Dog Day Sundays

Almost time for a new week at school to sta- OMG I JUST REMEMBERED! WE GET FRIDAY OFF AND THEN IT'S SPRING BREAK! YES!!!! God bless four day school weeks!

So other than boring school stuff, we have our spring homecoming where it's once again Battle of the Sexes. Which kinda doesn't make sense to me since last year there were sexual harassment problems, but I digress.

I've finished reading two books this weekend. First of them being Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I have to read it for my English class and it's a really good book about a dystopia where firemen start fires and burn books instead of putting them out. It's a good quick read for anyone interested. The other book I finished is Catching Fire from The Hunger Games trilogy!

Hunger Games has been my recent obsession since all of my friends have been saying it's a good series, even prior to the movie coming out. So now I'm on the final book, Mockingjay, and despite the mixed opinions I've received, it's been worth my time reading all of them.

Adding on to finishing the 2nd Hunger Games book, when I went to the mall yesterday and went into Hot Topic, there I saw a small section just for Hunger Games merchandise which made me super happy. So I bought myself the replica Mockingjay pin. All the employees there are Hunger Games fans which was another plus and were super nice and fun.

And one thing led to another when we decided to go see The Hunger Games movie while we were at the mall which has its own theater. And... It didn't really meet my expectations. It's not the worst piece of cinema I've seen in my life but... Yeah, it could use so much work. I'll do a review of it since I'm already here.

First off, the camera work. For the most part if the camera's not still, it's either extreme closeups or extremely shaky camera and it looks pretty bad. No offense, but it kinda looks like you gave the camera to Michael J. Fox. You could barely tell what was happening some of the time and it made me very queasy and get headaches. It doesn't help that my family was stuck in the next to the front row since we arrived just as the previews started. I felt like I was gonna throw up.

Another thing that bugged me was the lack of explanation of a lot of aspects of the movie. This is one of the few films where you actually need to read the book if you want to understand what's going on. Marina, who hasn't read the books at all, was very confused at the end about what was going on. She had no idea if they were even living on planet Earth and a whole bunch of other things. Some characters they don't even mention by name! Case in point: Effie and Seneca. Yes! They don't mention either by name even though everyone knows they're there! I mean you have this kinda middle-aged woman wearing crazy colors and is all proper in a way that looks silly and a guy with a funky beard design! And the way they were portrayed was so amazing I was sad when I never heard their names.

The other characters met my expectations though I would've like to have seen Woody Harrelson as more of a drunken mess when he was Haymitch but I think that's just based on personal opinion.

When it came to visuals, it was.. a hit and miss. When you saw the people of the capitol it was just vibrant with all sorts of colors. As my sister would describe, "A world ruled by Japanese bubblegum pop". Yet when it came to the Games, I would've liked to have seen more. This may be a PG-13 film but the books are so descriptive on violence that it's pretty scary. I didn't really find the scenarios displayed in the film true to the actual struggles for survival in the books. In the books, Katniss had a difficult time finding water and shelter, and towards the end, Peeta was practically dead he was so injured and sick. I found it very unrealistic if you left a group of 24 teens in the wilderness to fend for themselves in a battle where only one comes out alive.

Some scenes were bang on the dot just as I imagined but I kinda spoiled a bit too much already so I'll avoid going into detail. But I did like how they added what was going on outside of the arena such as the people of District 12 viewing their two tributes struggling, and Haymitch persuading sponsors to send medicine and stuff to Katniss and Peeta.

Just one more critic and that is, the people sitting behind me who never read the book. I got kinda annoyed when I heard them whisper, "So-and-so died??". Pretty obvious you guys never read the book and you would've known that most of the characters will probably die and this particular character died in a different fashion.

So to sum it up, this is a film that you definitely have to read the actual book to understand most of the plot and sitting as far away from the screen as possible so you don't vomit from the crap camera work, but again it's not the worse movie I've seen; it just meets in the middle of my standards for a good film.

*Yawn*

My weekends aren't long enough. The week back from a long vacation feels like an eternity. Doesn't help that along with piles of homework, I stay after school for another 2 and 1/2 hours to help build the set for the upcoming musical. I'm so tired I forget to do the fun stuff that I want to do like finish writing and finish reading The Hunger Games.

Speaking of while I'm on the topic, I am barely finished with The Hunger Games and I already love it so much! It has just everything I love in a book: suspense, action, romance and awesome characters. I hope to get it finished before the movie comes out.

For anyone who has no clue what this book is about, here's a plot synopsis:

In the ruins of a place known as North America, there exists a nation known as Panem. In this country, there is a great Capitol with twelve districts. Previously, there were thirteen but the thirteenth district led a rebellion against the Capitol and was destroyed. As punishment to keep the remaining districts in line, each of the twelve must send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a great game which pitches the twenty four competitors against each other in a battle of survival (on live TV) where the winner receives glory and fame forever. Our focus is on Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl from District Twelve who takes her sister's place in the games. As the story progresses, we read her struggles of survival in these horrid games and what she deems is right and wrong of her country.

A very suspenseful novel that keeps you wondering what's gonna happen next with characters you get attached to and love. Highly recommend it if you have nothing to read.

Now on top of reading The Hunger Games, I'm also starting to read Fahrenheit 451 for my English class as we begin to focus on Modernism. Hopefully it's as good as it sounds.

I've actually been thinking of a plot for my own original dystopia idea. Maybe after I finish this one story, I can start writing it out. I know it's gonna be a good story.

I may forget to update this blog for a while since starting next weekend the musical director wants people to come in during the weekend for rehearsal for God knows how long. So I will be too tired to remember to do stuff (Hopefully I won't forget any upcoming homework...)

Before I go I thought I'd share this to my manga artists out there. My darling friend Kelly told me to look up a guy named Mark Crilley who is a manga artist and has many videos on Youtube giving out tips on how to draw in the manga/anime style. Here's just one of his videos. Enjoy!