Fangirl Five- March 30

Fangirl Five is hosted by Evil Eva at Nancy Drew is My Homegirl.

Here’s what I’m stoked about this week:

1. This piece of awesome sent to me by Dixie @ Gone Pecan

I can’t help it. I love this picture. I mean it’s Peeta and Cinna.  And more important, it’s Lenny.

2. The CW Pilot for Selection- I have no clue when this show will be on. I haven’t even read the book yet (I can’t wait to), but I am already crazypants in love with the casting.  Ethan Peck (as in Gregory Peck, as in Atticus Finch and as in hey, he was totally adorbs in that short-lived TV version of 10 Things I Hate About You) is the prince.  I like this because in my opinion, princes should always be dark-haired and handsome.  It’s a rule I have. But then, holy smokes, William Moseley (as in Peter the Magnificent from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) is another love interest. And yeah, the girl, Aimee Teegarden is totally adorable too. Even better, it’s being written by the people who give us the awesome known as The Vampire Diaries.

3. The Positive Side Effects of The Hunger Games movie- We all know that the movie was great and that we’re super crazed to see what they do with Catching Fire (my favorite in the series).  It’s been interesting this week to read the tons and tons of articles buzzing about new YA book to film adaptations.  It’s like all the horrors of Twilight (or at least some of them) are being swept away because The Hunger Games is reminding people that great books can cross genre lines and reach fans of all ages and even better, when they’re turned into films and done well (cough Catherine Hardwicke, cough cough) they can be a phenomenon deserving of the all the hype and the fanfare. This is good for us fellow YA lovers! In fact, it’s awesome.

4. The trailer for Insurgent is out! Eeeeee! And USA Today has it along with a great interview with Veronica Roth. Check it.

That’s all for now.  My kiddos are on Spring Break and we are on the move (but I’m still squeezing in some good reads).

Have a great weekend!

The Most Awesome Hunger Games Recap Ever

Ok, so you’ve all seen it by now…right?  If not, why are you on the computer when you  should be at the theater watching the film in your HG finery?  Like this:

This is what I wore, thanks to a husband who appreciates his wife's nerdiness

For everyone else, I know you saw it. I know you loved it because it was totally and completely spazzworthy to 1) see such an epic YA book turned into such a fantastic non-Twilightesque film and 2) to know that this continues to open doors (doors helped along by the success of a certain crappy sparkly vampire movie franchise) to other hopefully amazing YA book to film adaptations.

More than anything, I hope this film makes people pick up this series and read. Read it for the first time, read it again–whatever.

To me, a big part of why I loved this movie was the supremely perfect casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss.  She was amazeballs.  Absolutely awesome.

As far as the guys…well, I know that everyone is in love with Peeta (even me, a total Team Gale girl, thinks Peeta is truly swoonworthy).  And it’s hard because Josh Hutcherson isn’t some serious stud, but I thought he captured that balance of softness and bravery that Peeta has.  He may not be the way we all pictured him, but Collins never really makes him out to be some hottie. (Also, in case you were wondering, my husband is staunchly Team Peeta and says that outside of his shortness, Hutcherson is exactly how he’d pictured his Peeta. Y’all, we’ve discussed it at length. I’m serious).

While I’ve never been thrilled with the casting of my man Gale, there is so little of him in this film that it’s hard to form much of an opinion.  I’m sure he’ll be fine (not fiiiiine, but you know, okay).

And then there were the Capitol peeps.  I loved everything about the Capitol: the colors, the costumes, the behind the scenes of the games (which was such a brilliant way to explain things like the trackerjackers).  Effie and Caesar were great and I loved the extra scenes with Seneca and Snow.  Donald Sutherland gave Snow such a pure, understated sense of evil (not as in your face as I would have thought) and that made him even scarier.

I also think they really nailed that relationship with Cinna and Katniss (okay,  and it doesn’t hurt that Lenny Kravitz is all kinds of hot), but I really felt that element was well-done.

I’m not among the ranks who feel that the film wasn’t violent enough. I thought it hit the right note. As I remember it in the book, Katniss is hearing about many of the deaths through the cannon blasts. So, while I always thought that the idea behind the story is terribly grotesque, the details were never too much. In the same way, I thought the film showed some great action and real brutality without going for too much gore.  That being said, I encouraged my ten year-old to read the series (which she did and loved), but I thought she wasn’t quite ready for the movie.  That’s just me though.

My only two complaints are very small:  First, I thought Haymitch should have been darker.  Woody Harrelson did great with the funnier aspects of his character, but he never came across quite as wounded as I’ve always pictured Haymitch.  And last (this is a minor one),  I wonder why the mutant dogs at the cornucopia didn’t have the faces of the dead tributes. Maybe it would have come off as cheesy?  Who knows, but it totally impacted me when I read the book.  It would have been pretty stellar to have seen it.

So…what did you guy think?

Fangirl Friday- March 2

Fangirl Friday is hosted by my awesome pal Evil Eva over at Nancy Drew is My Homegirl. It’s where we spazz over our latest obsessions.

1. Man or a Muppet- You guys, how adorable is it that this song won an Oscar?  I loved this movie (and all of the songs) and I loved the acceptance speech because…accent alert… I didn’t realize that Brett McKenzie was from New Zealand.

2. Spreading the Adam Love-So it’s no secret that I love Adam from If I Stay/Where She Went.  He is totally and completely swoonworthy on every level.  This week I got my friend Tammy (this is a different Tammy from the one I mentioned last week. I surround myself with Tammies) finally got a chance to read WSW and her reaction was stellar.  I mean, she loved it OF COURSE.  But when I walked over to her car in the school parking lot the other day, she was in the middle of reading it. She didn’t say hello or anything. She got out of the car and said...SPOILER ALERT. CLOSE YOUR EYES IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT…”SHE.  HAS . HIS.  GUITAR. OMG.”  I was like, I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea for spreading the Adam love!

3.  Did you realize that it’s March?  March means The Hunger Games. It’s almost here.

Just. Sayin.

4.  The Princess Diaries– I don’t think it should matter that I’ve read this book so many times I can possibly recite it.  Or that I have a ginromous stack of books on my nightstand. Books I haven’t actually read. I still decided to read it the other day. Why? Because what could be better than seeing Michael tease Mia about her postnuclear Armageddon  life mate choice of Josh Richter (bad choice Mia!) or  reading about all of those moments when Michael is tutoring Mia in Algebra and their knees sort of brush together? Or course, all she’s busy doing is freaking out about her breast size (I hear ya, girl) and about how bad it sucks that she’s a princess–but she comes to her senses eventually.  Those books never get old for me.

Look out War and Peace cos this shizz is epic

5. Romeo & Juliet- The Baz  Luhrmann version.  I was thinking about the fact that Luhrmann is doing The Great Gatsby (holy crap I love that book) right now with Leonardo DiCaprio and that got me thinking about how much I loved his version of Romeo and Juliet. Of course I love the Franco Zeffirelli version too.

Oh my goodness. Aren't they beautiful?

But for some reason, the BL one spoke to me a little more. I loved the casting and the music and the imagery.  It was perfect.  I’ve been listening to the soundtrack alot lately and I’m primed to watch it today while everyone is at school (since there is no episodes of The Vampire Diaries until March. What. The. Heck?)

And can I get a sigh for Leonardo DiCaprio? I’m so 90’s.

And Then There Were Trees

by Tee

If you were, I don’t know, living under a rock, you might have missed the premiere of The Hunger Games movie teaser trailer.  It premiered at the VMA’s last night under a great deal of hype.  Needless to say, we were going outside our minds, certifiably crazy as we waited desperately to finally get a glimpse of this film.

So for those who missed it, here is our in-depth analysis:

There were a bunch of trees.  And then Katniss was running.  Like, alot.  And then there were more trees.  And fire. And, Lord help me, more trees. And running.  And there was a voice-over pep talk from someone I assume to be Gale (but over the image of more forest). And the Katniss aims her arrow and you see the Mockingjay sign and KABLAMMO. It’s over.

See for yourself:

I actually think the trailer looks great.  Jennifer Lawrence looks amazing and the forest is perfect.  I was slightly disappointed because I was just hoping for more.  I don’t need too see crazy love triangle drama, but an image of the Reaping or of Rue or Peeta would have been nice. I mean, I feel a little cheated but somehow this made me want to see the movie even more.  I can’t wait until March!