Preparing for the Apocalypse

So ahead of X Men Apocalypse coming soon i have finally watched First Class and Days of Future Past.

First Class to start with! I really enjoyed it. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are a great fit for the younger McKellen and Stewart!

Erik is such a confusing character. I find it quite difficult to see him as a proper baddie because he’s not really. He’s just not the best ideas of how to deal with things, but does want to protect mutants. I had the same problem with Ian McKellen’s version. I can’t help but like him a bit. Also seeing his back story in this film just reinforced that further. I mean I’m not into murder being a good thing but the way he got back at Shaw in the end – cheering at my TV! Bloody brilliant.

Interesting to see Mystique (sp?) being Charles’ good friend knowing it flips to her siding with Erik in the later set versions. Seems through Days of Future Past she’s still a bit between the two of them. Let’s see how Apocalypse goes.

I wish i remembered more about the cold war and cuban missile crisis from my GCSE history days as i felt a bit muddled up at times but it made for an interesting setting and i like how it shows mutants being part of everyday life and history we know.

One of my favourite moments was meeting Hank. Realising he wasn’t scary furry blue man yet so when he was suggesting an experimental drug i though…well Hank…think we all know how this is going to go buddy.

Also A+ cameo from a never aging Hugh Jackman…but i suppose that ability of his is explained.

Speaking of! Days of Future Past.

Well this was a fun one! Fantastic way to bring both generations of Erik and Charles together! All very dramatic. That speedy kid who sits around playing games is that the same fella from Avengers: Age of Ultron? Friends with Scarlet Witch? Quicksilver is it? He’s been doubled up a bit there.

I spent most of this film thinking “ERIK..WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!” We just never know what is going on inside his head. You think he wants one thing then he changes his mind. Yes, we need to get rid of Raven so she doesn’t kill that guy that leads to the destruction of all mutants. General plan seems to be…don’t let people see mutants as dangerous. No..Erik has a better idea…make them see mutants as so dangerous that they’re a massive threat. HOW IS THAT HELPING ERIK?! The only side he’s on is his own.

Final thing, cleverly done X-Men folk. Zooming back into the past and treading on a few butterflies..what a way to pretty much wipe out the original X-Men trilogy. Or at least any fatalities. Excited to see where it all goes.

Our lives were never ours…

I never got to mention Mockingjay Part 2! End of November was a bit hectic and i know this might be old news now but I’m going to do a short one anyway.

Overall i really enjoyed it! The Hunger Games for me became one of those things where i heard all about the books and the story but never read them myself. Thanks to my friends and my dad and the internet, i knew quite a lot of the story but with these it didn’t both me, i enjoyed them just as much.

Blimey, the other films have had their moments but this one was TENSE! That whole scene fighting the crazy creatures underground? Holy moly. I’m sure Katniss should have been killed a few times in there considering what happened to her.

Some really high emotion for sure.

It was cool how with Peeta and President Coin (is it spelt that way?) and things there was a lot of distrust of the characters to be who you expected. But that final shot from Katniss? Knew it!

Shoutout to Donald Sutherland by the way! He’s quite underrated in these films i think. He’s so good at being calm yet completely evil. His last scene where he was manically laughing, jeez that was disturbing!

Also i think it should be a rule that if you want me to be concentrating on someone in a scene, don’t put a cat in it. I will be spending ALL of my energy concentrating on whether the cat is okay and gets a happy ending.

Seriously. Have you seen Life of Pi? Watched that recently…didn’t care about anything other than the tiger being okay for most of the time.

The epilogue was interesting. I’m told that wasn’t in the book. I always find jumping a few years and seeing the kids with kids a little odd, but i suppose it was nice to show the change in the world in general and how Katniss clearly felt she could now have children without the worry of the games.

I think the films were all done very well! Brilliant cast and i may not know how well it was translated from the book but it all made sense to me.

Fire is catching!

So i saw Mockingjay Part 1!

I probably explained this when i wrote about Catching Fire and/or The Hunger Games but i’ve not read the books but am very much enjoying the films! My dad is a big fan of the books though and seems more excited about the films than i am so it’s always fun to hear about what he things of any changes made at all.

I got completely sucked into this film! There was a moment where i suddenly realised i was in a cinema watching it i’d gotten so drawn in! Really thrilling and brilliant film! REALLY tense at points too!

I think Jennifer Lawrence is brilliant! I must admit when i saw the first Hunger Games not knowing anything about her or the character from the books i was a bit judgmental in thinking she was a bit blank-faced with not lots of emotion showing at times, (not to say i didn’t enjoy that performance i suppose my hearing about the character i had imagined something different but again i was ignorant). But the more i get to see Jennifer Lawrence as herself and the further the films go, the more i appreciate the amount of wonderful acting she’s doing and how much it works in the character!

Also i’m such a cat person i find myself a bit too worried about the cat at certain points to the point where i can’t focus on other things, loving the Breakfast at Tiffany’s drenched cat thing going on though. Buttercup is a terrible name for a cat come on Prim.

I was discussing with my dad after that there isn’t much space in these films for light relief and humour…and i suppose rightly so. We get hints of humour from Effie and Haymitch but i suppose that’s what we’ve always got.

My dad adores Donald Sutherland as President Snow. He said when he was reading the books he even had him in his head as the perfect visualisation for the character!

Among the roller-coaster of emotions brought on by the film itself there was of course the tragedy that Philip Seymour Hoffman is no longer with us. He will be extremely missed in part 2 he is a brilliant actor and plays a fantastic part in these films. Subtle, but smart and genuine.

Just like the previous films this one ended on an emotional note leaving us wanting more. I’ll be excited to see the final part!

Tell you what, that Hanging Tree song is super catchy too!

Since the last games, something is different. I can see it.

Hello! Sorry if this isn’t a very long post, i am so buried under uni work it’s insane right now. But i’m having a bit of a moment off to tell you about Catching Fire!! (2nd in the Hunger Games series).

Now, i’ll get the confessions out the way. I’ve not read the books, and i didn’t see the first film until it was out on DVD. Nevertheless, i had heard a LOT about the first book mostly from friends or the internet or my dad (who is such a hunger games fanboy he was more excited to see this film than me..he’s read them all too!) and i really enjoyed the first film! 🙂

But anyway yes!! I really liked it =)! I adore Jennifer Lawrence and she (as well as everyone else) is very good in these films! I’d heard SO much about Finneck before watching this film and until i saw it i had no idea whether he was being mentioned so much for good reasons or bad reasons, but yes i found out! I was a bit in love with him i think….

Donald Sutherland is a super good fit for his role! He’s quite good at being sort of…subtly evil. Every time i see that control room where they’re watching the tributes i can’t help but just think of a big dangerous game of the Sims, though of course i would never be that evil to real people…sims i would..it brings out my scary side.

Anywho, i have a super awful memory so i’m sure i’ll remember something i’ve forgotten to say, but yes i really enjoyed it! It was a good film it got in a lot of plot details (i heard about the differences between the film and book from my dad afterwards which was cool to get things in wider context) and it didn’t move too slowly which it had potential to do when it’s sort of the build up to the games, but i found the build up was just as important as the games themselves so it moved along very nicely. Plus it wasn’t the opposite and they spent the entire film running around in the games, it was a very good balance.

Brilliant ending! Got me very excited. Can’t wait for the next film!

What can you see?

Hope.