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kaydeefalls
HELLO. So my ridiculous awesome bizarre abstract underwater puppet show is now over -- that was a whirlwind couple of weeks right there. Strike was yesterday, it SUCKED, I will never not hate strike with every fiber of my being, but it's over so who cares. The next one kicks in starting Friday, this time with 100% less GIANT WATER TANKS THAT NEED TO BE DRAINED AND REFILLED EVERY DAY, so that's cool, but it basically means I need to cram all the fandom in I can in these four weekday evenings because it's my last good shot until the end of April.
So first off, X-Men Reversebang! I somehow managed to get online at just the right time for claims -- which, given that was literally the ONLY time I got on my laptop at all on Saturday, I'm kind of impressed with myself -- and then was lucky enough to land my first choice, which is by far the prettiest and everyone else can just go home. :P I kid, all the art was gorgeous, but anyway. I felt a bit guilty at first, because it looks like a lot of other people had wanted to claim that art, while my second choice remains unclaimed, and I'd actually had a much stronger plotbunny for my second choice but the one that I wound up marking as first was just so strangely compelling despite my lack of clear story idea that, well, yeah. I almost felt like I should offer to swap claims for a minute there. But having had a couple of days to mull it over, this morning I basically woke up with a sudden rabid plotbunny -- or, well, scattered-strong-images bunny, there is no plot yet, but I know several scenes I want to write with VIVID clarity and, yeah, I'm really glad I got this prompt. Haven't heard anything from my artist yet -- I sent her a long rambling excited e-mail early this morning, but no response -- but that's okay, I'm not really going to be able to start writing anything for a while yet. First priority this week is desperately trying to complete the next chapter of Queen's Gambit, though I make no promises. But it's a goal. I only have like 5k to write and I know what needs to happen in it, I don't know why I'm getting so hung up on this, but that's kind of been a general theme for this whole dratted fic. Oh, well.
Second, I FINALLY SAW HUNGER GAMES THIS AFTERNOON OMG OMG OMG. Seriously, adapting a book into a movie, you're doing it right. That was like everything I wanted this movie to be. I think they did a fantastic job editing it down to the essentials, and while obviously a bit of nuance was lost -- hello, the book is basically Katniss's stream of consciousness, that doesn't exactly translate onscreen -- all of the important bits were there and coherent.
List time!
The meh, just to get it out of the way quick:
-The flashbacks. I liked the way they slipped them in, but I don't think they told a coherent enough narrative. If I hadn't read the books, the bread thing wouldn't have made much sense -- had NO context for the fact that Katniss's dad had died and her mother was Not Coping and they were starving and that burnt heel of bread literally saved her life. And again, not sure how much sense the mine explosion would have made without having read the books, compounded by the fact that it was a hallucination!flashback and therefore uber-unreliable narrator.
-Such a dumb little complaint, but I do kinda wish we'd gotten to see the "victor montage" after the Games. I love that scene in the books -- Katniss realizing just how she'd appeared to the world during the Games, and seeing all the ways Peeta was helping her throughout. It totally makes sense to cut this scene -- um, we already just WATCHED all of it, after all -- but still. I hope someone makes that into a vid once decent source is available.
-...shit, I really need to not be the person making that vid.
-NOT ENOUGH CINNA.
-...no, yeah, those are my only real complaints. All the other cuts/changes made complete sense to me. While Katniss/Madge may be the sekrit!OTP of my heart, Madge's character is never fully fleshed out in the books and I really don't know how they could have made her make sense in the movie. The Mockingjay was never properly explained, but I'm not sure that actually GETS a proper explanation until the 2nd book, anyway.
THE AWESOME:
-Oh god, District 12 looked absolutely perfect in every way. Except that nobody really looked like they were starving. But, yeah, perfect.
-I like Gale! Didn't get much backstory, but he felt right to me.
-The Reaping. I was kind of tearing up the whole time. It was painfully right. And, oh, my god, the horrible silence after Prim's name is called, and the way she carefully tucks her blouse into her skirt as she starts to walk forward and I very nearly lost my shit right there.
-I feel like it goes without saying that Jennifer Lawrence was perfectly cast.
-Peeta's reaction to the Reaping. He looks completely shell-shocked, and UGH I HAVE SO MANY FEELS FOR PEETA, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.
-On that note, PEETA PEETA PEETA OH MY GOD PEETA. I love how fucking cunning he is, and the movie didn't shy away from it without ever specifically calling attention to it. Yes, it's clear when Katniss starts playing to the audience with the star-crossed lovers shit, but Peeta is working that angle hard from the fucking start, and he is very, very smart about it. The fact that he really is a bit in love with her (AND WHO WOULDN'T BE, GOD KNOWS I AM) doesn't make him any less manipulative and calculating about it, and I fucking love that about him. Especially because the whole way through, he's playing for her to win, not himself.
-RUUUUUUUUUUE. Her little grin when she steals Cato's knife during training! Thresh's smirk! HEEE.
-I hate Cato and the other Careers SO MUCH, y'all, they were utter perfection.
-Haymitch and Effie's mutual loathing feels me with inappropriate glee. They were both quite well cast, as well.
-LOVE all the "backstage" looks at the Games. That was fucking fantastic. Seeing all those machinations and manipulations was just chilling.
-CINNA. 'Nuff said.
-President Snow. Okay, at this point, I don't even know why I'm bothering, there was not a single role miscast in this entire fucking movie, everyone was perfect.
-The bloodbath at the Cornucopia. I'd wondered, beforehand, if cramming this into a PG-13 rating would sanitize the very real horror of the Games, but that fucking scene, man. It was just the right amounts of graphic-but-not-explicit, and the editing was superb, and it made me want to throw up.
-I ugly cried for Rue. I mean, no surprise there, but seriously. RUUUUUUUUUUUE. I love love love the way they shot that, from her eyes, looking up at Katniss, and then up at the trees and the trees and the trees... UGLY CRYING.
-Love watching District 11 watch that, and the salute, and then starting the fucking riot, and then cut back to Katniss sobbing her fucking heart out. This is where Katniss becomes the Mockingjay, even though she doesn't realize it. Oh, god, the riot was so gorgeously shot.
-PEETA IS A ROCK. I knew it was coming. I still lol'ed.
-ILU THRESH.
-"You call that a kiss?" OH HAYMITCH. Good device for making the messages of the parachutes explicit.
-RIP Foxface, whom I unreasonably adore.
-I'm a fan of the way they sped up the climax, and I really, really liked Cato's last speech on the Cornucopia. It humanized him in a really beautiful way -- this is a boy who has been bred to know nothing but how to kill and be killed, and he has never had any choice in the matter, and there is no way out. It doesn't make him any less of a horrible person, but he is still a person, and this is what the Capitol does to people: it turns children into killers.
-The berries. Everything with the berries. Peeta finding the berries, Katniss losing her shit, Foxface's death, the just-barely-averted double suicide, Seneca Crane being locked in an opulent room with a crystal goblet of berries. Beautiful and horrible and perfect.
-While the film's ending was less explicit of a downer than the books' (in regards to Katniss&Peeta), I think the cracks in the facade were quite clear -- Peeta knows this is a lie, but he's still playing along because they have to and he loves her and he'd rather keep pretending, and Katniss has no fucking clue what comes next and doesn't know what she wants and doesn't have a fucking choice in the matter, and everything is broken and everyone is smiling. UGH SO PERFECT.
Also, I hadn't noticed while reading the book (because I was REMARKABLY unspoiled), but oh, man, the foreshadowing for Peeta's character arc in particular kind of destroyed me. Their whole relationship is a fucking game of "real or not real". And his speech on the roof about just wanting to remain himself, not letting the Capitol change him, not playing their game -- UGH BOOK 3, I SEE YOU THERE. ALL MY CREYS.
So, yeah. I...may need to see this again later this week while I still have the chance.
So first off, X-Men Reversebang! I somehow managed to get online at just the right time for claims -- which, given that was literally the ONLY time I got on my laptop at all on Saturday, I'm kind of impressed with myself -- and then was lucky enough to land my first choice, which is by far the prettiest and everyone else can just go home. :P I kid, all the art was gorgeous, but anyway. I felt a bit guilty at first, because it looks like a lot of other people had wanted to claim that art, while my second choice remains unclaimed, and I'd actually had a much stronger plotbunny for my second choice but the one that I wound up marking as first was just so strangely compelling despite my lack of clear story idea that, well, yeah. I almost felt like I should offer to swap claims for a minute there. But having had a couple of days to mull it over, this morning I basically woke up with a sudden rabid plotbunny -- or, well, scattered-strong-images bunny, there is no plot yet, but I know several scenes I want to write with VIVID clarity and, yeah, I'm really glad I got this prompt. Haven't heard anything from my artist yet -- I sent her a long rambling excited e-mail early this morning, but no response -- but that's okay, I'm not really going to be able to start writing anything for a while yet. First priority this week is desperately trying to complete the next chapter of Queen's Gambit, though I make no promises. But it's a goal. I only have like 5k to write and I know what needs to happen in it, I don't know why I'm getting so hung up on this, but that's kind of been a general theme for this whole dratted fic. Oh, well.
Second, I FINALLY SAW HUNGER GAMES THIS AFTERNOON OMG OMG OMG. Seriously, adapting a book into a movie, you're doing it right. That was like everything I wanted this movie to be. I think they did a fantastic job editing it down to the essentials, and while obviously a bit of nuance was lost -- hello, the book is basically Katniss's stream of consciousness, that doesn't exactly translate onscreen -- all of the important bits were there and coherent.
List time!
The meh, just to get it out of the way quick:
-The flashbacks. I liked the way they slipped them in, but I don't think they told a coherent enough narrative. If I hadn't read the books, the bread thing wouldn't have made much sense -- had NO context for the fact that Katniss's dad had died and her mother was Not Coping and they were starving and that burnt heel of bread literally saved her life. And again, not sure how much sense the mine explosion would have made without having read the books, compounded by the fact that it was a hallucination!flashback and therefore uber-unreliable narrator.
-Such a dumb little complaint, but I do kinda wish we'd gotten to see the "victor montage" after the Games. I love that scene in the books -- Katniss realizing just how she'd appeared to the world during the Games, and seeing all the ways Peeta was helping her throughout. It totally makes sense to cut this scene -- um, we already just WATCHED all of it, after all -- but still. I hope someone makes that into a vid once decent source is available.
-...shit, I really need to not be the person making that vid.
-NOT ENOUGH CINNA.
-...no, yeah, those are my only real complaints. All the other cuts/changes made complete sense to me. While Katniss/Madge may be the sekrit!OTP of my heart, Madge's character is never fully fleshed out in the books and I really don't know how they could have made her make sense in the movie. The Mockingjay was never properly explained, but I'm not sure that actually GETS a proper explanation until the 2nd book, anyway.
THE AWESOME:
-Oh god, District 12 looked absolutely perfect in every way. Except that nobody really looked like they were starving. But, yeah, perfect.
-I like Gale! Didn't get much backstory, but he felt right to me.
-The Reaping. I was kind of tearing up the whole time. It was painfully right. And, oh, my god, the horrible silence after Prim's name is called, and the way she carefully tucks her blouse into her skirt as she starts to walk forward and I very nearly lost my shit right there.
-I feel like it goes without saying that Jennifer Lawrence was perfectly cast.
-Peeta's reaction to the Reaping. He looks completely shell-shocked, and UGH I HAVE SO MANY FEELS FOR PEETA, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.
-On that note, PEETA PEETA PEETA OH MY GOD PEETA. I love how fucking cunning he is, and the movie didn't shy away from it without ever specifically calling attention to it. Yes, it's clear when Katniss starts playing to the audience with the star-crossed lovers shit, but Peeta is working that angle hard from the fucking start, and he is very, very smart about it. The fact that he really is a bit in love with her (AND WHO WOULDN'T BE, GOD KNOWS I AM) doesn't make him any less manipulative and calculating about it, and I fucking love that about him. Especially because the whole way through, he's playing for her to win, not himself.
-RUUUUUUUUUUE. Her little grin when she steals Cato's knife during training! Thresh's smirk! HEEE.
-I hate Cato and the other Careers SO MUCH, y'all, they were utter perfection.
-Haymitch and Effie's mutual loathing feels me with inappropriate glee. They were both quite well cast, as well.
-LOVE all the "backstage" looks at the Games. That was fucking fantastic. Seeing all those machinations and manipulations was just chilling.
-CINNA. 'Nuff said.
-President Snow. Okay, at this point, I don't even know why I'm bothering, there was not a single role miscast in this entire fucking movie, everyone was perfect.
-The bloodbath at the Cornucopia. I'd wondered, beforehand, if cramming this into a PG-13 rating would sanitize the very real horror of the Games, but that fucking scene, man. It was just the right amounts of graphic-but-not-explicit, and the editing was superb, and it made me want to throw up.
-I ugly cried for Rue. I mean, no surprise there, but seriously. RUUUUUUUUUUUE. I love love love the way they shot that, from her eyes, looking up at Katniss, and then up at the trees and the trees and the trees... UGLY CRYING.
-Love watching District 11 watch that, and the salute, and then starting the fucking riot, and then cut back to Katniss sobbing her fucking heart out. This is where Katniss becomes the Mockingjay, even though she doesn't realize it. Oh, god, the riot was so gorgeously shot.
-PEETA IS A ROCK. I knew it was coming. I still lol'ed.
-ILU THRESH.
-"You call that a kiss?" OH HAYMITCH. Good device for making the messages of the parachutes explicit.
-RIP Foxface, whom I unreasonably adore.
-I'm a fan of the way they sped up the climax, and I really, really liked Cato's last speech on the Cornucopia. It humanized him in a really beautiful way -- this is a boy who has been bred to know nothing but how to kill and be killed, and he has never had any choice in the matter, and there is no way out. It doesn't make him any less of a horrible person, but he is still a person, and this is what the Capitol does to people: it turns children into killers.
-The berries. Everything with the berries. Peeta finding the berries, Katniss losing her shit, Foxface's death, the just-barely-averted double suicide, Seneca Crane being locked in an opulent room with a crystal goblet of berries. Beautiful and horrible and perfect.
-While the film's ending was less explicit of a downer than the books' (in regards to Katniss&Peeta), I think the cracks in the facade were quite clear -- Peeta knows this is a lie, but he's still playing along because they have to and he loves her and he'd rather keep pretending, and Katniss has no fucking clue what comes next and doesn't know what she wants and doesn't have a fucking choice in the matter, and everything is broken and everyone is smiling. UGH SO PERFECT.
Also, I hadn't noticed while reading the book (because I was REMARKABLY unspoiled), but oh, man, the foreshadowing for Peeta's character arc in particular kind of destroyed me. Their whole relationship is a fucking game of "real or not real". And his speech on the roof about just wanting to remain himself, not letting the Capitol change him, not playing their game -- UGH BOOK 3, I SEE YOU THERE. ALL MY CREYS.
So, yeah. I...may need to see this again later this week while I still have the chance.
