Mockingjay pt. 2's Samsung Event

Last weekend I went to Best Buy.  Lionsgate had announced that most Best Buys were osting the opportunity to watch the final trailer for Mockingjay pt. 2, as well as trying out a virtual reality device and app.  I had called my local Best Buy and they said they would have it available.  So, I went.

I showed up a little early, and was told I would have to wait for the Samsung representative to arrive. I waited somewhere else for about 45 minutes and went back.  I'd heard about some fans having trouble with the promotion, such as employees not knowing about it, etc.  I had a good experience.  The rep said she didn't have the VR equipment, and that was fine with me.  There was an app, but it didn't seem to do much.  I didn't mind that, either.  The rep showed me how to play the trailer.

The trailer was great.  There wasn't a whole lot of new footage, just small extensions to scenes we had watched before.  There were small moments that make you jump.  One small line stood out for me where Katniss says to some people, "Stop killing for him!", meaning President Snow.  Several of my Twitter friends loved the line, too, and we were dying to mention it to everyone else, but we waited.

I was able to watch it a few times, and I got two posters that they were giving away.

I'm so glad I got to do this.  And, I can't wait for the film.

PS: they released the trailer yesterday.

Jurassic Blood

This past Friday I had to get up really early to go on an errand with Mom. When she was done we had some time to kill before we had to be at our next destination. After a fruitless search of looking for a place to eat, we passed by a Gulf Coast Blood Center.

Mom had to talk me into donating for a minute; I didn't want to at first. But then I relented. She brought up the point that I had gotten 34 units of blood during my time in the NICU as a preemie. So, I changed my mind.

After a preliminary test and some questioning, I was allowed to donate. (They wouldn't let Mom donate; her iron was too low.) A technician/nurse got me situated and showed me how to work the TV. Each chair had a TV attached to it, that was pretty neat. I had it turned to the country music station. The nurse then explained what the needle was like. I guess it was a little bigger than your standard "injection"-type needle. I say "guess" because I never really wanted to get a up-close look at it. He said it would hurt for a couple of seconds.

Yeah, it did hurt for a couple of seconds, but then it was over. I had to squeeze the stress ball once a minute or so. The whole thing only took ten minutes. I was donating whole blood; there were a couple other guys who were donating platelets, I think, and that takes longer.

Afterwards, they want you to drink and eat something, so you don't feel quite so woozy. I must say, apple cranberry juice hit the spot for some reason. (I did feel slightly dizzy.)

-------

Your next meal is supposed to be a hearty one, but I kind of fudged on that. Mom and I went to go see Jurassic World. It was fun, and predictable- but in a good way. It's gratifying to finally see a fully-functioning park, and all of your favorite dinosaurs are back. Once again, people misjudged how frog DNA factors into the dinosaur cloning. One plot hole I thought about was why no one thought of having an override function on the gyrospheres so they could come back to the center automatically.

("How many times did I tell you we needed locking mechanisms on the vehicle doors?"....)

Strange as it may sound, I loved the raptors, probably because one of them was named Blue- ha. It's interesting to think that they could be somewhat trained.

There's a whole ton of nostalgia in this movie, one being the music. I had wanted the old theme to be in the film so bad, and it is. I wish more of the original cast could have been in it, but at least we got BD Wong back. He's in the film more than you would think at first.

The audience knows what the Indominus Rex is made of, so it was kind of surprising that the characters take so long to figure it out. Near the end of the film, it's right in their faces. Like, "Ohhhh... We get it now."

Fun trivia: Bryce and the actress who plays her sister in JW also played sisters in "The Village."

All in all, it was a fun movie. I'd love to see Inside Out, and Terminator Genisys next.

Currently reading: "Life is Short (No Pun Intended)" by Bill Klein and Dr. Jennifer Arnold. 😀

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Mockingjay pt. 2 Trailer Thoughts

It's been a week since we got the first "real" trailer for Mockingjay pt. 2. Everyone had been wanting it for a really long time; I think some people were starting to give up.

I watched it the morning it was released, and I liked it. I was a bit surprised that they put parts from the end (or at least close to it). But then again, there aren't any games to build up to.

So.... Here are my thoughts:

- It opens with Finnick and Annie's wedding in District 13. It's nice, everyone's happy.

- The next scene is with Effie, and Katniss in her Mockingjay uniform. They're not in 13. So, I think this part is much, much later than you might think.

- Here's Boggs, they're in the districts. Here's Plutarch. I was pleasantly surprised to find Egeria (AKA Mira from Homeland) in pt. 2. I assumed Snow would've had her killed off.

- Here's Commander Lyme, from district 2. I think. "Everyone" recognizes this actress from a different show.

- "Tonight, turn your weapons to the Capitol." That is all.

- Then, we see Snow in his final confrontation with Katniss. (trust me, it is.). Again, really close to the end.

- We finish with a line from Finnick, and the logo and mockingjay whistle.

I really liked it. It was really good, and I was surprised by all the elements that are close to the ending. I especially liked the shot of Katniss in the city circle with the people from the districts. It's said in the first book that you have to be invited to the Capitol. Or else go there as a tribute.

So, anyway, really solid. Can't wait for the film.


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Mockingjay Pt. 1 Review

[Sorry this took so long. I started writing this after I saw MJ for the first time.]

I got out of Mockingjay, and I really enjoyed it.  It was very close to the book, and they still kept with different perspectives in addition to Katniss', which I have really enjoyed throughout the whole series.

Mockingjay is really, stylistically speaking, a continuation of Catching Fire. You might think it's just part 1 of 2 of Mockingjay, but it has some similarities with Catching Fire. You get the sense that Katniss is isolated, her against the world, struggling with PTSD.

The sets and special effects are wonderful; to note, the ruins of District 12.  New characters are great. Jennifer is awesome. Love the dynamic between Katniss and Prim. Elizabeth is great. Julianne adds a complexity to Coin. Part of me loved her, and yet kind of hated her at the same time, because, well, I know how part 2 goes.  Plutarch got kind of annoying from all the propos. He's in full gamemaker mode here. 

[I totally missed that the actress who plays Mira on Homeland played Snow's speechwriter, until I took Mom to see it, and she pointed it out.]

The music.... I loved the music. It's basically taken from Catching Fire (someone else mentioned Hunger Games, too), so there's continuity in that respect. The Hanging Tree was really good, I liked it. The way the setting had been described in interviews didn't really make sense, but when you see it in context,  it does. It's pretty and haunting. Can't wait to get the score.

I wish Katniss had taken the time to explain the background of "The Hanging Tree," but that probably would have taken too much screen time, and anyway, you get the gist of it with the scenes of the other districts rioting.

One point I got stuck on was Finnick's story- really, the timing. I wondered at first why they put it during the rescue.  Then I figured it out. It was to distract everyone.

Ending. .. pretty much the way everyone thought it would end.
I loved the little tidbit at the end.

Overall feeling stark, dark, and grand. I can't wait for part 2.


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Into That Good Night: Interstellar

I went to go see Interstellar on Thursday.  It was a good movie.  It's a futuristic space film, where astronauts go very far into space to find humanity a new planet.  I was afraid it would be a bit out of my league, but it was pretty easy to understand, except for one scene near the end. Trust me, I was racking my brain trying to come up with some reasonable explanation.  And, I think I did.  Read on....

Matthew McCaughnahey, as Cooper, is a former engineer who has now been forced to farm for a living.  In the future, there have been serious droughts and dust storms worldwide, and certain crops have failed.  Wheat failed a while ago, there's one crop that's nearly gone, and corn will soon follow.

He and his daughter, Murph, stumble- literally- upon a very big and secret plan to hunt for worlds that might be good for humanity.

First, I am so, so, so sorry that I missed the IMAX boat on this one.  The special effects, especially the galaxy sequences are awesome.  Orchestration was a bit different from a standard film, it was mainly a pipe organ, so I could understand why people were complaining about the sound being too loud and unbalanced.

I loved the father-daughter dynamic between Matthew and Mackensie.  She was so good.  I had flashbacks to the locket scene before the battle between Bella and her daughter Renesmee in Breaking Dawn 2; especially when Cooper is saying goodbye to Murph.

I really loved the robot, believe it or not.  He was funny, and the design was great.  He was truly three-dimensional.

I was a bit worried that the plot would lean a little too much in the direction of  "2001: A Space Odyssey", and it did towards the end, but it wasn't too bad.  I also appreciated, at the beginning, the use of dust bowl testimonials.  You aren't sure at first if it's a cool parallel with history... or something else. If you get my drift.

Matt Damon does have a small but important part in the film that wasn't widely publicized. When you watch the film, you realize why they couldn't say very much.  He does have a sort of HAL-like streak. That's all I'll say about that. 

Going back to the sound issue.... I don't know if it was the actors just getting emotional, but there were a couple of instances where the dialogue got muffled, Anne Hathaway and Matthew, to note. 

The astronauts do visit a couple of planets.  Not really sure who thought they would be good planets in the first place.  The second planet at least has land.  Would days with longer hours really mean a shorter life span? 

About the issue of time...one could think of time as both physical and abstract.  At one point, near the end, you have to believe that time is physical.  And, if something is physical, it can be manipulated.  I'll leave it at that. 

My title, in part, reference a poem recited by Michael Caine: "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."  It seems to talk about regret.  Perhaps, on another level, it implores the reader to change what you regret, and not going gently. 

That is what this film is about... trying to fight the hardest to change what seems impossible.

Mockingjay Roundup, etc.

Mockingjay Roundup, etc.

I'm honestly not trying to turn this blog into a Mockingjay fan blog... really.  I just haven't had that much to write about. I need ideas, badly.

That being said, I've bought my share of Doritos bags.  Lionsgate has been running a contest. People enter codes online to unlock each of the 12 districts, and eventually,  district 13. Each district represents a certain prize pack,  and 13 Is a trip to The premiere.

The cool news is that I actually won codes through that contest to use for the movie tickets.  It was a long three- week period of waiting, but they finally arrived in my email a couple of days ago.

About the soundtrack. .. I'm not really enthusiastic about it at all.  I've liked a bunch of songs from the previous two films, but not this one. I do like Lorde's song "Yellow Flicker Beat," but that's it. 

One fan site got the track listing for the score, and I'm interested in that.  But the titles- save one- sound kind of dull in general. I would have been interested in the job, really, haha. One job I'd love is to give titles to DVD chapter menus, but that position seems to have fallen permanently by the wayside.

One movie I'm really excited about seeing is Interstellar. I'm planning to see it the night before Mockingjay. 

I tried reading Gone Girl, but it's just too heavy for me. I might still try to finish it.

"There's that word again: "heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?
" (Doc Brown, "Back to the Future")




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That Rocks!

I was able to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science a few weeks ago, where they are having a minerals and gemstones exhibit.  If you've seen my Pinterest boards, you'll know I have a thing for gemstones and rocks.  It was really cool; I had a good time.

Along with all of the minerals, there was a rather lavish jewelry collection.