Alex Reviews...

The Hunger Games

Surprisingly; I had no knowledge about The Hunger Games up until the hype that surrounded it's release in cinemas this Spring. It was the same with Twilight - maybe I was a few years too old to be the target audience when the books originally came out, or perhaps I was never the target audience, or perhaps I was just plain ignorant, but I didn't really know anything about this series until around a month or two ago. So, I had to read the book first - lest I be one of those people who spouts about how amazing a film is and what a fan I am despite only being privy to it for about 3 and a half minutes. I bought it on a Saturday morning and had finished it on that Saturday evening - it wasn't a particularly long or taxing book, but it was addictive. There were a few points which I found myself confused with, but generally it was a good read - not an amazing read, but a good one nonetheless. I think part of the reason I wasn't overly awed by it was due to it's similarity to one of my teenage loves; Battle Royale. Now, I saw the film adaptation of Battle Royale first in all it's Japanese-gore glory, and then I happened upon the very well done, very graphic manga version, until finally reading the book a few years later. And yes, sure, Battle Royale makes The Hunger Games seem terribly tame in comparison, and I particularly liked the manga version in it's ability to make you truly connect with the characters that you knew were destined for a gruesome demise. But this doesn't mean The Hunger Games is bad in comparison, not by a long shot, because what I've read and seen so far has a lot to offer as well.

Now, again, I haven't read Catching Fire or Mockingjay yet, but like I said I wasn't blown out of the water by the book, but the film seemed to have been getting a fair amount of positive press. And by fair I mean a shit-load of positive press. So I went along with my little sister who also hadn't read the book until a few days beforehand, not entirely sure what to expect but fairly certain I wouldn't feel disappointed. Of course, like most adaptations of novels, the film is cursed by the fact that it has to keep you attention while telling a story in a limited amount of time, so certain scenes were shortened or changed, some characters were omitted entirely, so I'm sure die-hard fans have something to complain about, but not having an extreme emotional connection to the book, I have to say I quite liked the film. I thought Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class, Winter's Bone) did a good job as a stern, bad-ass heroine, and the rest of the casting was pretty decent; Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Stanley Tucci added their talent alongside a very sinister Donald Sutherland, and the 'kids' chosen to play the tributes forced to kill each other did a fine job too, with honourable mention to the little sweetheart who played Rue (Amandla Stenberg). The action was pretty tense at times and did a good job of reminding us that this wasn't an action film where you were meant to enjoy the fight scenes, rather fear them, and for those who hadn't read the book each altercation must have had them on the edge of their seats. The settings were particularly impressive, not in the actual arena for the games themselves, but in the scenes leading up to it; a sort of futuristic but still approachable vibe with energetic costumes and smooth architectures. 

In terms of criticisms, at some points I think that if I hadn't forced myself to read the book first, a lot of the fine details would have been lost on me. Perhaps that's a good thing - people should do the work and read first, but some of the details of the premise of the film weren't stressed upon enough, nor the relationship between the two leads. My sister thought that it was a bad idea to have the audience in on the knowledge of what was happening outside of the games, as in the book it is told very much through Katniss' (Lawrence) perspective and you are more in tune with her feelings and thoughts, but I think that it would have been too much to ask of an audience to have them put the pieces together without some form of narration, and that would have taken from the action of the film. Not only that, it would have severely limited the screen time of some of the co-stars, who are sure to help make this series into a success. There are two other pieces of criticism that I don't hold but have heard of - the casting of Rue, Thresh and Cinna as black characters and the how Jennifer Lawrence is apparently too 'chubby' to play Katniss.

Black actors playing black characters: I found this depressingly hilarious that the tweets circulating by what I hope to have been a minority of 'fans' of The Hunger Games expressed an outrage that some of their favourite characters from the book had been 'changed' to be portrayed as black instead of, well, I guess white. No. It wasn't changed. The characters were described as black in the book, and so they're black in the film. In fact, Katniss was described as olive-skinned which is a much more ambiguous reference to what ethnicity could play her. What pisses me off more is - even if the characters weren't described as black, does portraying them with a black actor really destroy the film? I don't think so. Morgan Freeman didn't screw up Shawshank Redemption. Idris Elba didn't screw up Thor - the backlash for that was equally ridiculous - and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury in pretty much all the Marvel films leading up to The Avengers, well, he kicked ass enough for them to change the way he was presented in the comics. In short, people are stupid.

Chubby Katniss: I understand why people are displeased with Jennifer Lawrence being cast as Katniss, but I don't agree with it. Yes, in the books, Katniss is presented as coming from an impoverished family in the beginning, and is also bound to have lost a fair bit of weight during the Hunger Games itself. But come on, really? This isn't an Oscar winning adaptation of a classic - it would be ridiculous to expect an actor to shed that amount of weight for this sort of film, while still being fit enough to take on what must have been a pretty physical role. Could they have picked a skinnier actress? Sure, maybe, but I don't think the fact the Jennifer Lawrence actually looks like an attractive and normal sized woman takes away from her acting. And, it might not be a popular truth, but producers do want a certain amount of sexiness in their lead roles - and Lawrence is hot. Bella Swan in the Twilight series was meant to be plain and average as an offset to Edward Cullen being carved out of diamonds or whatever, but despite Kristen Stewarts limited acting palette, she is still gorgeous. Like Haymitch says in the film - it helps to be desirable, and in order for The Hunger Games to be the blockbuster that it will be, you need a bit of hotness to catch your eye, which is also why you have Liam Hemsworth - only the little bro of Thor! - and Lenny Kravitz on the roster as well.

All in all, should you see The Hunger Games? Definitely. Should you read the book first? Maybe. Will you be socially estranged if you don't see it? Most probably.

The Girl on Fire

In other news...

Get the gay out of our games!

Both this clip and the one at the bottom may have spoilers, just in case

For those of you who don't know, Mass Effect 3 came out last month - I decided to not post a review of it 1) Because I'm lazy and 2) Because it would probably focus on the big thing at the moment - the ending, and I would hate to ruin it for anyone even if many people are upset by it. But, it seems the ending isn't the only thing that has people up in arms, some gamers (apparently) are mortified by the inclusion of same-sex romance options in Mass Effect, and have hit out at Electronic Arts for releasing such filth for our children to ingest.

Except, no, actually the game isn't for children, it has a 15 rating in the UK and a mature rating pretty much everywhere else. So no, this isn't some weird attempt to thrust homosexuality into the psyche of children everywhere. Also, as I have said before, you don't have to indulge in a homosexual romantic relationship, nor any relationship for that matter, the option is merely there if you want your character to go along that path. The thing is, this is a game that is set in the future, so actually I would find it weird if there wasn't some sort of reference to homosexual relationships - they do exist and, thank goodness, in the minds of most sane people they're becoming more and more accepted. It's just so aggravating that people aren't sated with their right to speak out about policies that restrict the rights of the LGBT community to a fair marriage and life, they have to try and encroach on any sort of art form that they don't agree with. Also, the scenes (as shown above) are in no way graphic or obscene, and there is nothing within the games that pressurises you into having a relationship with any man, woman, alien or whatever, so once again you have to believe that this is just a group of people who have heard about the game and one particular aspect of it, and have run with it and decided that it must be the culmination of all the homophobic nightmares they've ever had in computer-generated form. Idiots.

So it seems the thousands of letters carry a threat of boycotting EA games unless they cease their distribution of such games. You know what, I think EA can survive without bigots playing their games, and I think the true fans of Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (not EA, I know), Dragon Age, and all other games that allow even the suggestion that homosexuality is an acceptable and normal part of life, all fans will be happy to know that idiots like these aren't playing the games; I wouldn't want to be associated with these fools in any way, so they can go play in motorways instead.

Beware, both of these clips will probably have spoilers, though not drastic ones

Mr. K's View: IAN McEWAN SOLAR

Hi people its mr K here, i've been thinkin of what id be able to post on my mans alex the boss mans wonderful creation here. He's the wordsmith, im the artsy part of the Bteam. so lets give it a shot today im gonna talk about a book that i feel raped my mind and eyeballs with its boredom, while pissin in my koolade and trying to persuade me its just a lil added applejuice for some extra kick. IAN McEWANs SOLAR

Now after reading this book I was to put it kindly pissed, what the fuck are the chances the after reading the the devils scrotum which is Gun slinger, id move on to an equally diuretic book. First of all this book is not funny in the slightest whoever at the Sunday times who got quoted saying it was must of been smoking crack or held at gunpoint. It is BORING AND BLAAAAAAND, at times I felt like it was torture reading it but I felt like a runner in the marathon who has gone too far to say FUCK THIS. The Story is about Michael Beard a Nobel prize winning physicist I just felt a slight urge to vomit thinking of righting fully about what this things about or maybe it was the fried chicken omelette dinner at 1 in the morning. who knows just to be safe I am not getting into details on this book don't wanna spoil the hours of "fun ;)". This book was weird for me because it was mainly comprised of the author talking bout the main characters thoughts and actions, not much dialogue going in this. To be fair it had highs and lows overall but the highs were the three times when you got to that OHHH SHIT moment when you think here we go its on, to only find out nothing fucking kicks off! its like the author is purposefully teasing you with the possibility of something really interesting actually might happen. I couldn't attach to any characters at all in this book and SPOILER ALERT! didn't give to fucks that he had a heart attack on the last page. The main character was so fucked up in his mind I got no idea why the author thought he'd only get slapped once. there was so many fucking opportunities with his wives, the love rivals and the centre to have a decent book. It's like someone found a cool interesting book and decided to take it and try and rewrite it to avoid most of the interesting shit but hint that once upon a time it was written different.But what do i know, this is just my view , who am I. I enjoyed getting this off my chest ill be posting more of my thoughts soon on here. MR. K www.keiranmorris.blogspot.com

In other news...

Kony 2012: Invisible Children Campaign

The video tells the story better than I could, so I do recommend you watch it. It is a long video at 30minutes, but it's for a cause that is far more important than an episode of How I Met Your Mother or Two and a Half Men, so if you can bring yourself to watch those awful programmes, I'm sure you can spare a moment for this campaign to raise awareness and hopefully make a real difference that will save and alter lives. All the information you need is in this video, so watch it.

P.S. I can't really comment on HIMYM because I've barely watched it, and Jason Segel & Neil Patrick Harris are hilarious in their own right, however Two and a Half Men is awful, always has been, and always will be. Shame on you for watching it.

Incoming...

Avengers

Apparently to be called Avengers Assemble now, but like...no

I think Hulk looks pretty sweet despite the recast as the lovely Mark Ruffalo, but I can't help thinking of this films as WOAH Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and two people who would just die...

But those two people are Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner so I'll let it slide

Hawkeye does his best hawk-eyeing

Incoming...

Mass Effect 3: Take Earth Back Trailer

Alex Reviews...

Mass Effect 3: Demo

So for many, Valentine's Day was a chance for romantic dinners, snuggling on the sofa, crying yourself to sleep  finding your independence, but for the people that really matter; 14-02-2012 was the day that Bioware gave us a little taste of what was to come in the end to the Mass Effect trilogy where Commander Shepard would be called once again to save Earth and the rest of the galaxy. Now, my experience was tainted somewhat by the Playstation Network in Europe not getting hold of the demo until Wednesday evening, but I spent this morning playing the demo three times through and it was definitely worth the wait, in some ways.

So you start off with the option to play through the demo in an action orientated or story orientated mode, I guess for those who are more interested in how the combat works than the role-playing side of it and visa-versa. Saying that, even when choosing the story based mode, there wasn't much plot interaction bar a few conversation instances. This is understandable, however, as for those who know anything about the Mass Effect series; Bioware are making an insane amount of effort to make sure that how you played the first two games will have consequences, big or small, on how the plot pans out in ME3. So for a demo which asks very basic questions at the beginning so as not to waste time, you can't expect too much in terms of plot twists or anything like that, simply because the information from your previous game play-throughs won't have been uploaded. So, yes, you may be slightly disappointed in the role-playing aspect of the demo, but I am certain that you won't be disappointed when the full version hits the shelves in the early days of March.

The combat seems to have improved, although I haven't played through Mass Effect 2 recently. The addition of grenades and more destructive melee attacks are certainly welcome, although as a soldier class I only really used the melee attacks to see how they worked rather than actually needing to - my assault rifle was more than capable of dispatching foes, though I'm sure there will be more instances to use it as the game progresses. The cover system works well, and though nothing has really changed in terms of companion commands it's still satisfying to annihilate a certain foe by having Liara lift them up into the air and Garrus follow through with a concussive round while you dispatch whoever remains. I didn't get the chance to play through the multi-player mode which has been viewed rather sceptically by fans so far - reviews on IGN and such have had positive things to say, but it will likely be an afterthought for me. I'm much more interested by character interactions.

(EDIT) I managed to give the multi-player mode a go today, and I have to say it's pretty good. Most of the time it was hard to get a 4-person team going, but when it worked, it worked pretty well. The mode I played was essentially a survival mode - defeat waves of enemies of increasing difficulty and so on. Instead of a map, you have the ability to always see a shining silhouette of your allies and when there's only one enemy remaining it'll let you know where it is so you aren't running around the map looking for the last soldier. I played as two classes - the Sentinel and the Soldier, though I concentrated on the Soldier class and eventually unlocked a Krogan which meant there was a very satisfying close-quarters attack that decimated any enemy who got too close, but the price for such power was that I couldn't do any of the dives and rolls to avoid enemy fire. So, you can presume that each class and, later, each race will have their own perks to unlock so it'll fit well with any play style. There wasn't the chance for any PvP playing, though I'm not sure how that would fit in to the Mass Effect storyline; with the co-operative play you can see how it makes sense; a group of soldiers is fighting off reapers or Cerberus while Shepard is elsewhere. But yeah, the point being, the multi-player is pretty fun and doesn't damage the game in any way. Woop. 

So all in all, the demo was good if not a little teasingly short, and Mass Effect fans surely have a lot to look forward to in the next month.

Look, Ashley looks less buff and more BUFF