The Hunger Games: The Movie

I'm pretty sure, if you read and liked the book, you will enjoy this movie, but if you have not read or disliked the book, the movie probably won't be your thing.
The basic plot goes like this: In a dystopian future, two adolescents from 12 areas are chose via lottery to participate in a sort of battle to the death. The last one standing is declared the winner. The main character of the story, of course, ends up in the games. Plot wise there is nothing original about the Hunger Games. What makes the book so good to me, is the resolve of Katniss and her relationships with the other characters in the story. A lot of these parts of the story are developed in the mind of Katniss through her thoughts and memories (flashbacks). You may be wondering. What does this has to do with the movie? Well, while I enjoyed the movie and felt a lot of the same emotional connection between the characters, I believe it was from my reading of the book. I do not think the movie did a good job with this. Instead it seemed to be in a rush to get to the action and visually more appealing scenes. One thing the movie does offer, is a lot of interesting scenes the book could not, being a first person affair. To me this added to the stories overall milieu. I found the movie pretty well acted too. With Jennifer Lawrence doing a fine job as Katniss. The special affects looked good and realistic to me. Seeing "the girl on fire" scene at the opening ceremonies was a nice bit of visual candy for me My overall opinion of the movie. Good.

Haters Going to Hate

So I've been watching the news on the anti American rallies in the middle east. Before I go off on any rant, I want to say wow Libya, and thank you.  To me the people of Libya have done two things. First, they've encouraged me that some people really  that need the help and appreciate when it's given.    The second thing shown was a place where the Muslim extremists are a minuscule minority and most of the people want freedom. 

The people rose up and fought back against the extremists. It warmed my heart to see the hand made signs denouncing the violence. Unfortunately, with this encouraging light has came some sobering revelations. The first whoever is in charge of this stuff messed up big time . We were unprepared on 9/11. I'll let you read that again. We were unprepared on 9/11. The second thing is there are groups, even countries that hate us no matter what we do. America has tried several methods in dealing with extremists groups. It never matters, they hate us and want us dead. That's all I got to say on this

Monday's Moaning

Nothing much to complain about this week ever. One thing that has really annoyed me lately is the introduction of fact checkers into every political speech given.  Thanks for letting me know that politicians exaggerate, twist facts around, and sometimes out right lie.  Have a great week everyone.

CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION

Japan has been conquered by the British Empire. That is the premise of this alternate world, fantasy, mech, anime. They haven't just been conquered. Britain has stripped all their national identity and subjugating the people to second class citizenship. There are Japanese (or elevens as they are identified in the anime) who rebel and fight against the tyranny of the empire, but their guerrilla tactics have little effect. That is until a young man is given a mysterious power. When LeLouch is given the power to make people do anything he wants as long as he makes direct eye contact, it almost seems like destiny. Not only does he hate the British Empire, but he has both the brilliant strategic mind and the charisma needed to lead the rebellion against them.

That's the best spoiler free synopsis I can give of CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION. My initial thoughts of the first few episodes were "wow!" That wow stayed with me for the first season. The anime asks a lot of questions about what's right or wrong and how much do motives play a part in these answers. This leads to some brilliant storytelling and excellent character development, though I did find some of the minor characters kind of pointless. Then came the second season. I'm not sure if the creators behind this anime were told this would be their last season, but the second season seemed rushed leaving me scratching my head over many plot developments. That being said, I still recommend it pretty highly. The overall story overcomes the head scratching moments, and the art remains strong throughout despite the characters being draw painfully thin. I especially liked the colors.

My verdict for CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION is watch it if you like anime.

Monday's Moaning

I will normally use Monday to pick subjects to voice my displeasure over, but on holidays I think I'll keep it positive. Today is Labor Day, so I'm trying to follow my annual tradition of doing as little as possible. I wish all who read this a great day.

Im going to make this work

This post is to declare I will blog on a regular basis. Ill just have to make time. I'm going to review things I've read or seen over the past few months, but my rants and raves will start from this point. This is all for now.