Nelson Mandela died on Thursday, which was a bit of a downer, but otherwise I've had the most marvelous week.
First things first, this:
The Duchess of Cambridge wore a tiara! Oh, happy days!
As someone who loves the Duchess and loves a good tiara, this is the perfect combination. The last time I saw Kate in a tiara was at her wedding, but I was such a novice at royal watching at the time, that I couldn't identify the tiara, and it didn't seem that special to me that she'd worn one. After all, princesses wear tiaras all the time.
Well, not this Princess (Do not ever refer to Catherine as a Princess. She is not a Princess. She is only a Duchess). There has been nary a tiara on her head since that glorious April day two years ago. Which is what makes this tiara appearance so special. It's the first one she's made in a couple of years and it may well be the last one she makes for another couple of years.
Details about the tiara are available on Order of Splendor (Link). If you aren't interested in reading all of that, I shall condense it into one sentence for you. Here: That is the Lotus Flower Tiara, it used to belong to the Queen Mum, and then to Princess Margaret, it is a very pretty looking trinket, and it shines.
Coming to what this post is really about, tiara wearing duchesses aside:
I saw the Catching Fire movie!
I don't know if anyone remembers, but watching the Catching Fire movie was the last on my list of things that I was looking forward to in 2013, and also the only non-royal thing, so obviously quite important to me. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, the movie only released in my city this Friday, instead of the intended two weeks ago, so I was subjected to two weeks of people on Tumblr fangirling without actually being able to join in. Until now.
Because it's been available to watch for so long, there are a vast number of better written reviews and opinions about Catching Fire floating about on the Internet, so whatever I write is too little, too late. But read through it because a view will be added to my tally whether or not you do. Don't let me get views for nothing.
Warning, spoilers.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. AMAZING. Really, REALLY good. A great adaptation, and so much better than the first one. There were shivers running down my spine as I watched it.
Disappointments? Finnick Odair. Well, Sam Claflin as Finnick. I had rather hoped that because they had cast an Englishman as Finnick, he would have a British accent, but he did not. Other than that, Sam Claflin was fine. And I particularly like Lynn Cohen as Mags.
Another disappointment was their failure to mention Haymitch's Games, the Second Quarter Quell. I understand that it would have been difficult for the people making the movie to construct a set for that specific arena, and get 48 children and go to all that trouble just for maybe five minutes of screen time, but I feel that it's important to give the viewers a bit of insight into what Haymitch was like, why he ended up like he did. Haymitch is a pretty important character, right till the end, and it'll be a shame if the people who only watch the movies don't know him at all.
Also, the kiss. The one on the beach at night, which is when Katniss really begins to feel something for Peeta, when she realises that she would be most affected by his death. Much like the first movie, where the multiple kisses from the book were reduced to a single, unmemorable one, this specific kiss is quite a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. As a matter of fact, at the precise point in time that Katniss and Peeta were kissing, I had something in my eye and was blinking like a mad person. Fortunately enough, there is a plethora of .gifs of that very scene that I was able to stare at unblinkingly when I got home. And there were a lot of other kisses throughout the movie, which I saw quite clearly.
Un-disappointments? Everything else. This was probably the best book to movie adaptation that I have ever seen, and one of my favourite movies of all time. Francis Lawrence was an awesome director and whoever wrote the script (Google it) really stuck to the original story. But it was the ending that was especially spectacular. I know how it ends, I know how the entire series ends, and yet I found myself holding my breath. The movie lasted two and a half hours. It felt like minutes. And, most important of all, the screen didn't shake everytime there was running! It's a miracle what a good camera stabiliser can do for a movie.
If you need further testimony of how good it was, know this: as far as the books go, I preferred The Hunger Games to Catching Fire. Having seen this movie, however, I am now seriously reconsidering.
As for the cast, Jena Malone as Johanna Mason was magnificent. As was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee. And, of course, Elizabeth Banks. I've always liked Effie. I feel like I should also give a special mention to Josh Hutcherson, because he did an incredible job portraying Peeta Mellark, especially Peeta's love for Katniss. The real test of his acting, though, will be Mockingjay, in which he plays a deranged Peeta Mellark.
And Jennifer Lawrence. I'm not even going to get started on Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer Lawrence is the best thing about the entire movie franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is well worth whatever obscene amount of money she gets paid. God bless Jennifer Lawrence.
Almost the minute I got home, I went onto Tumblr. Most of the fangirls there have seen the movie, three, maybe four times already. And there were a lot of posts about what they noticed in each of these viewings; how the movie deviated from the book in the first instance, the portrayal of the characters in the second instance, small details that they'd overlooked the first two times in the third instance.
But I got Effie's reference to Mahogany, a subtle hint at her most famous dialogue from the first movie. I heard Katniss say that she loves Peeta, right at the end on the hovercraft. I saw Annie Cresta off on one side when Mags volunteered. For some reason, I always knew exactly where to look, and looked just there. I didn't miss a single thing. And I am so proud of myself.
An interesting thing that I read on that website was that the end of Catching Fire, at the moment when Katniss and Johanna walk away from the lightning tree, is the last time we see Peeta as his completely normal self. I didn't realise that when I read about it, because obviously I didn't know what happened next. If you've read the books, you know that he gets captured by the Capitol and tortured until he starts to hate Katniss. If you haven't read the books, I already warned you about spoilers, so you can't hold that against me.
But that post really got me to thinking. Peeta never really was the same after that. Sure, he and Katniss got married (Did they, though?) and had children together, but I don't think he ever really loved her as much as he did the first time. And that's a shame, because he loved her truly. And because I ship them.
N
First things first, this:
The Duchess of Cambridge wore a tiara! Oh, happy days!
As someone who loves the Duchess and loves a good tiara, this is the perfect combination. The last time I saw Kate in a tiara was at her wedding, but I was such a novice at royal watching at the time, that I couldn't identify the tiara, and it didn't seem that special to me that she'd worn one. After all, princesses wear tiaras all the time.
Well, not this Princess (Do not ever refer to Catherine as a Princess. She is not a Princess. She is only a Duchess). There has been nary a tiara on her head since that glorious April day two years ago. Which is what makes this tiara appearance so special. It's the first one she's made in a couple of years and it may well be the last one she makes for another couple of years.
Details about the tiara are available on Order of Splendor (Link). If you aren't interested in reading all of that, I shall condense it into one sentence for you. Here: That is the Lotus Flower Tiara, it used to belong to the Queen Mum, and then to Princess Margaret, it is a very pretty looking trinket, and it shines.
Coming to what this post is really about, tiara wearing duchesses aside:
I saw the Catching Fire movie!
I don't know if anyone remembers, but watching the Catching Fire movie was the last on my list of things that I was looking forward to in 2013, and also the only non-royal thing, so obviously quite important to me. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, the movie only released in my city this Friday, instead of the intended two weeks ago, so I was subjected to two weeks of people on Tumblr fangirling without actually being able to join in. Until now.
Because it's been available to watch for so long, there are a vast number of better written reviews and opinions about Catching Fire floating about on the Internet, so whatever I write is too little, too late. But read through it because a view will be added to my tally whether or not you do. Don't let me get views for nothing.
Warning, spoilers.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. AMAZING. Really, REALLY good. A great adaptation, and so much better than the first one. There were shivers running down my spine as I watched it.
Disappointments? Finnick Odair. Well, Sam Claflin as Finnick. I had rather hoped that because they had cast an Englishman as Finnick, he would have a British accent, but he did not. Other than that, Sam Claflin was fine. And I particularly like Lynn Cohen as Mags.
Another disappointment was their failure to mention Haymitch's Games, the Second Quarter Quell. I understand that it would have been difficult for the people making the movie to construct a set for that specific arena, and get 48 children and go to all that trouble just for maybe five minutes of screen time, but I feel that it's important to give the viewers a bit of insight into what Haymitch was like, why he ended up like he did. Haymitch is a pretty important character, right till the end, and it'll be a shame if the people who only watch the movies don't know him at all.
Also, the kiss. The one on the beach at night, which is when Katniss really begins to feel something for Peeta, when she realises that she would be most affected by his death. Much like the first movie, where the multiple kisses from the book were reduced to a single, unmemorable one, this specific kiss is quite a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. As a matter of fact, at the precise point in time that Katniss and Peeta were kissing, I had something in my eye and was blinking like a mad person. Fortunately enough, there is a plethora of .gifs of that very scene that I was able to stare at unblinkingly when I got home. And there were a lot of other kisses throughout the movie, which I saw quite clearly.
Un-disappointments? Everything else. This was probably the best book to movie adaptation that I have ever seen, and one of my favourite movies of all time. Francis Lawrence was an awesome director and whoever wrote the script (Google it) really stuck to the original story. But it was the ending that was especially spectacular. I know how it ends, I know how the entire series ends, and yet I found myself holding my breath. The movie lasted two and a half hours. It felt like minutes. And, most important of all, the screen didn't shake everytime there was running! It's a miracle what a good camera stabiliser can do for a movie.
If you need further testimony of how good it was, know this: as far as the books go, I preferred The Hunger Games to Catching Fire. Having seen this movie, however, I am now seriously reconsidering.
As for the cast, Jena Malone as Johanna Mason was magnificent. As was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee. And, of course, Elizabeth Banks. I've always liked Effie. I feel like I should also give a special mention to Josh Hutcherson, because he did an incredible job portraying Peeta Mellark, especially Peeta's love for Katniss. The real test of his acting, though, will be Mockingjay, in which he plays a deranged Peeta Mellark.
And Jennifer Lawrence. I'm not even going to get started on Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer Lawrence is the best thing about the entire movie franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is well worth whatever obscene amount of money she gets paid. God bless Jennifer Lawrence.
Almost the minute I got home, I went onto Tumblr. Most of the fangirls there have seen the movie, three, maybe four times already. And there were a lot of posts about what they noticed in each of these viewings; how the movie deviated from the book in the first instance, the portrayal of the characters in the second instance, small details that they'd overlooked the first two times in the third instance.
But I got Effie's reference to Mahogany, a subtle hint at her most famous dialogue from the first movie. I heard Katniss say that she loves Peeta, right at the end on the hovercraft. I saw Annie Cresta off on one side when Mags volunteered. For some reason, I always knew exactly where to look, and looked just there. I didn't miss a single thing. And I am so proud of myself.
An interesting thing that I read on that website was that the end of Catching Fire, at the moment when Katniss and Johanna walk away from the lightning tree, is the last time we see Peeta as his completely normal self. I didn't realise that when I read about it, because obviously I didn't know what happened next. If you've read the books, you know that he gets captured by the Capitol and tortured until he starts to hate Katniss. If you haven't read the books, I already warned you about spoilers, so you can't hold that against me.
But that post really got me to thinking. Peeta never really was the same after that. Sure, he and Katniss got married (Did they, though?) and had children together, but I don't think he ever really loved her as much as he did the first time. And that's a shame, because he loved her truly. And because I ship them.
N
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