Things wot I have seen/read lately

[kaiserkuchen]

A grab-bag, as again I find myself unable to do these things in a timely manner.

BOOKS!
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire + Mockingjay
It's been nearly more than a month since I finished both these books and of course since I didn't take any notes I have only the vaguest of recollections.

- Of course, the part I liked the most about the books besides the whole battle royale aspect remains THE COSTUMES. Cinna's designs sound so wonderful and I remain somewhat obsessed with the idea of all those different wedding dresses for the Victory tour.
- QUARTER QUELL OSHI---! What I didn't know in book 2 was how awesome the other victors would be and I seriously wish we found out more about Johanna and Finnick (and Mags and Beetee and and and). It makes sense to also have champions like Annie who managed to win and then withdrew mentally, but I will always like the characters more, who when faced balls to the wall with a situation like the Hunger Games found that necessary well of cold ruthlessness and then survived. Also I am possibly being influenced by some of the fic I read afterward but purposely killing someone with a trident and an axe as opposed to a long-range weapon like Katniss's arrows is fucking hardcore and sounds probably more liable to fuck you up. A kill is a kill, but that added proximity? Augh.
- AND SPEAKING OF FINNICK, HOLY FUCKING BATMAN I AM STILL BITTER HE DIED IN SUCH AN AFTERTHOUGHT WAY. Well okay, basically 80% of the fighting cast died, but the whole last act of the book felt insanely rushed to me. That is also my biggest complaint about how it ended. YOUR POV CHARACTER SUDDENLY PASSES OUT AND THEN THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THINGS-- THE BUILDING SHIT UP AFTER THE UTTER CHAOS THAT HAPPENED BEFORE-- GETS TOLD SECOND-HAND ARGH. It felt too sudden, too pat and neat and while we're on the subject of deaths and ALLCAPS OUTRAGE-- PRIM, TOO???
- Another part I didn't like was how Peeta suddenly got a case of the crazy venom and was effectively rendered useless. No wait, it was interesting to see how he was dealing with the knowledge that his memories were tampered with, but this wasn't the Peeta-Katniss interaction I wanted. It felt lopsided and just didn't make Katniss's decision in the end feel as satisfying as I had hoped. I ADMIT THAT I AM VERY MUCH INDIFFERENT TO GALE THOUGH :/ I tried to care more about him, but ultimately had to face the facts that I am Team Peeta all the way. But seriously, how Peeta SUDDENLY became better in the end? AGAIN WITH THE RUSHED-NESS.

Will probably be rereading the books again soon because I am vaguely planning sth THG-related for my Yuletart, so it'll be interesting to see if my general opinions change. PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALSO READ THE BOOKS AND POSSIBLY HAVE BETTER RECALL THAN ME, WHAT DID YOU THINK?


Feed by Mira Grant
THIS BOOK. Wow. I had heard that it was good, but I did not expect to be so involved and caught up with the plot and the characters the way I was.

- NOW THIS BOOK HAD SOME AWESOME SUSPENSE GOING ON. But that being said, I guess I should also honestly state that the big reveal of the baddie was the most predictable part of the book, as it was kind of telegraphed since about the first few scenes said character had because there actually weren't any other characters who remotely pinged the DING DING DING BAD MOTHERFUCKER radar. Still, the way the whole conspiracy was built up, the way things slowly amped up for George and Shawn and co. was done in an utterly engrossing way.
- I thought I would have scoffed at the blogging aspect of things but it actually was explained nicely within the world-building, this added lift in prestige the bloggers had after the rising. The different classifications were also amusing- Irwins, Newsies and Fictionals? Heh. The blog entries of either George, Shawn or Buffy after the chapters became welcome additions to things as well.
- I was clicking through reviews after I was done with the book myself and apparently some people found the constant reiteration of the characters doing the blood-tests over and over agin tedious, but I felt that it just served to hammer home how much the world had changed thanks to Kellis-Amberlee. It was a nicely detailed way to describing "zombie-ism" as a disease and the fact that "smaller" world-building details like hardly anybody eating red meat anymore due to the amplification risk just made it seem more vivid and fully-realized.
- GEORGE AND SHAWN. OH HOW I AM A SUCKER FOR HYPER-CLOSE SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE WRITTEN AWESOMELY. George was such a lovely main POV character, so no-nonsense, sharp as nails but clearly fleshed out with her own emotions and desires and that love for her brother, ahhh.
- THIS BOOK ALSO MADE ME CRY AT LEAST TWICE. First of all, I am always very leery when some of the characters adopt pets and are also involved in ~mysterious conspiracies because the pets always end up dead first as a warning :// And yes, I cried when the cat died and not so much when Buffy did. Since this is a zombie book, I actually expected one of the core characters to die and thought that since George was the POV character and not the adrenaline junkie sibling it was gonna be Mason who would kick it. Which made the actual ending with George becoming infected right during the action climax and then writing that last "exposing everything to the whole wide world" blog post as her brother stands behind her with a gun waiting to shoot her in the head the moment she truly makes the conversion to the undead and her typing eventually regressing to that point AND THEN BOOM SUDDEN ABRUPT CHAPTER END. Afhjkashafhjsafhj D: D: D:!! I was honestly sobbing after those scenes and then sniffling my way through the last few pages of what ended up being Shawn's traumatized narrating and the subsequent wrapping up of details. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


MOVIES!
Chua Fah Din Salai

It was early October when I saw this, and right now my most vivid memories are of how sumptuous and epic this movie was shot and how I was mostly very engrossed in the plot BUT ALSO THE BITS WHERE THE ENTIRE MOVIE-VIEWING AUDIENCE WAS LAUGHING OUT LOUD. And sadly not at parts that were supposed to be funny. To say this movie had its stupid decisions and ended in a highly melodramatic manner** would be an amazing understatement! But the fact that Ploy is gorgeous and Ananda spent 80% of the movie shirtless or semi-nude were contributing factors towards making it a very enjoyable viewing experience for me.

**THERE WAS ROMANCE THAT VEERED INTO PETTY SQUABBLING! DRACONIAN AND CRUEL PUNISHMENTS COURTESY OF THE CUCKOLDED HUSBAND! CUDDLING WITH THE CORPSE OF YOUR DEAD WIFE WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE TO ESCAPE YOU INSTEAD OF KILLING YOU AS YOU WANTED AND WHO WAS STILL CHAINED TO YOU FOR A WHILE BUT YOU SOMEHOW DIDN'T REALLY NOTICE UNTIL THE DAY YOU DID AND THEN SNAPPED AND THEN RAN OFF TO BE CRAZY IN THE FOREST ONCE SOMEONE CHOPPED THE CORPSE'S HAND OFF AND THUS FREED YOU etc etc.


RED

This will forever be the movie where I convinced I. that no matter how crap I am at explained why movie or book or TV show XYZ is great, I should still be trusted because she really didn't want to see this until I steamrollered her into it. Went with D., her boyf and I.'s cousin and it was some no-brains needed, highly enjoyable entertainment. Bruce Willis, MLP and John Malkovich remain hilarious, HELEN MIRREN WAS A VISION AND A DELIGHT (I loved her ~romance with Ivan!) and I did not expect that the movie would have so much delicious Karl Urban in a snazzy CIA suit. I was afraid he would be killed in the end, but good on his character for surviving and being a legit good guy.


Kick-Ass

Aaron Johnson is really distractingly pretty in this movie-- all curls and those green eyes, but who are we kidding. This movie was basically all about Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Do I think that the pointless throwing around of the C-word was ill-advised? Yes, but I still enjoyed seeing Hit Girl utterly decimate everyone in her way. Holy shit, Chloe Moretz was honestly the best part of this movie. And the score + OST! Obvs. the composer liked the Adagio in D he did for Sunshine (another movie I want to watch that is SO HARD TO GET A COPY OF HERE, ARGH) so much he had to use it again, but it is an amazing piece of music.
The best part of watching this with Andy and Ma was how Ma apparently dreamed about it. Though it wasn't so much a superhero dream as her apparently chasing AJ from roof to roof and waking up "amazingly tired" lololol.

Comments

[unrequitedangst.livejournal.com]

upon rereading, this whole comment has so many spoilers for the trilogy that anyone who hasn't read all three Hunger Games books should probably not look. also, holy shit this is a long first comment to be leaving on your journal. I apologize in advance.


re: clothes in the Hunger Games

I knowwwww. I keep thinking about how great it would be to write a Project Runway-esque sort of AU within the context of the series with Cinna as the ultimate winner of his season. Or maybe not a reality show as aired, but that kind of competition because man, I just really loved Cinna and wanted to see so much more from him.

Do you have any ficrecs for Peeta or Gale or Katniss (or Finnick and Annie) fic? I don't care about pairings, I just want more of the worlddddd.

The third book was so "..." to me. It isn't even that it was depressing or the ending, it was just sort of ... I kept finding myself wondering what the actual point was. The Peeta plotarc was completely ridic. I would have liked it if it'd happened in the second book, for instance, and we spent the entire third book gradually overcoming it as well, but at the time I kept wondering if this was a cheap excuse to get Katniss and Gale together. I felt cheated by what happened to Finnick, and OKAY PRIM WAS SO RIDIC. like. I liked that Prim wasn't part of Katniss's idealized happy ending, because that is some neat narrative circularity and also I just really enjoy stories where everything is ultimately futile, but it felt like she was being fridged just for the sake of more trauma, which ... no. ALSO WTF THAT WAS THE LAMEST WAY EVER TO RESOLVE A LOVE TRIANGLE AND I DIDN'T EVEN CARE WHO KATNISS ENDED UP WITH.

Also, the epilogue. I am not sure what to say about the epilogue. On the one hand, I kind of want future fic about growing up as Katniss's kids because you have to imagine they would be pretty powerful political symbols as well and people would try to use them for that. On the other hand I can't get over the way that the text was like, 'lol, Katniss doesn't want kids but she had them anyway for Peeta'. Really?


re: Feed

The ending gutted me toooooo. I didn't like most of the book--I picked it up mainly because I'd heard people comparing it to World War Z, and I spent most of the book going really? really? really? The bad guy is pretty obvious, like you said, and much of the book read as a very obvious commentary on the American political climate under Bush to me. (And I mean, I suspect I am politically very close to where Mira Grant is, and I grew up liberal in a political climate surrounded by people like the bad guy, but ...) I'm not sure how much of this is explicitly didactic intent, and how much is just author world view seeping in.

...... and then I hit the ending and literally started sobbing in the middle of a bookstore cafe. THAT ENDING, AUGH. So good T___________T

This took me ages to write. DAMN YOU WORK FOR SUCKING ALL MY TIME AWAY :/

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

DUDE NO APOLOGIES! This is a ramble-away at will zone!

CINNA! He was so great~~ And yesss! The Project Runway-esque AU would certainly be compelling TV, if only for the fact that most Capitol residents seem to be so batshit and have such skewed (at least to the other districts) priorities that it would make for compelling interactions. The whole fashion/body mod aspect of the Capitol was also one of the more interesting details of the books and I am already curious as to how they'll adapt that for the movie that is apparently in the making??

Am not at home right now so I might eff up the username, but iirc electrumqueen has some interesting fic! There was another author I am currently blanking on, but I will get back to you later~

A BLANKET YESSS. Generally I wouldn't say that I disliked or hated Mockingjay, I was just very disappointed with some of the choices Suzanne Collins made and also as mentioned, with the whole ending act. The way they chose to effectively put Peeta out of the picture with the whole venom craziness made me feel so frustrated. Like you say, it would've been interesting if there was enough time for us to see the progress from CRAZYYYYY HOMIDICAL URGES!!1 to eventually being healed and EARNING the "win" in the triangle of ~Katniss's love~ -- or even just having some substantial interactions with Katniss where he was in his right mind, period. I can understand how abruptly killing off Finnick, for all that he got really interesting and fleshed out in the end (I WANTED MORE BACKSTORY JEEBUS CHRIST THAT DUDE MUST BE FULL OF TRAUMA AND ALSO DELICIOUS CAPITOL SECRETS), would add more "realism" to the whole warfare/EVERYONE can die whenever feeling... BUT STILL. AND LOL PRIM. That was a scene that I really could see in movie-format in my mind's eye, all slow-mo and dramatic music coming to a crescendo and then the OSHIIII-- EXPLOSION AND ABRUPT CUT TO BLACK.

I clearly need to reread the epilogue again, but I just remember reading over it still being all shocked about how it ended a few pages earlier. And the whole bit about the children dancing on MASS GRAVES kasfjkafks. The fact that Peeta loves Katniss more than she loves him could be interesting to examine-- I am kind of a sucker for well-done versions of "Person A actually doesn't love Person B that much or the same amount and they are both in a weird situation/dystopian society/THE LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH where they are forced together and there is not necessarily a Happy Ending but it isn't all that bad most of the time"-- but damn if that wouldn't be awkward for their kids to find out.

NOW FOR FEED:
Yeah, re: the political commentary Feed is I feel very much preaching to the choir in that respect but the characters keep you reading and then by the time THAT ENDING HAPPENS you are all wrecked and teary and jksahfjksafh. I wonder how the second book will be... Shawn's voice is entertaining and I kind of like the idea of him talking to Ghost!George or his mental projection of George but again, I am kind of nervous of how broadly the villains in that book will be ~foreshadowed lol.

[laulan.livejournal.com]

Oooh let's talk about HG on Skype! :D You have no idea how excited it makesme that you might do ART for it! *bounces*

When you said Feed I thought you would be talking about this book which is awesome and which you should read! But zombies sound awesome too (even though I skipped over that section so as not to be spoiled!).

[two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com]

I THOUGHT IT WAS THAT FEED TOO. Shaz, I echo the rec for M. T. Anderson's Feed if you haven't read it yet; it breaks my heart every time.

[laulan.livejournal.com]

Such a good book ;_; I picked it up by accident because I thought it was by another author with the last name of Anderson, and I have never been so grateful for a mix-up--I've only read it once, but it sticks with you so much.

See, Shaz, I am not content with trying to convince you to read things only over Skype! I will also flood your lj with comments. READ IT READ ITTT

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

I am always a sucker for a good heart-breaking and soul-crushing book! Have now added this to the list of books that I will bother the bookstore staff with, yussss! Hope it's stocked in BKK and they won't have to order it from overseas ugh that wait is always THE WORST :/

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

It felt so good to ramble all that out with you on Skype bb! And afhkjas I think I need to start sketching this week already ffff how I hate that late shift week can basically be known as "big fucking chance of actually getting anything done" week!

AND I HAD HEARD ABOUT THAT BOOK BEFORE! Hope you get to read Zombie!Feed too, that ending really was one of the more memorable ones I read in recent years~

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

Oh Kick-Ass. I mainly love this movie just for its fantastic visuals (color coding each character? so simple... YET SO BRILLIANT.), but also because I went and saw it as a group bonding activity with all my Honors buddies, and so, ridiculous as it is, my memories are very fond. Aaron Johnson's eyes, also. Nngh.

The thing is, I feel like Kick-Ass is dismissed as a thoughtless action movie, whereas I feel like it actually brings up some interesting points about our attitudes towards superheroes and vigilante justice, and also even about the portrayal of violence in pop culture. (I say this because there were some episodes of violence in the film that had the normal glorified portrayal we're used to in action movies, but then others (specifically, when Big Daddy and Kick-Ass are being publicly executed) were horrifyingly brutal, bringing up the question - what's the real difference? Just our portrayal? Or that it's the "bad guys" doing it? Something else? Also, Big Daddy is explicitly pointed out as having constructed this world of violence as just one big game for his daughter of good guys versus bad guys. Is that true to a similar degree for what comic books and action movies do for us as an audience?)

Also, I think the kerfluffle over Chloe Moretz' swearing is really interesting, because some article I read put forth the suggestion that there wouldn't have been such an upset if she had instead been a boy. Which also lead me to think that, well, that's probably true... and also, Hit Girl wouldn't be half as awesome if she was instead Hit Boy, which suggests that part of her awesomeness comes from her subversion of our expectations for little girls to be sweet and nice, not excited about killing people.

I JUST THINK THESE THINGS ARE REALLY INTERESTING... PROBABLY BECAUSE I AM A MASSIVE DORK.

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

I CAN TELL YOUR FILM STUDIES BACKGROUND IS SHINING THROUGH :DD

The color-coding and visuals really are one of the movie's strongest points. I particularly enjoyed the ~subtle gun Warhol prints that Red Mist's dad had hanging in his office lol. I did keep getting distracted by how positively hideous Kick-Ass' outfit is, though I liked the nods to practicality and realism. AND THE FACT THAT THE BULLETPROOF VEST ENDED UP PLAYING A ROLE IN SAVING HIT-GIRL'S LIFE.

That IS an interesting point that the film also made, regarding to the violence and its portrayal (the skilled grace of HG and BD vs. the amateur attempts of Kick-Ass and well, the end result of someone always either getting hurt or dead remaining regardless). To me one of the most telling scenes was the clip of Kick-Ass that went viral and propelled him to his vigilante fame (again, a part where they violence was more realistic) and of course the reaction of everyone watching the footage/stream of BD and Kick-Ass being tortured.

The trope of a little girl being secretly bad-ass and killer is actually one of my favorites and there are so many examples in manga/anime that I felt positively nostalgic, seeing Hit Girl's character like that :D. The swearing felt like a part of the whole vigilante image and the fact that her Dad did treat her like an equal or a partner, but what just rankled was the usage of "cunts". The writers could have just chosen not to go there or subbed it with another perhaps more male-oriented pejorative and having a young girl use that just felt a bit like a :/ moment.

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

See, I actually haven't had any film studies background AT ALL, even though now everyone assumes I have, just because I was basically forced into doing this film series due to my one question of what, exactly, it involved... and then no one else showed any interest at all, which meant the Honors Coordinator essentially guilted me into doing it. So now I have all these professors going, "Oh, you might be interested in this, given your great knowledge of films--" and I am just like, "I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FILMS. PLEASE STOP REFERENCING RANDOM ARTISTIC FILMS THAT YOU LIKE, BECAUSE I WILL NOT HAVE SEEN THEM." Oh well, what can you do.

I know it looks hideous, but I did rather like the realism of Kick-Ass's outfit, since that's something that has always really bothered me with most super heroes - like, for example, Spider-Man. His outfit in the movies looks freaking bomb. Obviously, no teenage boy (ASIDE FROM THE AWESOME ONE IN YOUR ICON) has the sewing skills (and web-shaped plastic molds just lying around?) to pull that off.

I'd actually forgotten about the realism in the viral video scene, even though that scene's probably my favorite in the whole film. I think the reason it's my favorite is actually because of it's realism, though, now that you bring it up. I mean, I love the hallway scene with Hit Girl and it's five kinds of awesome, but I feel like the viral video scene is just really quite thought provoking. I mean, I would certainly call the police if I saw a bunch of guys beating someone up, but I don't think I would ever be brave enough to actually stand up to them myself, even though it is the right thing to do. It really shows how we consider the vigilante justice of superheroes in fictional worlds to be a good and admirable thing, but at the same time consider it a totally insane thing to do in real life. (So there are also some interesting connections between Kick-Ass and Watchmen, I think.)

See, my personal shocker so far as the swearing was concerned was the word "cock" (which is male oriented), so... maybe it's a personal consideration of what language you think is strongest? I've never used either word, I think, not even mentally (I usually just stick to the good ol' basics when it comes to swearing), but for some reason "cunts" didn't phase me as much, not sure why.