Book Review: The Hunger Games

For one of my book clubs last month I read the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the reason being threefold: 1) Both my wife and younger daughter had read it and said it was up my alley, 2) Dystopian fiction is on of my favourite sub-genres of Science Fiction, and 3) I didn't want to be as far behind in pop culture as I was when I got around to reading Twilight.

The premise of the book is pretty simple - every year 24 kids from around the world are put in an arena and forced to fight each other to the death - for TV ratings. The book follows one of these kids, a girl named Katniss Everdeen, as she is entered into this bloody event.

Here are the top 3 reasons why you should read this book:

3) Next year there will be a movie adaption coming out, and everyone you know from the kids to the ladies you work with will be talking about it, and you might like to know what the heck they are talking about.

2) The book is YA (Young Adults) so it won't take a lot of your time to read.

1) The book is compulsively readable - this goes for the sequels as well. I got intrigued pretty quickly by this story and then had a lot of difficulty putting it down.

Things I've Noticed: Final Courses can be a lot of fun

Since 2004 I’ve been slowly but steadily working towards a Bachelors Degree in Professional Arts, majoring in Communications Studies. Last Thursday I handed in my final assignment of my final course, so now all I’ve got to do is sit and wait for it to get marked and then I will be in possession of a University degree.

My final course was called CMNS 425: Film & Genre, and my final three papers were on the following topics: 1) A Critical Review and discussion of the cultural influence of the film Night of the Living Dead, 2) A look at the development and evolution of the Horror genre based on the films Dracula (1931), The Curse of Frankenstein (1958), and Halloween (1978), and 3) A look at the concept of re-imagining in the horror genre, specifically focusing on the recent re-imaginings of Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Here’s what I can say about the course – it was a whole lot of fun, it gave me a good idea for my next October-thon blog post thingy (I’ll be looking at a lot of horror re-imaginings), and I do feel that I learned a little bit more about my personal favourite genre.

Now I’m looking at Grad School, and as more than a few of my choices are in the States, I’ve got to take the GRE test (Graduate Record Examinations) before I can apply – I’m pretty sure the test won’t be as fun as my last course, but what the heck, I like taking standardized tests as much as the next guy!

Genre Character of the Week:President Coriolanus Snow

It's tricky to do a write up of a charater that involves major spoilers for a currently popular series, but you know what? I'm going to give it a shot. This week's genre character is also one of my current contendors for YA villain of the '00s, President Coriolanus Snow.

I started reading the Hunger Games series this month for two reasons: 1)Both my wife and younger daughter had read them and said that the series was right up my alley, and 2) It was a selection for one of my book clubs. Part of why I chose the character is that he only has a brief appearance in my book club selection (The Hunger Games), so while I speak about him, I'm not going to end up exhausting everything I want to say about the first book.

President Snow is in charge of a future North American nation called Panem. He rules from the Capital over twelve disctricts that provide the nation with food and resources. Also every year he oversees a contest/punishment called The Hunger Games, wherein two kids from each district (ages 12 - 18) are chosen to particiate in a tournament where they fight eachother to the death.

Not having a speaking role until the second book in the series, President Snow is evil in a way that brings obvious comparisons to Star Wars' Emperor Palpetine - a thirst for power and an overall creepy guy.

Just to be clear, the President is an incredibly effective villain for the series, but not the kind of genre character I'd like to visit with. If you haven't checked out this series yet I strongly recommend it. My review of the first book will be up next Monday.

Book Review: Thor by J. Michael Straczynski

As we are getting closer to summer movie season, I'm continuing my prep-work on movies I'd like to see. Basically my thinking goes like this - if I take the time to read whatever book the story was originally adapted from, I am a little more justified in paying theatre costs to see the movie when it first comes out, rather than having to wait for it to be released on DVD.

Case in point - Thor. Last month I read my local library's entire collection of the Walter Simonson run from the '80s - to be clear, this wasn't the entire run, just what my library had (volumes 1-3 of 5), remember the point is that I invest time, not $$$ into research to justify to myself whether or not I should see something in theatres.

Anyway, this month I read my library's collection of the J. Michael Straczynski run on Thor (and yes, this was the entire run).

So here we go - a quick caveat: my only background is the various trailers for the new film, the first three volumes of the Walter Simonson run, and whatever I gleaned from that little Thor-crazed kid in Adventures in Babysitting.

Apparently sometime between the Simonson run and now (Straczynski's storyline was published from July 2007 to November 2009) Thor has died, also there was some sort of Civil War between Super heroes - I actually tried to understand what the heck was going on with Civil War as I was reading Peter David's Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man at the time and the only thing this massive plot seemed to do was wreck the story line I was currently interested in.

Back to Thor: after having a chat with his past alter-ego, Dr. Donald Blake (who disappeared during the Simonson run), Thor returns to an Asgard-less earth and goes about re-creating his godlike home in the middle of the Oklahoma plains. This gives us a lot of culture-clash story lines as the good folks who already live there begin to make nice with the new neighbours Thor keeps showing up with (Thor is magically restoring the other Asgardians around the globe). The early issues include a quick denouncement of the Civil War storyline (Thor beats up a much-deserving Tony Stark) and a wonderful romantic sub-plot involving an Asgardian and a short-order cook named Bill.

These comics were a lot of fun, and although I have very little context for them, I felt the story moved at a nice pace and kept me interested. The artwork, by the way, was fantastic across the board, this was some of the most incredible comic art I've seen this year (the only better I can think of is the stuff in Batwoman: Elegy).

If you have time to check these issues out, definitely go for it. The series was a lot of fun and continues to get me excited for the upcoming film.

Bookmonkey's Top 5 Films to see in Summer 2011

Superheroes. This summer sure can’t seem to get enough of them and I’ve got to admit I’m feeling in the mood for some super-heroic films myself, hopefully I’ll try not to limit myself to only one sub-genre, but let’s see what’s coming out.

As with previous lists I’m trying to avoid listing the films I’ll probably see due to my kids, like the final Harry Potter Film or possibly Spy Kids 4 (oh, who am I kidding, I’m a big Robert Rodriguez fan at heart) or my BFF Mike (I think if I skipped Green Lantern it may irreparably damage our friendship) or the ones I’ll see but only if they are playing nearby (like August’s Don’t be afraid of the Dark, co-written and produced by Guillermo Del Toro).

Here they are, in order of release, my top five must list for theatre viewing this summer:

Thor: Here’s the thing about Thor, I started out wanting to see this movie simply because it’s directed by Kenneth Brannagh. Then I actually checked out some Thor comics (the ‘80s stuff by Simonson and the more recent run by Straczynski), and you know what, this movie just looks really fun. I’m hoping I won’t have to eat my words in a couple weeks, but for right now, I’m really excited about this movie.

Super 8: After seeing the first actual trailer, this movie looks like a nice throw-back to Close Encounters, but made by the guy who did the recent Star Trek reboot I liked so much. It looks like exactly the kind of alien-related fun I’m into.

X-Men: First Class: Here’s the thing, I just spent my last few months watching The Avengers, and one of the things that The Avengers helped influence was the Hellfire Club and specifically Emma Frost in the X-Men universe, both things that are going to be in the next film, add to that the movie has Nicolas Hoult, who I liked a lot in About a Boy and was really impressed by in Skins, and you’ve got a movie I’m going to be checking out.

Captain America: The First Avenger: I love the idea of setting a superhero movie in the Second World War. One of my favourite sub-genres of speculative fiction is alternate histories, so the idea of adding superheroes to a war movie seems like a really great cross-genre idea for me.

Fright Night: I loved the original of this, and in a way that makes me both excited and in fear for how this movie is going to go down. The original was both funny and scary, and the fact that this film will have previous Doctor Who David Tennant in it (doing the Roddy McDowall role from the original) has got me pretty intrigued into what this film will end up looking like.

Genre Character of the Week: Ray, the Imagineer

Last weekend I finally got around to watching a movie my BFF Mike had been telling me to check out called Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel. I had seen the trailer a few years back and although I had been looking forward to the movie, it still isn’t available in region one format – luckily it does play on HBO so I was able to watch it.

Short story – excellent film, quite funny and uses most of the tropes you can expect from a time-travel story. Also it introduced me to my next genre character of the week, Ray played by Chris O'Dowd (pictured left, with Cassie, played by Anna Farris)

Ray is a nerd (sorry, imagineer) that is, a huge fan of Science (or Speculative) fiction. He’s also a pretty swell guy who gets in over his head when a time leak occurs in his local pub.

As Ray is a well known SF (sorry again, Science/Speculative Fiction fan) his friends automatically assume he will know what to do in such a situation.

PETE: Well what do we do? I mean, this is your s**t...

RAY: This isn’t my s**t. My s**t is sitting on my arse reading this s**t...

Anyway, as Ray and his friends Pete and Toby get thrown back and forth across timelines and their own pasts, the film does an excellent job of mixing the last act of Back to the Future II with Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. If you have the opportunity to check it out, I definitely recommend it.

Movie Review: Hanna

So far this year I've listed my must see movies as a collection of Fantasy, Horror and SF, (and yes, I still stand behind Your Highness - if you're in the mood for something crude, fantasy-themed and kinda stupid, it's a lot of fun), but after this weekend I have my current top film of the year (at least until Thor comes out in a couple weeks), Hanna.

The movie is a revenge/espionage story focusing around a strong female lead - in concept its not unlike Salt (which I reviewed here), but this movie works on an entirely different level.

Here's why you should see it. 1) If you like high action/compelling character stories (like the Bourne trilogy), it will be right up your alley. 2) The lead, Saoirse Ronin (who I've liked in pretty much everything I've seen her in) is really really good in this movie, seriously, I cannot stress enough how good she is in this film, and 3) Cate Blanchett makes one hell of a villain.

I don't want to get any further into the plot than the trailer does, as this type of movie works best with only a little knowledge going in. I figured I was in for some fun action when I went into the theatre, I was blown away by how good this movie was as I left.