Hungry Games: Turkingjay Part 1

Oh hello there. I haven't been around much lately because I've been very busy leading a rebellion against a corrupt government. Oh wait, no, that was Katniss. I've been lazing around my parents' house and eating copious amounts of foods. If you haven't seen Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 yet, why haven't you? I've already seen it twice! Go do it now, I'll wait right here.

Welcome back! It was awesome, wasn't it? Mockingjay is my least favorite of the books, but I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. Not as much as the first two, but hey, that's okay. Some people have criticized the decision to split the book into two movies, as is the fashion these days, but I think it was a good idea. A lot happens in the book, and it would have been difficult and awkward to make it fit into the beats of a single movie. It would have felt really rushed and probably would have been 3+ hours long. In light of that, I think making it two movies works.

Mockingjay Part 1 is not quite as colorful or as murder-y as the other two movies, but it sets the stage for a lot of the action to come in the next movie. I love that it shows perspective outside of Katniss' worldview, i.e: the districts fighting back against the Capital. You have no real sense of that in the books, and it's really powerful to see it in action here. You finally see what the rebels are fighting for, and how they're fighting back, and it's just really great. There are a few differences from the book, which is totally fine, but there are a couple that make me wonder what it means for the next movie. It could be just that it didn't fit tonally in this film, which makes sense, and will be addressed in the next film.

Oh, also! I loved Natalie Dormer as Cressida! Natalie Dormer is great in everything I've seen her in (Anne Boleyn in The Tudors, Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones, the kissing slut in Captain America). I loved how she tried to prompt Katniss in the propos they filmed, and how awkward it was sometimes. Jennifer Lawrence is, of course, amazing as well in the film. When she said, "If we burn, you burn with us!", no joke, I got goosebumps. Both times!! She really sells how messed up Katniss is at this point.

I saw Mockingjay Part 1 on opening night, and again a week later, and both times there were disruptive people in the audience. Remember, folks, if you look at your cell phone or talk to your friend next you, you are incredibly annoying and Katniss (I) will shoot you in the face with an arrow (or ask you politely yet angrily to stop).

PS: Stay until the very bitter end of the credits to see the Mockingjay logo change. If you have to pee (after all, it's been a very long two hours and 45 minutes), just go look it up on YouTube or something, it's not that life-changing or anything.

Movie Monday: Early Oscar Contenders Edition - Birdman & Foxcatcher

I like to see as many Oscar movies as possible, so it's always a good idea to get an early start on watching movies that are possible contenders. We've actually seen several recently that will definitely get several Oscar nods: Interstellar, of course, I've already talked about, Birdman, and Foxcatcher.

Birdman was weird in a super fun way. Michael Keaton starts as an aging actor who played an action hero called Birdman (not Batman, okay? Totally not Batman. Not even similar) when he was younger. He is trying to rekindle his past glory through a Broadway play that he is writing and directing. It gets weird, with Keaton believing he actually has Birdman's powers, but the audience is never quite sure if it's real or not, which was really quite cool. The whole thing is shot in what seems like one seamless sequence (though it's obviously not), and it gives the film a really interesting and unique flow. Keaton deals with all kinds of conflict, both internal and external, as he struggles to ensure that this play will be a triumph and not a symbol that his life, both professional and personal, is over. I have to give a mention to the soundtrack, which is jazzy and mostly drums, so super unique and just unlike anything I've heard before in a film.




Foxcatcher was a movie I was really anticipating. I'd heard good early buzz, and of course I like Steve Carrell a lot, and was looking forward to seeing how he'd do in a dramatic role, especially one that was already getting Oscar buzz. Foxcatcher is about a gold-medal winning yet down-on-his-luck wrestler (Channing Tatum) who catches the eye of a wealthy old guy (Steve Carrell) who would like to sponsor him and live vicariously through him. And then it gets creepy, but not as creepy-gross as I thought it was going to be!

I saw an early screening of the movie on Saturday. Now, I'm a person that generally doesn't not like movies. I love a good popcorn flick, or a heavy handed drama, or anything that doesn't feel like I wasted my time, and most movies tend to generally be worth my time. Foxcatcher is a movie where I can only say: I didn't love it. I don't know, I guess it didn't speak to me? I just didn't find it terribly interesting, I guess. It seemed quite a bit too long; I think shortening it would have drastically improved it. The performances were fantastic, though, probably the best part of the film. Steve Carrell loses himself in the character of John Du Pont; Channing Tatum actually gives a great performance as well in a role that seems fairly suited for him, but he excels in it; and Mark Ruffalo is pretty reliably great. But that's about all I can say about it.

Black Widow: Bad Bitch

 
Since I go to so many comic conventions, I've been wanting to start reading comics more so I can finally discover why people spend so much time flipping through those white boxes. I decided to start off with Black Widow comics, because I'm a big fan of her character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and because she is a badass. After doing some research online, I came up with two titles I read were good places to start - Deadly Origin and The Name Of The Rose. Armed with that knowledge, I went to a local comic store, Pulp Fiction, and was able to find them both! 

Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanov, is a really great character, much more complicated and complex than the movies have let on. Though who knows if she will have the same background in the movies as in the comics; so far, nothing has lead me to believe that, but you never know! She was born in Russia, and her parents were killed when she was young. Some storylines say that Ivan Petrovich then raised her, some say that he briefly raised her before losing her to another guy that Wolverine ends up killing, and some say she was raised in the Black Widow Ops program. In any case, she ends up becoming a USSR spy/badass. Also! She is given a version of the super solider serum (the one that made Steve Rogers become superbuff Captain America), so she actually does have super strength, as well as some kind of immortality. That was some brand new information for me!

Black Widow hooks up with a lot of the Avengers and various other superheroes (get it, gurl): Hawkeye, Bucky/The Winter Soldier, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Iron Man. She also becomes the leader of several superhero teams, including the Avengers, plus other ones I'd never heard of like The Champions (that's not as good a name as The Avengers), and the Secret Avengers.


Deadly Origin shows a lot of Black Widow's origin through flashbacks, and those flashbacks are in a different art style, which was really cool. She discovers a conspiracy that's been a thread through her entire life (mainly her romantic relationships), with her father figure behind the plot. It's kind of a crash course in her backstory, so I think it's definitely a good jumping off point if you're looking to start reading Black Widow comics.

The Name of the Rose was a more complex story. In it, Black Widow has a highly confidential thingy stolen from her, and it's release could completely destroy everything she's built in her life. She's sent clues as to who took it, and goes on a quest to find out who's out to get her, kicking all kinds of ass on the way. Also, the art in this one was really fantastic.

These two books were a really great start to my foray into Black Widow comics. I can't wait to read more! Up next, though - She-Hulk comics!!

Interstellar = Inter[estingly]Stellar!

On Tuesday night, I saw Interstellar and it was AMAZING. It's been in my consciousness for quite some time, ever since Christopher Nolan announced it would be his next film, and then no further information was released basically ever. I didn't know anything about it, but with Nolan's track record, I was on board. I tried not to read too much about it beforehand so I could watch it with an open mind, and I was mostly successful.


We saw it at the historic Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Before the show began, they announced that Christopher Nolan had personally been in the theater multiple times to check on the sound and visual quality, and the theater had spent $600,000 in upgrades just for this film. The theater is also an IMAX theater, so we saw it the way it was really meant to be seen.


Interstellar is almost 3 hours long, but it's one of those movies you're kind of glad is long, because you want to keep being within the world of the story. It follows Matthew McConaughey (you better believe I Googled his name for the current spelling) as a former astronaut, who is currently a farmer because the world needs food more than it needs space exploration. He becomes involved with an expedition to find a new world for humanity to live on and escape the dying earth. SO much more stuff than that happens, with themes of love, humanity, morality, science, and thinking fourth-dimensionally. It's for sure going to be an awards contender, so make sure to see it!! I want to try and see it again before it leave theaters; I think it will be a very different watch the second time around.

Stan Lee's Comikaze 2014

This Saturday I attended Stan Lee's Comikaze for the fourth year in a row. Unfortunately, this year started out on a negative note - the line to get in was insanely long. I feel like a lot of cons have problems with this, and they don't seem to be learning from each other's mistakes. In this case, once we got to the front where we got our badges, there was absolutely no reason for it have taken as long as it did - there were 20 windows open, and the majority were just sitting there waiting for people to come up. It took less than 10 seconds to get our badges. Why, then, was the line so long?? Why weren't they ushering people through the line faster? There's no explanation for this, and kind of no excuse after having had problems with this in the past. 




Well, anyway, on with the show! Once we finally got in, we wove around the aisles of booths. There was a lot of great stuff for sale - large fluffy Alpacassos, more Buffy action figures than I've seen in a while, millions upon millions of Funkos, and of course much, much more. 

As always, I managed to find several cute things to buy. I saw this wooden nerd bunny necklace from Unpossible Cuts, and immediately demanded that they take my money. They had a ton of other super cute necklaces, earrings and coasters intricately cut from wood. I also got a couple She-Hulk trade paperbacks - Sensational She-Hulk and Savage She-Hulk. I've been getting more into comics as of late, and I had a ton of fun at this show flipping through the comic boxes searching for the books I've had my eye on. I got this great shirt from a 5 dollar bin that says, 'I didn't get my acceptance letter from Hogwarts, so I'm leaving the Shire and becoming a Jedi'! So perfect, three of my favorite fandoms in one shirt! As you may know, I love a good mystery/grab bag, so when I saw one at an Alpacasso booth, I had to get it! My favorite item in the bag was the wolf spirit hood with scarf mittens; that alone was worth the price. There were also 2 anime related items, and a Star Trek shirt. I think I can make my money back from selling those on eBay.

Sorry for the terrible quality of this pic!

Comikaze has a 'Main Stage', which is basically a stage off to the side of the convention floor, where they hold most of their bigger panels. It's a cool idea in theory, it helps make the exhibit hall even more lively, but the thing is... who wants to stand around watching a panel for an hour?? My feet already hurt from walking around, I don't want to just stand in one place for an hour. We watched about 15 minutes of the Game of Thrones panel, with Alfie Allen (Theon, and that guy that kills John Wick's dog), Esme Biano (who played Ros, the prositute who's name you probably didn't know), and Gwendoline Christie (what a great name) (oh yeah, she's Brienne), plus Adrienne Curry of ANTM fame (also some other stuff, but that's the only thing that matters to me) was the moderator. Once they started taking audience questions, we bailed.

The next panel on the Main Stage was the True Blood panel. Stephen Moyer (Vampire Bill), Kristin Bauer Von Straten (the awesome Pam), and Tara Buck (Ginger, the girl worked at Fangtasia and screamed a lot). They used some new app that was sponsoring the show, Waav, to have fans at home ask questions. It was not great. They displayed their selfie-esque image on the big screen, and let's face it, nobody's face looks good that big that's not a movie star. Again, we bailed once they started the audience questions.


We also attended a panel in one of the regular rooms, for the documentary 'The Death of 'Superman Lives': What Happened?' It was a Kickstarter project by a guy who was fascinated by the movie that never was, The Death of Superman, which would have been written by Kevin Smith, directed by Tim Burton, and starring Nicholas Cage. You may have seen that one picture floating around the internet of Nic Cage in the Superman suit, following by a mocking joke about it, because yeah, that seems like a hilarious choice for Superman. But during the panel, they mentioned that, at the time, Cage had just won an Oscar, and had starred in some action movies, so it really wasn't as weird a casting as it seems today. They showed a lengthy clip from the doc, which I found riveting. They're going to start screening it in March of next year at several cons (all of which we'll be at, actually), and I can't wait to see it!

Each year Comikaze usually boasts several unique events and reunions. This year, they had a reunion of the cast of MadTV. I didn't attend that one, but I heard it was great. This year's con also hosted an attempt at setting the world record for most people dressed like Tetris pieces or something. I hope they succeeded, if only to make the $30 price tag on those costumes worth it. If I was going to be a Tetris piece, I'd be one of those ones that looks like an L.