Checking out some films on netflix...

[frelling_tralk]

The Hunger Games I really liked! I always feel weird for feeling this, but actually I think though that the hunger games themselves are the least interesting part for me lol. I loved reading (or watching) about their society amd the politics and all the build-up to the games, but the games themselves sometimes kept my attention and sometimes not. Honestly I think they would have been been more interesting to me if there had been a lot more focus on Katniss having to take lives and be really bloodthirsty, and how much the experience of being the one victor would change her and not really feel like a victory at all. Instead there was never all that much focus on the magnitude of taking a life, it was more about surviving against the elements I felt? It was a well-put together film though that really compliments the books, I loved all the little touches they added like actually showing the rioting in Distract 11 and making President Snow a bigger presence. For once I may have actually liked the film more than the book! Peeta still didn't do much for me though tbh in the books or the film, I was always more into Gale and Katniss. I don't have any major ship though, I cared more about Katniss's connections with Haymich and Cinna then any love interest in the books, just if I had to throw my hat into the ring it would be for Gale/Katniss.

My favourite fan video for the film!:

The Cabin In The Woods was an interesting idea I guess and I liked all of the meta commentary, but I'm not that into slasher films and ultimately a lot of that part of the film bored me and I was impatient to get back to the lab. Yeah they were making fun of the horror movie cliches, but we were still watching the cliches at the same time which wasn't really my thing. If that even makes sense lol. Idk maybe it was aimed more at people who watch a ton of slasher movies and would appreciate the satire of them more and all of the in jokes? Also I know it wasn't supposed to be pure horror obviously, but none of it it really scared me much and I'm the kind of wimp that can very easily be left terrified watching a scary movie. But then I found the same thing with Buffy, it wanted to combine action, horror, and comedy, but it never once scared me in the way that shows like the x-files or Supernatural have done, horror is something that Joss has never managed to pull off for me for some reason. Going back to the 90's, Scream was a film that I thought had a much better balance of scares and tongue-in-cheek humour, plus getting me to care about Sydney's character (I still need to watch Scream 4 at some point). I've never been much into films like The Evil Dead where I'm supposed to care about a bunch of teeangers stuck in a cabin in the woods and making stupid decisions, so maybe The Cabin In The Woods was a bit of a non-starter for me :P


The Iron Lady wasn't exactly what I had expected. The trailer is all clips from her life and there's no indication that most of the film is about Margaret Thatcher as an old lady with dementia, so why not be honest and advertise it that way? Because they knew that wouldn't sell? Meryl Streep was certainly excellent, but the film itself felt very poorly done. I think it would have worked better if they had opened with Margaret Thatcher as an old lady talking to Dennis and flashing back, then used the entirety of the film to tell the story of her life, and only then return to her as an old lady in the closing moments. Instead you couldn't get involved in the characters or the story at all because the flashbacks mostly felt so random and there was no real context being given for a lot of it. And don't get my wrong, I've no problem with Margaret Thatcher's policies being criticisized, but it felt like the movie was trying to send a message about her as a woman which made me a little uncomfortable? There was the scene of her children running over her car calling out 'don't leave us, Mummy' (would a male politition's film have had a similarly manipulative shot?), her husband complaining about her neglecting her family, and then the final message which seemed to be that she sacrificed personal happiness by being so obsessed with her career. Now again I would have had no problem if the film had criticised her in terms of her policies, but it was hard to even get much out of those flashbacks because we kept returning to the lonely old lady in the present wondering why her son doesn't visit her. It was just kind of a weird message I got from it, I don't know if it's just me?


I'm taking a break from my Breaking Bad rewatch for the moment to catch up on some films and make the most out of my netflix subscription for the month, but I am planning to start season 3 soon. And after I've finished with my Breaking Bad rewatch some tv on netflix I'm torn between trying is White Collar, Heroes, Lost, Prison Break, or 24. Any recommendations? I'm leaning toward White Collar at the moment just because the other shows seem like really big time commitments lol, but we'll see. Actually the show I would really like to check out next is The Shield, it looks seriously amazing from what I've seen of it on the Breaking Bad DVD trailers, but of course that one isn't available on UK netflix grr

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I would ditto stopping after S1 of Heroes. I enjoy WC but it's mostly fluffy fun. It might be a good palate cleanser in between some other shows. I dropped out of Lost after a few seasons.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hmm I don't know whether to try Lost or not as it seems so geared around its mysteries as part of the complete show that it might be a bit pointless to just pick it up for a few seasons if it's all downhill after that, but supposedly season 1 of Heroes is quite self-contained so that could still be worth watching for just the one season I suppose