The Hunger Games Blu Ray

We had planned to go see The Hunger Games at the theatre but no one was available to watch the kids so we skipped it and waited for the DVD release.  We did not get all crazy and go pick it up at midnight  last night or anything like that.  The dog needed out this morning so I went and picked it up with the few groceries we needed for the coming week.  The kids were still asleep so it was the perfect time to watch the movie.

 Both of us have read all three of the Hunger Games books.  It started with Stacey and then she got me to read them.  In contrast to the Twilight series, I probably would have read the Hunger Games without any recommendations; it would have just been a matter of "when".  Regardless, I am glad that I read the books because I did enjoy them quite a bit and will read them again sometime. 

I was a little concerned about the film adaptation because I recalled the film adaptations of other books such as Eragon.  I enjoyed not only the book Eragon but the entire Inheritance series.  The film adaptation of Eragon had a really good cast but it was a definite dud as far as adaptations go.  The film was quite a bit different from the book and had some glaring omissions.  I would have liked to have seen a series of films but I am sure that there will be no further movies. 

How was the film adaptation of the Hunger Games?  I thought it was excellent.  There are some differences from the book but nothing near as drastic as Eragon.  The world of PanEm is represented in very good detail and does not look like a set or some corny stage props.  The cast was terrific and very appropriate for the descriptions in the novels.  The only question I had was about the appearance of Haymitch because I thought he was supposed to be older.  Stacey pointed out that he is probably the right age but is supposed to look older due to all of his drinking.  The movie has a nice pace and I never felt bored while watching.  Finally, the violence is there but it is done in a non-grotesque manner and does not glorify it either. 

In a nutshell - THUMBS UP!     

 

   

A General Update and Assorted Ramblings...

Between life in general, an increased work schedule at my job, two kids, and the significant other about to start on her summer semester of college it has been busy around here.  I slacked off on the easiest place to slack off - my blog - but things seemed to have slowed down somewhat and returned to "normal" so I should be posting somewhat regularly now.  My general thoughts about moving forward with this blog are presented below.

I started this blog for topics of various role-playing game interests and have stuck to that for the most part.  I have dipped into other areas such as movies, comic books, music, and professional wrestling just to name a short list.  I thought about tightening the focus of this blog to nothing but role-playing related posts and banishing the "off-topic" posts to another blog somewhere.  I really do not want to maintain two blogs and Eric over at Memories of the Mayfly pointed out that these "off topic" posts give a better picture of the blog author and their interests.  Put simply, from this point on this blog will be focused on gaming BUT I will also post about my other interests including sports, movies, professional wrestling, and just about anything else.  I will probably not post anything resembling politics or religion just because they can be so divisive and I would rather have a fun dialogue here without real world conflicts that so often turn into something resembling blind allegiance.

Some of the gaming posts to look forward to include the continuation of my read through of both Adventures in Fantasy and Perilous Journeys, a continuation of posting information from my old gaming notebooks, and information on my home campaign world of Toldara.  AiF is cool just from a historical perspective and Arneson's involvement while PJ is basically Lejendary Adventures done right.  That is why I want to finish my posts about them.  My old gaming notebooks were full of ideas and I want to get them uploaded and updated so I can expand on them in the future.  I have already posted some of this information and will continue to update them in the future to offer them for download once they are completed. 

 My attempts to get some of the old gaming group together to game again has not been completely in vain.  Jamie, my friend of over 30 years, is definitely going to participate.  He is planning on getting his girlfriend to try it out and I am planning the same thing.  That should be interesting.  I hope both of them like it so that will be four dedicated players.  I met another old school player, Ed, through Jamie.  That brings our total up to 5 participants.  That is a good sized group and will give us some variation among styles and characters.  As Jamie and I are the only players from the old group this group will not be a reunion game but it will definitely work.  All that is left is to come up with a game system to use.  So far, the systems proposed are B/X D&D, Castles & Crusades, or RIFTS.  It really does not matter to me what we play, just that we play.

I am now half way through the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy.  The first book was a very quick and easy read.  I am enjoying the books so far.  Katniss is a strong female lead character and not a damsel in distress that constantly needs rescuing.  It is a very refreshing perspective and take on the action and adventure genre.  I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.    I still have not seen the movie but I am sure that we will see it on DVD soon enough.

I just started watching the Game of Thrones season 1 DVD set.  I actually already watched the first two episodes because we had a free HBO preview for a week or two and was able to see catch them when they originally aired.  I was pretty disappointed that I would be unable to watch the other episodes as they aired but I knew that I was going to get the DVD as soon as I could.  As I am a book person, I wonder if I am missing a lot by not having read the books yet.  Anybody got any opinions?

I have lost 13 pounds in the last month - all thanks to eating better.  I have done nothing fancy like joining the gym, signing up for Weight Watchers, or anything like that.  I am not currently in horrible shape but I just would like to "drop a few pounds" to feel better about me.  It's all been done with portion control and better decisions.  I am happy that my available wardrobe is expanding to include pants that would not fit comfortably a month ago.  :-)

That should just about cover everything.  I could probably go on and ramble for a while but I know when to turn the faucet off.

   

        

   

...Then Again, Maybe Not?

Well, here it is Friday and I have no idea if we are going to see The Hunger Games in the nearby theatre.  I assumed it would be a done deal after my wife blazed through the books in a week.  She likes to read and does read quite a bit but it is often sporadic.  When something holds her interest and I find her nose buried in a book I try to find all of the books in that series and get them.  Besides, it gives me another reason to visit the bookstore and I could always go for that.

The trailer for the first movie in The Hunger Games trilogy has been showing recently.  I posed the trailer in my last post.  The trailer looks pretty decent to me and has piqued my interest.  I still have a little under 200 pages left to read but I would see it whether or not I am finished reading the book.  She watched the trailer and said it looked pretty good but after a few days she said something that was totally unexpected - "I don't know if I want to see the movie because they'll just ruin the book".  I admit that I was a little surprised by this revelation.  My surprise came from my misconception that people that are not fans of role playing games, science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and other assorted geekery did not generally worry about such things.  Lesson learned :-).

I know the book vs. movie debate - maybe better called original vs. adaptation - has been discussed before by many other people.  I am not trying to start up that debate again.  FYI, I do generally prefer the book or original when it comes to film adaptations.  Even though I usually prefer the book or original source I can enjoy other adaptations and see the merit (if any) in some of them.  I started this post just to comment on our indecision on seeing The Hunger Games today but I started thinking about the whole original source vs. adaptation debate.  To sum it up, some assorted thoughts on the subject are included below...

Chronicles of Narnia: I read these as a child and have recently bought new copies.  I own the audio adaptations by the BBC (iirc?) and those are amazing to listen to with the different voices and sound effects.  I thought the film adaptation of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was done really well.  I believed that Narnia was going to get the proper treatment it deserves.  The second movie was not bad but it seems to be missing the charm of the books.  I have yet to see the third movie. 

Resident Evil: It seems to be in a special spot of admiration with me.  I have played most of the games and enjoyed them.  I have read all of the novelizations and enjoyed them.  I own the first 4 movies on DVD and will in all probability buy the fifth one.  I have heard some the desire the movie to be a walk through of one of the games.  I think that is a bad decision.  I can separate the games, books, and films into separate story lines and enjoy them all so I do.

Spider Man: My uncle had issues with the Spider Man movies right from the start.  The organic web shooters bothered him because he remembered Spider Man changing the formula of his webs to win in certain circumstances.  I enjoyed the first two movies and thought the third stunk.  I viewed Peter Parker as the "everyman superhero" so the organic web shooters made sense to me.

Stephen King's MISERY: The book was fabulous and did an amazing job of describing the feelings and emotions of Paul Sheldon during his captivity.  The movie was really good also but one area I felt where it exceeded the book was in the ending.  When the server looks at him and says, "I'm your number one fan" you can almost feel the anxiety from the character on the screen.

WATCHMEN: People seem to either love or hate this one.  I did and still do enjoy it tremendously.  Regardless of what is said otherwise, I believe the ending in the movie is better.  I am ready for the flames on this one...lol.

Maybe I will follow up on this later...