Hunger Games and New Tattoos

I finally got to see the Hunger Games last week which was as good if not better than I was expecting. I would even go as far as to say I thought it was better than the book. Shall I explain why?

For me, the book came across as typical teen-fic/angst fare. Let me be clear, this is not a bad thing. But sometimes it feels a little bit like fanfic where two characters are kind of forced together. In the book, there is a huge emphasis placed on how Katniss feels about Peeta (and Gale). This is understandable after the author decided to go with the first person present perspective. What the film allows for is room for the themes and societal injustices to come through. For me, in the book, their relationship was cloying, it was too much and overshadowed everything else that Katniss should have been feeling going into the Games. Jennifer Lawrence, in the film, allows the other fears Katniss has to come to the fore; will Gale be able to look after Prim, what will happen when she enters the Games, etc etc. The particular scene that has stuck with me since seeing the film is when she sees Cinna for the last time before entering the arena. You could see her physically shaking and there was no other indication of her fear but that action struck me as being more powerful than anything she could have said.

The themes raised by the books are valid ones, of course they are. BUT, the teen angst present in the books swamps these themes, making them seem trivial in comparison to the romantic feelings that Katniss is struggling with. Using the medium of film, the audience can see the backdrop more prominently to the Games. The massive social inequality, the ridiculous lives of the people of the Capital and the true ruthlessness of the President.

I thought the acting in general was fantastic. Jennifer Lawrence was the epitome of Katniss. She was stronger if anything, she didn't seem to have the self-doubt that troubles Katniss through the book but I think that's probably because we don't get the inner monologue present in the book.

There was one bit that had me lol-ing though (and I wasn't the only one in the cinema); when Katniss decides to find Peeta, she finds him "camou-ed" up and hiding in the stream, which should be quite a touching reunion, except the make-up is hilarious. I audibly snorted in the cinema earning myself some rather unhappy looks from the nearest fangirls. No disrespect to my own kind of course. Further to this incident I refer you to this meme.

Leaving The Hunger Games on a light note...

I've been starting to think about getting another tattoo. I got my first one a few months ago and it's very small:

But I'm really happy with it. I got the symbol for infinity as a reminder to myself of infinite possibilities and that I can do anything I put my mind to. Also it's nice and geeky although I'm starting to get sick of all the people who ask me what the number 8 means to me...

Anyway, I've been thinking for a while about another tattoo on my other wrist. As I may have mentioned before, one of my favourite books is "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. After finishing the book, I couldn't get the image of Easter's tattoo out of my head. She has a tattoo bracelet of forget-me-nots on her wrist and I love this idea. Of course in the book it's ironic, because she's the god that is almost forgotten, overshadowed by the Jesus fest that goes on in Spring. I was looking into the roots of the word 'easter' and found out that it comes from the Germanic god of fertility and spring. She was worshipped as she brought new life and vitality in the springtime. i.e. eggs and baby cute things. It's really funny that it should have been smushed together with the religious symbolism. Easter really is the most mixed up holiday there is. Anyway, after looking into this a bit more, it really cemented my thoughts on getting this tattoo as I know it will remind me of this kind of symbolism (fertility, rebirth and life NOT the religious zombie stuff) as well as the wonderfulnous that is the Gaiman. So without further ado I give you the rough design I drew a couple of weeks ago:

I would prefer the blue to be more like this but I didn't have a pen that was the right colour. I'm not sure when I'll have the nerve to do it. Or the money for that matter, but I'm hoping it will be soon. It's going to be very visible which is my main issue, I need to get over the fact that my parents/grandparents/possible employers will be able to see it.

On top of this idea, I was watching Princess Mononoke today (go and see it NOW, it's wonderful and beautiful and great in general) and I got the idea that the little 'kodama' spirits would make a very cute tattoo too.

So that might happen too. This tattoo thing is horribly addictive.

That's it for now I think. I might try and post on a more regular basis but my travel planning is stepping up so I might not have the time. I hope people enjoy these rambles. I do.

The Gorn, Spiderman shower puffs and Doctor Who Monopoly.

I wanted to write a quick piece about a few things that have happened over the last couple of weeks. I feel like I should be writing more but I seem to barely be finding time to myself at the moment. But that's boring - on to more interesting things!

It was my birthday last week and my friends, as usual, came up trumps with the geeky stash. Over the past few years I have received David Tennant as Doctor Who posters, Star Trek (TOS) keyrings and many other exciting things. This year I got my very first Star Trek TNG comic.

As you can see it's a late TNG storyline. It's set before Nemesis as far as I could tell because Data was present. I don't read a lot of comics but the characterisation as far as I could tell was not brilliant. It was a bit typical of the later movies actually; a lot of focus on Data and Picard with the other characters reduced to parodies of themselves. Riker in particular. As I've said before, I don't like bashing things so we'll move swiftly onto the positives. The artwork in this issue was beautiful, as you would expect in the first issue of a series. There was a brilliant little 'case file' in the back of the comic that explained how the creator had gone about drawing the Gorn and building up the mythology of the race and the background. Clearly, a lot of thought had gone into it. This made me enjoy it all the more. Going into the Gorn aspect in more detail, my friends hadn't heard of the infamous Gorn fight scene in TOS. This is alluded to in the comic and I loved that. Here's the clip if you've not seen it:

This is just a taste but as you can see it has to be one of the worst fight scenes in sci-fi history. The scene has been alluded to numerous times by various other shows (including Star Trek:Enterprise, see the episodes "In a Mirror, Darkly"). Anyway, the creator of this comic creates a whole back story to the Gorn species which makes the whole thing seem not so silly. I'm very appreciative of that and I think it works.

Other geeky things that have occurred this week:

I got a new shower puff:

You like? I do feel a little bit weird using Spiderman to wash myself but oh well, it was like 50p or something!

I got a retweet! Yay! By the lovely Geek Syndicate. (I'll add there website to the list at the side when I've finished writing this.) I used my personal account so I won't go into too much detail but I was excited. Those guys are lovely.

I'm getting WAY too excited about the Hunger Games. I've promised my flatmate that I'll go with him to see it next Saturday but I might have to go for a sneak peek on Friday. SFX have been running daily interviews with cast and crew, you can find them here. I have tended to scoff Twilight fans (which is what many are comparing this to) but NO LONGER. I have officially turned into a fangirl when it comes to this film. Although it seems I've become obsessed with Jennifer Lawrence as opposed to a male lead. This was proven in a pub quiz a couple of weeks ago when she was the answer to a question and I was the only one who knew that. Out of all the people on all the teams. Not a fangirl wannabe for nothing you know.

I played a lovely game of Doctor Who Monopoly with friends the other night. We had extra points for DW references made throughout the game. Someone suggested adding an infinity mirror to the inside of the box to make it look (altogether now) bigger on the inside.

I finished Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds as well. The ending was breath-taking in its scope and themes. I was blown away and when I find the time, I promise to put up a short post/review about it. I'm trying to find the time to write a review for The Time Traveler's Wife as well but that's for other reasons.

Fun and geeky japes this week. Apologies for dodgy photography, it's really not my forte.

Til next time folks, keep squeeing!

(Don't worry that's not a catch-phrase and it definitely won't be used again. I promise.)

Twitter! Being Human! Revelation Space! Everything's more exciting with an exclamation mark!

So I've entered the Twitter-sphere (see left), this account will follow lots of cool sci-fi people (from Star Trek cast members to Simon Pegg). I have become a big Twitter addict over the last few months (on my personal account) and I think if it's used by the right people it's a great way of working out who's fun and keeps you up to date with things in a variety of genres/areas of life in general. I'll also be following a few people who I really respect from GW. They tend to be people who are great writers. As I've written about before, I dabble in the fanfic arena to some success (I'm definitely getting better) but there are others out there who consistently blow my mind with their story-telling abilities. People who dismiss fanfic writers as crazies are missing a trick. Some of the detail and imagery that people create in their stories is unbelievable. I have heard a couple of success stories of people being picked up by TV shows as writers, but these are VERY few and far between. So go out and read some fanfic, there is a lot of stuff out there that isn't so good (like mine) but there is also some gorgeous stuff. Writers tend to crave validation so leave a review if you liked something. Try http://www.fanfiction.net/ to begin with. It's definitely not perfect but there's a huge amount of material there and you will find something from your favourite show. So give it a go, you never know, you might like it.

On to TV. This week I've been watching Once Upon a Time, Being Human (the British version) and The Walking Dead. Last week's episode of Once was wonderful. Robert Carlyle FINALLY got to stretch his acting legs in an episode that took a twist on the story of Beauty and the Beast. This episode was produced (or directed) by Jane Espenson - of Buffy fame - and if you knew where to look there were clues all over the set and story. There were also lovely little jokes alluding to the Disney version of this story as well, like the chipped tea cup. Carlyle's performance was mesmorising and this episode reaffirmed my faith in the series. But, and it's a big but, this week's episode was awful! The fairies and Grumpy storyline was incredibly weak. And I don't like bashing things so we'll leave it at that. The real question this week was what has happened to Prince Charming's ex? And why is the Queen trying to incriminate him? Over the last few episodes I have been really enjoying the little glimpses of Jack's cabin (from SG1 and of particular importance to S/J shippers). First time I saw it there was a loud "squeeeeee" and then of course I had to rewind the scene over and over to 'check' that it actually was the cabin *sigh*

I have been enjoying Being Human quite a lot this season. I haven't taken the time to watch the American version yet. It does have Smallville and BSG-alumna Sam Witwer in but that doesn't necessarily make me want to like it any more. The British version is full of dark humour and some brilliant pieces of casting. Even with the monumental shift in characters for this season, I think the writing is speaking for itself and the fact that the new characters are so original means that it doesn't feel tired. Tom McNair (Michael Socha) is particularly good. The actor's sister (Lauren Socha) is in Misfits and it seems the acting ability is hereditary as the guy who plays Tom is fantastic. He has these great dead-pan moments that work very well with the writing. The story arc for this season has to do with the new baby and an older version of herself trying to kill her from the great beyond. Add to that the fact that the prophesied nemesis of the baby could already be in the house and you get a season that is leading towards a fantastic series of twists and turns before its end. I cannot wait.

I'm still catching up on The Walking Dead. I have stints of watching two or three episodes at a time as they are usually too angst-filled for me to last much longer. Even though I love the angst. Ohhhh yes. However, this does mean that after the particularly good episode yesterday that I couldn't read my Twitter feed this morning as it was too full of SPOILERS! Grrr. I hate it when people do that on Twitter/Facebook. Have some respect people! Rant over. Anyway, another thing I love about TWD - Bear McCreary's music. He is a genius.

Moving on. I've been reading the first in Alastair Reynold's Revelation series of books - "Revelation Space". It has been a great read and as I haven't got to the end yet that is all I will say for now. I'm planning on writing a review when I'm finished. This book is about 2000 pages long and I'm pretty sure the other 5/6 books in the series are about that length too so they will keep me going for a while. Good thing I have a Kindle. I wouldn't have room in my flat for all of them!

That's it for today's ramble. Follow me on Twitter for little nerdy gem.



 Do it... Do it... Do it!

Death Star Canteen and beyond

There a few things I want to mention in this post. First of all, I've come to the conclusion that everyone is a geek in their own way (sung to the tune of "Everyone's a hero in their own way" from Sing-Along Blog of course) and that I really REALLY want to go to a convention.

I feel my geekiness has taken a real step up over the last few weeks and I'm not quite sure why. I don't know whether it's a general acceptance of my true nature after I finished uni or what, but I'm much happier to accept that side of myself. Finding people on the internet who have similar interests to me has definitely helped but I've also been exploring a more creative and romantic side through fan fiction. This has come as a bit of a surprise as I've never really been particularly creative. I've always seen myself as more of a scientific and logical person. However, as I've been planning for my year away, it's become more apparent that I do appreciate love and kindness in people around me. I'm starting to get sick of self-obsessed and selfish people. Anyway, I digress.

The reason I say that everyone is a geek in their own way is due to a realisation that nearly everyone I know has something they are vaguely if not very obsessed with. It's interesting and has made me reassess how I judge people and if I should judge them at all. The answer being no of course. The problem is that most people will not readily admit what they're obsessed with and this means that they have issues when other people have these obsessions. It has been observed the world over that nerds are lovely. There's a reason that sci-fi actors are (mostly) happy to meet fans time and again in a multitude of rather unglamourous places. Amanda Tapping has always said (I'm paraphrasing) that the fans make her job amazing as they are so nice and friendly.

And this brings me onto my next point. I REALLY and I mean REALLY want to go to a convention. I was keeping up the SFX Weekender over Twitter and their website last weekend and looked like so much fun. One of my favourite tweets was about a guy dressed in a Darth Vader costume standing up in the canteen and proclaiming that his tray was wet. Apparently the whole canteen cheered and applauded. If you haven't seen the Eddie Izzard Darth Vader bit (especially done in Lego) you can find it here. Still makes me laugh and I've seen it dozens of times.

Anyway, back to why I want to go to a convention. The chance to be around people who get all the geeky references in things (like Paul, where I was laughing all the way through the film and none of my friends got it :( sad times) and have a similar outlook to you would be brilliant. Maybe I'll get the chance when I'm travelling round Canada and America. With any luck.

Bit of ramble this time I'm afraid. Seen some exciting things sci-fi-wise this week, will hopefully find the time to write about them soon. Like the new Being Human. Wow.

PS, did I mention my crazy plan to try and get some work as an extra when I'm in Vancouver? Yeah, crazy.

Films to come in 2012.

So here's a post about some of the films I'm excited about for 2012 and some other little bits of gossip etc that are rather interesting!

To begin with there is of course The Dark Knight Rises. This is the culmination of Christopher Nolan's epic 3 part series on Gotham's own protector.

Trailer

Christopher Nolan has really come to the forefront of cinema over the last few years, with the Batman trilogy and Inception. Nolan seems to have used half of the cast from Inception again in this film. I personally, have loved all of his recent films. The Prestige is a few years old now, but follows Nolan's typical epic style in terms of settings and would be my recommendation if you're looking for more of his films. Tom Hardy reappears in this film as Bane and it's great to see him back as a baddie after his early (very young) appearance as the Remen leader in Star Trek Nemesis (not the best film I know but Hardy was a pretty convincing evil sociopath).

The next film that has me squeeing quite a lot is The Hunger Games. I read the books in about two weeks after I saw a trailer.

Trailer

There have been a lot of murmurings about these stories being a rip off of a Japanese book called Battle Royale, but I haven't had a chance to read that or see the film version of it yet so I won't pass judgement. The books of the Hunger Games are well worth a read if you have a few days to spare. The action is gripping and the relationships between the characters believable. My cousin and I had an interesting discussion over who we prefer out of Gale and Peeta but I think by the end of the third book it's an easy decision. Katniss is not an easy heroine to follow but as she grows as a character you come to realise why she does the things she does. Anyway, back to the film and from the trailer it looks like they've stuck fairly closely to the plot in the books. I'm hoping that this film is better than the abysmal I am Number Four. These books are more cherished and it seems as if they have taken more time to insure the actors are right for the roles. I loved Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men First Class and she comes from a well established background in film (I've read that her performance in Winter's Bone is fantastic) as does Josh Hutcherson and various other cast members. There will be huge debates over how well the characters compare between the film and the books and not everyone is going to be happy, I can also see the inevitable production of Peeta and Gale camps. With this set to be bigger than the final Twilight film this year, I just hope that it is everything people (and I include myself in that) are hoping for.

Thirdly, there is The Avengers of course! Having already explained in previous posts how much of a Joss Whedon fan I am, this is going to be a big deal for me (and a lot of other people too). This is not Whedon's only project this year (more on that later) but it is most definitely the most highly anticipated. I'm really not a comics person but I have enjoyed most of the Marvel and DC comics films of late. However, I was disappointed to discover the other day that the main focus of the film will be the Captain America character. Considering that the film brought out last year for this character is possibly the weakest out of those concerning the Avengers characters, this has led many to assume that this is due to some serious ego stroking on the director's part. Whedon himself has said that the reason for this is that Captain America is the one who has woken up in this new time and therefore it makes sense to shoot the film from his point of view. BUT, everyone knows which character has been best received and it has to be Iron Man with the wonderful Robert Downey Jr. There are so many other great characters in this: Samuel L. doing what he does best, Scarlett looking hot as and I could go on but I guess we'll all just have to wait and see what Mr. Whedon comes up with. I, for one, will be withholding judgement just because it's him and did I mention that I LOVE HIM! Here's the trailer anyway:

Trailer


Other little bits and pieces I would like to mention include the fact that filming has started on Star Trek XII, I'm sorry I refuse to call it Star Trek 2, because it really isn't. Someone asked me the other day if I was a trekkie or a trekker and I said can't you be both? I digress, the supremely talented Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as the villain which makes me more excited if that's at all possible.

What else... Katee Sackhoff has been cast in the next Riddick Chronicles film which again is very exciting. She announced it a few weeks ago on Twitter and I saw it on SFX the other day. I wasn't sure about Pitch Black but The Chronicles of Riddick was very good at being what it set out to be, nothing more nothing less. And I will very excited to see Katee kicking some ass again as she's kind of awesome.

On a slightly more artistic note, Joss Whedon has directed (and produced) I believe a film version of Much Ado About Nothing with some of everyone's favourite sci-fi actors (mostly from Firefly). I was lucky enough to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado last year in London and would be very intrigued to see how Whedon deals with the plot. See http://muchadothemovie.com for (not many) details.

I think that's about it for now. I will probably think of more things to say shortly. I always do.

What's been going on.

Thought I'd do a post about things I've liked lately and things I've discovered.

Firstly, I've started posting on Gateworld, and what fun I've had! I couldn't believe how nice everyone is over there. It's great to get to chat to people from all over the world who have the same interests and same sense of humour, in some cases, as yourself.

There's been a lot of great TV, particularly in the UK, on at the moment and I'd like to say a bit about that. The Misfits finale was unbelievably moving, Simon and Alisha's storyline has been one of my favourites on TV since they got together in series 2. And now with them locked in the never-ending time loop thingy it was beyond tragic!

Merlin also finished a couple of weeks ago. Now, this is one of my guilty pleasures as it is so ridiculous and over the top BUT completely addictive. The finale again was very good, with plenty of battle scenes and I really enjoyed the play on the Excalibur myth (or was it a play?).

What else... I'm really into Once Upon a Time, I like to play the game of spot the extra. There seems to be a group of actors who have appeared in nearly all the Canadian sci-fi/fantasy shows and OUAT is no different. Watching one of the new episodes I spotted Kelly from BSG (but he's been in plenty of other things too).

Big news for me this week was the end of Sanctuary season 4. After a great build up this season in the tense feelings between various characters (the episode in the caves was just a fantastic piece of writing of the relationship between Magnus and Will), the finale felt like a definite piece of wrapping up by the writers. The Sanctuary has been destroyed and Will and Magnus have come to what feels like a more equal point in their relationship. There are definitely questions still to be answered (such as what happened to Biggie) but with the fate of season 5 looking more and more gloomy, I think the final vision of the beautiful new sanctuary could be our last glimpse at this wonderfully original series. I'm really saddened by this, because, aside from the fact that I'm a huge AT fan, the series has been a breath of fresh air and it would be a great shame to lose another sci-fi series.

Think I will put up a post soon about some of the films I'm looking forward to in 2012 (oh I can't begin to explain how excited I am for this year!), I'm off to catch up on some more telly.

What would Starbuck do.

I've found myself in the sad position of writing a blog on a Saturday night. I've been working all day and do not have the energy to go out. Or so I keep telling myself. I think the truth is that I want to stay in and watch my newly acquired boxset of Firefly (£9 in Cash Converters by the way, WIN).

The reason I'm working so hard (most of the time) is so I can save up to travel next year. I'm looking to go around the world which means raising a minimum of 6 grand if I plan on getting where I want to go. I'm so uber excited it is unbelievable. I feel like I've been waiting to do this since I was 16. I love exploring places and reading about them or looking at pictures is just not the same. I think that it's a sentiment held by many a sci-fi fan. We want to escape humdrum life and see something greater. There has to be more than just day to day life because what would the point be otherwise? And while I would ideally want to go into space I don't think my budget quite stretches that far. So I will go out and explore our own world.

And so I finally come to the reason for the title of this post. I like to think of myself as an explorer but I think really I love the things that I know too. So when I'm not feeling particularly brave, or there's something I have to do that I know I won't like or is a bit scary, I think to myself 'What would Starbuck do?' This can also be replaced with Janeway or Carter. Because these are the awesome female role models that I grew up with. Well Starbuck and Carter came later but they still hold a lot of influence. Janeway in particular inspired me from a very young age and my parents will even admit (actually they'd readily tell people about it to embarrass me when I was younger) that Kate Mulgrew's character was the one role model that I came back to time and again as I got older.

Sci-fi is full of strong female characters that girls could learn a lot from. They cut it alongside the men and are something to aspire towards. Not the big-boobed, fame-obsessed, shallow girls that seem to be occupying most people's minds at the moment. This is one of my big problems with TV at the moment. Great shows with real characters that are intelligent and could truly inspire young people are being cut for shows about people with boring lives that offer nothing in the way of inspiration to young people. If we spend so much time watching TV in our lives then at least a portion of it should be responsible.

I heard a very scary statistic a little while ago; 1 in 3 teenage girls in the UK now aspire to be topless models. I kid you not. 1 in 3. So you see why we need more Janeways, Carters and Starbucks on our screens. Female role models who use their intellects to get ahead. Who aren't afraid to do things and promote science to a generation of young girls. But this is coming from the girl who spent most of her high school life hiding the fact that she was a MASSIVE Trekkie...

That turned into a bit of a rant, but frak it: next time you're scared to confront someone or do something, just think "What would Starbuck/Carter/Janeway do?" Or whoever you're role model is. Because science fiction is full of them and they're not perfect but they're a hell of a lot better than the real life ones we're faced with now.

Now, where did I put that box set....