Well because the first full-length Mockingjay - Part One trailer has finally been released and it looks absolutely insane! A good insane. I seriously had to restrain myself from screaming when Katniss (my idol) Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) started speaking.
Oh, the feels is strong in this one. I’m expecting great things from this film, and the trailer has already set my standards pretty high. We’re all in this together, guys… So somebody hold me. Because this ish is going to be seriously intense.
You’re lying to yourself if you think you didn’t react the exact same way.
For the past few regenerations there’s always an adjustment period during the new Doctor’s first episode, where he’s still cooking and getting used to the change- during that period those around him also take a moment to get used to the new appearance, voice, (at times) accent and characteristics. By ‘those around him’ I’m also referring to the audience, because just as his companions/friends need to come to grips with who the doctor now is, the audience must also adjust. Peter Capaldi’s debut as the twelth Doctor is rocky, in terms of the episode itself, but the man, the mystery, the timelord? Capaldi nails it. As a darker character than his predecessor I didn’t expect for him to make me laugh as much as I did during the episode. It was a pleasant surprise, I love that Twelce is incredibly crotchety and isn’t a hugging sort of person. And at over 2000 years old he’s picked a face that outwardly exhibits that age.
Madame Vastra: “He looked young, who do you think that was for?
Clara: “Me?”
Madame Vastra: “Everyone. I wear a veil as he wore a face- for the same reason.”
Clara: “What reason?”
Madame Vastra: “The oldest reason there is for anything. To be accepted.”
The episode itself was a bit, I don’t know, we saw a dinosaur materialising alongside the Houses of Parliament in Victorian London, and the Pasternoster Gang are relieved when the Police Box is spat up. But the appearance of the TARDIS doesn’t bring help, but rather a Doctor in need of it; newly regenerated, extremely volatile and questioning his self-worth. The only person that may be able to help him is Clara, whose name he can’t even remember in his discombobulated state, and she’s still grappling with the losing the Doctor she knew and loved.
Their new dynamic shows promise and I’m very much excited for more. So I found the appearance of Smith a tad unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Eleventh doctor, however bringing him back for that phone call with Clara was just a bit overboard. I suppose Clara needed that push to get her to accept that the doctor is still the doctor even if he looks, sounds and kinda acts differently now.
Honourable Mentions
- Who is Missy? (APART FROM BEING PICKWELL IN BAD EDUCATION- I GOT SO SCARED WHEN I SAW HER LOL) She said she loves the doctor, she lives in what she calls some kind of heaven. Sure she’s not the Master, because the Master had a very volatile relationship with the Doctor. And also, the Master refused to regenerate. It’s someone else entirely. But who, what where and why?
- Madame Vastra and Jenny are my OTP. Just, seriously. LOVE THEM.
- Fires of Pompeii: So we address that initial issue of ‘but he’s been on the show before!’ The Doctor talks about how he’s seen his face before but can’t place it and then goes talks about how the regeneration always chose his face from faces it knew. Remember when we saw this face, Ten learned that, to a certain extent, time can be rewritten, that even though history says everyone in Pompeii died, Peter Capaldi’s character and his family were saved. And at the end he tells Clara he’s made a lot of mistake and that he’s going to start doing something about it. Interesting.
- Who placed the ad? Same person who gave Clara the TARDIS phone number way back when?
The Legend of Korra is back! And it’s brilliant! In fact I would hazard to assert that the first three episodes of Book Three: Change were better than the first half of Book Two: Spirits, and if it continues on in this fashion I can only see it growing stronger. Book Two was hampered down by some messy storylines and out-of-control romance-filled angst- only really picking up in the second half with the heavy focus placed on the spirit world. As we know Book Three will see Team Avatar dealing with a post-Harmonic Convergence world, wherein which humans and spirits must try to exist together.
The new season of Legend of Korra has everything that endeared Avatar The Last Airbender to the fans in the first place, moments of friendship, powerful characters, hilarity, interesting villains and a sense of adventure- that last one was especially missing last season. Basically LOK is serving up the nostalgia while still managing to distinguish itself from its parent show.
Heads up, spoilers ahead!
What we saw in the first three episodes we’d like to continue to see:
Bromance - The ease of Korra and Asami’s friendship, I loved loved LOVED how they dealt with the whole messy romance plot from the season before. There was the potential to continue on the angst but DiMartino and Konietzko did away it in one fell swoop.
This also includes Mako and Bolin’s strong sibling relationship and OMG FINDING THEIR FATHER’S FAMILY!!!!
- ZUKO (AND HE HAS A DRAGON)!
Zuko’s still as awkward as ever, only he would reminisce about his failed attempts to kill Aang.
THIS: Saying goodbye to angsty teenaged romance
and hello to the fandom’s newest (harmless *knock on wood because let’s not jinx it*) ship.
President Snow’s address to Panem is our first look at Mockingjay Part I, set to be released on the 21st of November 2014, the PSA-style Capitol TV-spot is all about affecting an air of peace and prosperity while offering (not so) veiled threats to anyone in the districts showing, or even thinking about, dissent towards the Capitol. Holy Propaganda, Batman.
“But if you resist the system, you starve yourself.” This is an interesting approach, the marketing team have taken, in promoting the upcoming first part of the final installment of the phenomenon that is The Hunger Games. In conjunction with the movie posters, ‘sanctioned by the Capitol Ministry of Information’ released earlier, the marketing campaign is naught but propaganda for the fictional dictatorship that gives you the most uneasy feeling. It’s creeptastic, really.
Most importantly, and for readers of Suzanne Collins’ series- more emotionally distressing because of what we know, as the camera pans up we see Peeta, standing beside Snow with a blank expression on his beautiful face. His presence in the spot isn’t a symbol of solidarity, nor is it just to reassure non-reader fans of the films that he’s still alive (well, it’s a little bit of that), it’s a message to Katniss and to the rebellion. We have Peeta, tread lightly.
As President Snow utters the Capitol’s words “Panem today, Panem tomorrow, Panem forever,” Peeta finally looks into the camera, however his blank expression remains. It’s a haunting thing to be left with, those who haven’t read the books have no idea what Peeta is thinking.
K series, animated by the studio GoHands and directed by Shingo Suzuki, follows Yashiro Isana (known by most as Shiro) a charismatic and easygoing teenager faced with a difficult situation when he’s randomly attacked on the street by a group of guys hellbent on killing him. When Kuroh Yatogami comes to the rescue, you think ‘phew, cool’ but then it turns out, Kuroh is also trying to kill him.
You find out that Shiro’s supposedly the murderer of Tatara Totsuka, and has quite a bit of people out for his blood, some to avenge the death of their friend, and others to stop evil. But as Shiro (barely) evades their pursuits you become rather engrossed in the mystery and great animation (them fight scenes!). So much so that you almost don’t care that some of the characters’ motivations are wishy-washy at best and if you nudge at the plot too much it could come apart. The story is told in 13 episodes about 20 minutes long, which I think would have been enough time to develop the backstory a bit further- because I was very interested in the history of the Seven Kings and how they came to be in power and to have their powers that they could then pass on to their clan members? Also what’s a strain? Because that storyline seemed to come out of nowhere, much like Shiro’s arrival.
However it’s an entertaining watch, so I recommend you give it a go if you’re keen for some escapism and good animation. I now pass you over to Motu.
The critical part of this review may come from Mata but I, myself, I loved this series so much, I can’t even begin to express how delighted I was to finally start watching it after waiting for so long (it was released in 2012- hey that’s long for a teenager!) and I was not disappointed.
I recommend getting the series, if you’re in New Zealand or Australia you can grab it from Madman Entertainment, the DVD series collection comes with the original Japanese Trailers and a Character Art Book. Also, there’s a movie confirmed for release this July- although who knows when us plebians in the Southern Hemisphere will get it.
Jam-packed with humor, brilliant fight scenes, a good plot with complex characters and (perhaps my own projection here but) ALL THE YAOI! I don’t even… Yaoi just brings me so much joy.
Kuroh x Shiro. CAN YOU SEE THEIR HANDS TOUCHING?!
Fushimi x Yata. *internal screaming*
Mikoto x Munakata. This scene kills me everytime.
Seriously sobbing right now, because I can’t stop thinking about all of Shiro and Kuroh’s interactions which kept me giggling up until 2am and searching for fanvids on Youtube. Or Mikoto and Munakata’s flirty fight scenes. Like, c’mon. I dare you to tell me that there wasn’t something going on between those two. And Yata and Fushimi. I can’t even think of these two without bursting into hysterical fits of laughter, because they were so funny. Yata’s a crazy, swearing and short-tempered nincompoop who I love more than I thought possible and Fushimi’s a monkey. Lol, monkey.
WATCH THE SERIES AND YOU’LL GET THAT REFERENCE.
It was a roller coaster of emotions, keeping me on the edge of my seat and surprising me while also scaring me at certain points. Some of their scenes were down right creepy, but they still made you laugh. Except for the times you’d cry.
Sometimes out of sadness.
And other times, you can’t help but cry because you’re laughing so damn hard!
Which, wouldn’t be hard to accomplish if you watched the scenes with Neko and Kuroh. Or Yata and Fushimi. Or Kuroh and Shiro. Or Mikoto and Munakata.
So good, I’m so keen to watch ALL THE ANIME- for review, of course. For review. I wonder if this can count towards extra credit in English. I think it should.
Seeing The Fault In Our Stars last month had to be a highlight of this year, especially since I saw it before a ton of people. Yasssss, I felt so boss. Continue to read and you’ll understand why. Also be sure to look out for our review which will be posted closer to the release date.
The Fault In Our Stars is not a movie for the light-hearted, but for those with the heart of a warrior! Just look at all the people who read the books! True survivors, who experienced the pain of being in a fandom such as this one. But like so many other tfios-stans, I was lined up to watch this film, accepting the emotional scarring, even before I knew it was being made into a movie!
Rocking up to the cinema, I was already crying tears of joy.
And I continued to cry as the opening credits began, starting with Hazel’s voice-over.
It was everything I hoped it would be.
It made me go…
then I was…
and then I was…
I kid you not, that was me in the cinema. You can’t judge me, because I know for fact that you will be a sobbing mess the exact same way that I was!
And despite the bucketload of tears that were shed that night, (and the morning after) I loved it so much and couldn’t have wished for anything more.
The world is not a wish-granting factory but this movie made all my wishes come true.
I saw my strong, beautiful and amazing Hazel Grace.
For the past few regenerations there’s always an adjustment period during the new Doctor’s first episode, where he’s still cooking and getting used to the change- during that period those around him also take a moment to get used to the new appearance, voice, (at times) accent and characteristics. By ‘those around him’ I’m also referring to the audience, because just as his companions/friends need to come to grips with who the doctor now is, the audience must also adjust. Peter Capaldi’s debut as the twelth Doctor is rocky, in terms of the episode itself, but the man, the mystery, the timelord? Capaldi nails it. As a darker character than his predecessor I didn’t expect for him to make me laugh as much as I did during the episode. It was a pleasant surprise, I love that Twelce is incredibly crotchety and isn’t a hugging sort of person. And at over 2000 years old he’s picked a face that outwardly exhibits that age.
