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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

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catching_fire_ka_300dpiI recently saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and having read the books, I can say that the movie both kept very closely to the book, as well as provided a nice improvement to the first movie, which seemed very low budget. The second movie starts very shortly after the first one ended, and picks up with very little attempt to re-introduce viewers to the characters, or the plot. Viewers are obviously expected to know what is going on before starting this movie, even though about a year and a half has passed between the first movie, and the second.

For more info on what the plot is, please see my review of the first movie here. So after the first movie/book, and our main characters survive, they go on to live in nice houses back in their district. The idea being they are being rewarded by the Capital for “winning” the games. The movie basically starts at this point, just before they are about to go on their “tour” of the country talking about how great the games were, etc. And they also get to see the riots that are breaking out in the country.

Anyway, it’s hard not to just detail the whole movie. I can say, however, that the movie follows the book very well this time around, and the production quality was very good.

Anyway, recommended, and I have very little negative to say with the movie.

[xrr rating=5/5]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

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A-Link-Between-Worlds-Box-ArtFor years, I resisted buying a Nintendo 3DS because I thought they were a bit gimmicky, and there weren’t really any games I wanted to play. Nintendo changed that equation when they announced, then released A Link Between Worlds, which takes place in the same world as A Link to the Past, what may be my favorite game of all time, but certainly my favorite Zelda game. A Link Between Worlds is certainly a better game than many of the recent Zelda incarnations (not including remakes) (Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Spirit Tracks, etc), and may be the finest Nintendo first party title to come along since before the Wii was introduced ((at which point I would say the Metroid Prime‘s for Gamecube, and Wind Waker)).

The game, as many reviews point out, takes place several generations after A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds has yet another Link, and Zelda (see Zelda Timeline). And much like every other Zelda game, Link starts out unknown that he’s important, and is simply a Blacksmith’s assistant. He’s off to deliver a sword to a customer, when “evil” happens, and suddenly you’re “Link the Hero”. After this point, the game plays VERY much like A Link to the Past, with the addition of the ability to merge into walls and move along them (which is an ability you get in the first couple hours of the game). This mechanic, along with the game being 3D, are not the typical “gimmicks” that Nintendo pulls with their first party games. The last few Zelda games, wether for Wii, or DS, just seemed gimmicky with their “Skyward Sword” move, or yelling/blowing into the DS Microphone (which, I’d hate to have to do if I was on a Subway/Bus). Link Between Worlds had none of this. While there were certainly some points that could have been more “logical” with 3D, it was never needed. The game didn’t feel gimmicky at all, and was very well done. The story was easy to follow (though, there was one piece that I missed (or wasn’t there) that explained part of what was happening). But this turned out to be minor, and could be due to me not paying attention.

Gameplay, all and all, was excellent. Story was excellent. Music Score was amazing. Rather than just remaking Link to the Past they truly made a great sequel (of sorts) that does not disappoint, nor ruin the wonderful legacy that Link to the Past has to this day. My only, ONLY, complaint was the game was a bit short. I collected all 100 of the Maimai’s, and the game still only took maybe 15-20 hours.

[xrr rating=5/5]

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

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the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-posterPeter Jackson earned a fair amount of ire when it was announced he had taken a book that has all of 320 pages, and broken it up into the same number of movies as The “Lord of the Rings” which comes in at almost 3x the size (nearly 1200 pages). How could he possibly take 9 hours to tell a story? To answer, it would seem he has used the opposite of what he did with LoTR, in that he’s expanded areas previously only touched on in the book, unlike in LoTR where entire sections were cut (Tom Bombadil, for example). (Un)fortunately he’s also added characters from LoTR that were unmentioned in “The Hobbit”, which we’ll get to.

The movie starts out pretty much exactly where the previous one left off… which was expected. Obviously it would behoove the viewer to re-watch the first movie a few days/hours before viewing this installment, as otherwise a year has passed, and some information may have been forgotten. The movies were all filmed at the same time, so there are no instances of the actors looking different between the movies, which is quite pleasant. What was a bit disconcerting is how much Orlando Bloom aged between LoTR and this movie. In LoTR he was in his 20’s. In this movie, his face had filled out and he looked very different. So maybe Elves age and then de-age. =)

Special Effects and video quality looked much improved from the first movie. There was one specific scene in the first movie (in the goblin mines) where everything looked very soft. I think this was due to the convertion from 48fps to 24fps. They seem to have fixed that in both the DVD/Blu-ray release, as well as this new movie where this didn’t ever seem to be the case. Everything looked quite sharp.

Much like “Two Towers”, this movie had a lot of action in it, but unlike many action oriented movies, it had few instances where the action seemed to drag, unlike “Two Towers”. The only overly long action scene was unique enough that is stayed interesting. Smaug himself was introduced in the movie, and is voiced and played (motion capture) by Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock (which also has Martin Freeman as Watson), “Star Trek Into Darkness“). Smaug was, extremely well done, and extremely well acted.

All and all, the continuation of “The Hobbit” from Peter Jackson is a worthy sequel, and by all accounts, a better movie than it’s predecessor. The movie lacks the incessant gross-out humor of the first movie, and also feels much more rounded with a clear goal ahead. There were no points in the movie where I felt the plot strayed enough from the book to be a bother, and it felt like a better movie than the first, which I couldn’t say about “Two Towers” vs. “Fellowship of the Ring”. I would recommend seeing it.

[xrr rating=5/5]