Catching Fire

I felt good avoiding going into town the last Saturday before Christmas, as you can feel the desperation of the last minute shoppers far away in the suburbs.  Instead it was good to spend the day pottering round around at home and head out in the early evening for a movie and some Vietnamese for dinner.  I enjoyed the first Hunger Games movie, and book which I read just before heading to the cinema.  I never got round to reading the next two books though, so it was all a surprise to me seeing Catching Fire.

So it was really more of the same story, which should have made it boring, but actually I must say it was ok.  Jennifer Lawrence is pretty kickass, and  a great role model for girls, even if this girl is a middle aged.  I would have thought she was awesome when I was sixteen.  She has great skin too - so luminous through the movie.  Lovely Liam is quite the looker with his blue eyes, and I spent most of the time wondering if they made the other male lead stand in a ditch the whole movie?

The evening was almost spoiled as our favorite Thai restaurant has closed for a month of holidays.  We ventured over the road to the local Vietnamese restaurant and had super tasty noodles, made fresh with lots of meat and veg, and a great price.

So a 4/5 for the movie and a good night out.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012)

I finished the book at lunchtime today, and thought as it was my day off  that I would head out for a walk and then pop into see the movie.  I went to the new Embassy movie theatre in town - they've added two cinemas downstairs which are quite lovely.

I liked the book, enjoyed that it had a strong lead role in Katniss Everdeen and thought that her role was played so well in the movie.  I liked that the movie was able to trim a lot of the back story without losing the soul of the movie.  You could still tell that the father was gone, the mother had had a melt down, Prim was sensitive and that Katniss and Gale had a special relationship. 

I also thought that the movie did a good job of portraying a lot of Katniss's experience, her hallucinations, becoming deaf, the pain of the burns, being chased, being frightened - it was easy to tell that she was experiencing a range of feelings without having to use whiney indie girl singers. 

So a 4/5 for this movie that a million bijillion teenage girls, and a few middle aged women will go and see.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (2008)

I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, as this was the staple of lunchtime discussions amoungst the twenty year olds at work. So over the weekend, I enjoyed being able to ring my Kindle in the breaks and rushed to finish the book today at lunchtime.

You all know the tale:  two kids from each district are selected every year to compete in a televised contest til one is left alive and is the victor.  The whole story has echo of Roman Gladiators, reality tv and Survivor.  It was nice to have a kick ass female lead, who is strong, athletic, shy and smart -  a good role model for teenage girls.

Anyway,  this middle aged lady enjoyed this teen story and thought it worth of a 4/5.