Movies: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Movies: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Hi all, was fortunate again to have the chance to catch a movie soon after its release, and as a result, felt the need to review it so that people can actually read up and have a better expectation of the movie before going to see it! To clarify though, I have actually read all three books after seeing the first movie which was called "The Hunger Games". I would have to say that this movie follows the book pretty well in terms of its starting point and its end point but will this work to the movie's benefit or not? That is the main question to be answered here.

For those who don't know about this movie yet, this movie follows the life of a girl called Katniss in an alternate world scenario whereby the world is divided into various districts with a single capital city. The various districts all live a life of forced labor to produce all the products and things that the capital needs, while the capital enjoys a luxurious and more loose type of life style. Every year, they will have this hunger games whereby two people from each district are chosen to battle out in a free for all battle royal style in a specially designed arena.

This is the arena for the 75th Hunger games... wanna participate?

These are the participants... still wanna participate?

Katniss in the previous movie was the winner of the 74th Hunger Games which you can probably see on your own computer these days, and this continuation movie follows how her life or has not changed after winning. The catch is however, that she offended some very powerful people in the 74th Hunger Games and hence these people are taking it out on her as well as other people in this 75th Hunger Games. I shan't reveal anything more about this movie to not spoil it for others. So lets break it down and see how did it perform in the categories!

Storyline 3.5/5

This is a movie that is supposed to be rich on story line given that it is a new world with new laws and regulations and the way things are supposed to be. The main issue it has here is that this movie focuses less on the new world but rather tries to focus on Katniss' new life as a Victor of the previous games but doesn't do anything particularly interesting or striking.

Without any focus on telling the audience any new things or information about this world where this movie is based in, it does little to attract the attention or intrigue the audience resulting in a lack of appreciation for the things that are happening.

This is even more pronounced because this movie is a continuation to the previous and things that are happening in this movie actually were quite similar to the previous, and you could actually say that this movie is too similar to what happened to the previous movie. Hence for those who saw the previous movie it is really hard to like it as much as the first when the producers did not do anything more to flesh out this world.

Character 3/5

This is a pretty underrated aspect of the movie that could have been greatly improved, like seriously greatly improved. This movie has many many participants from the other districts but instead of having a bit of focus on how unique these participants are, they are just touched on very slightly. There are some who are not even mentioned although the book doesn't mention them either, but movies do need something fresh and interesting to keep the interest of the audience.

Also, the relationship between the main characters are not new or fresh which is another flaw only because this movie is a continuation. Like I said, you will generally just see what has happened in the previous movie... but even then it is not as interesting or well fleshed out.

In the end, you hardly feel anything for the many characters which is sad as it could have been done so much better.

Cinematography 3/5

Its pretty sad that the movie did not really stand out too much even in this aspect. I would probably say that this movie was not meant to be a action flick but it did have a lot of opportunity to at least do so and entertain the audience on another aspect of the movie. (If storyline is not as good, make the action better) There were many bird eye shots but aside from that, there was little to actually immerse the audience into the movie.

Music 3.5/5

Music was there, but it was nothing entirely special or striking. It did add to what immersive feelings that the show had but I can't really say it helped the movie greatly.

Spectacle 3/5

Sadly, I would say that this movie did not perform well in any of the aspects that it could have done well which was mainly the storyline section or the action section. If it was me, I would have put in extra budget on highlighting and giving the other participants in this hunger games events or opportunities to differentiate themselves from each other to add more character value. I would put in more action sequences just to entice the action loving crowd and use different perspectives to add in the immersiveness.

Storyline wise, it actually told very little or made too little advancement of the story for the time frame given to this movie which might not have been the fault of the movie itself as the story book also was like this and they were trying to stay true to the source material.

However, if this movie carries on to the third installation, I would say the movie can easily redeem itself as the 3rd book does have a lot of potential.

Storyline 3.5 (Too little advancement due to source material, they could have focused on fleshing out the world and its people instead)
Character 3 (All additional people were pretty highly forgettable, really, flesh out the world more, the source material did allow for this.)
Cinematography 3 (It was at best just above ordinary as there was no real epic scenes while some scenes have been seen before in the previous movie)
Music 3.5 (It was fine, adding somewhat to immersion)
Spectacle 3 (Did not do entirely well on the aspects that it should have done well in like storyline or cinematography)

Overall 3.2 (I would say this score reflects the advice that I will give to you, see this movie if you seen the first and you could roughly derive some enjoyment from it, most likely less then the first movie, but as you guessed by now, there will be a following movie to complete the story and if you actually missed this one, its no real big deal as nothing big did happen. You could basically just wait for the 3rd movie to come out first, which will be in a year or so, and see this movie at home in your own leisure. All in all, see it if you want, but if you don't, you can always see it at a later date.)

P.S for the rest of you who are not satisfied at the ending, you can always follow the book to have complete closure while waiting for the last movie to be released. Hopefully they don't split it unnecessarily into two movies though... although it is possible if they so desire.

I have also added genre labels and tags to my posting so next time you can have a better idea of what the post and content is about!

And now its back to studying, so catch ya all later! Share your comments if there are any!

Food: Da Paolo Pizza Bar

Food: Da Paolo Pizza Bar

Hi all, have been working pretty hard these days and with exams coming up its rare for me to get chances to catch movies... however, there is always time to eat and sometimes its good to pamper yourself on food since its a necessity anyway! Like you probably have experienced, there are times when you don't know or cannot decide what to eat, so if you need some inspiration, here is a place that you can consider!

Nested in a nice place down at Holland village, you can go there and eat with a bit of the expat feeling as this Pizza bar is not in Holland village main area itself, but along a private road lined with many other places like this.

Forgot to take a picture of their menu, but this place has its fair share of pizza and salads with pretty ok prices that I will elaborate on further down.Note that their food names are all those italian or some other language sounding like one.. so you probably should read the food description to know what appears in your food. For us, this was what we got!

Portofino which is actually supposed to be crayfish!

The crayfish is the most expensive pizza there probably due to the meat choice, but the content of meat is not entirely plentiful to be honest.

Mari e Monti which is Salmon and stuff!

We got 2 pizzas for 3 people which is pretty much in reality, you could probably feed four people easily as the pizza are all 12 inches. Of course unlike pizza hut, these pizza have thinner crusts so you wont be too filled up by the flour. The cheese also tastes pretty nice and it is all cooked fresh.

Overall, this is the type of pizza that focuses on the quality of the ingredients and they are pretty good tasting. I personally ate 8 slices by myself which was actually one whole pizza and I did not get bored of the taste unlike some other pizza that I have eaten else where.

All in all, in terms of food taste, I would give this a

Food 3.5/5

Atmosphere 4/5

This place has the advantage of the atmosphere. Being located further from the more crowded Holland village, the whole place is open air but we hardly felt hot thanks to the design of the place and how far away the tables are spaced. You could even sit on the outside of the shop which is similarly nicely shaded and the sitting tables and chairs are comfortable looking. It is really a quiet place and you could consider using the place if you just want to have a chit chat session with a bit of drinks here and there.

They also have a very comfortable toilet which does honestly add to the atmosphere for a very clean and orderly place

The staff is also pretty friendly and positive looking which makes the experience more pleasant. Not entirely the type to wait on you constantly but at least they response fast, and you don't need to put in too much effort to get their attention. The food also comes pretty quickly.

Price 3/5

For 3 people of whom I believe all were pretty filled by the food, this meal ended up to about 20+ per pax. So its is above average on the price point. There's no need to spend on drinks as water is provided but when we where there, I believe they were having a 1 for one deal for beer, wine or spirits.

Accessibility 4/5

Interestingly, this place is actually very very easy to get to via car or public transport. For MRT takers, don't get out via the same exit for the usual Holland Village shops. Its the other exit. Once you are out of that exit, it is like maybe just a 3 - 5 mins walk away. There is also a car park at the back of the line of shops and right in front of the pizza bar itself actually. We went there during dinner time and it was hardly packed either which means you can get a seat and start your meal quickly and comfortably. Not to say it was not popular also however as it was about 3/4 filled all the time we were there during a weekday night.

Overall

Food: 3.5 (Food tastes classy and has a good variety of pizzas and salads. Not extremely unique but tastes like what you would expect)
Atmosphere: 4 (Atmosphere here is very good, cooling, quiet, peaceful and the staff are friendly)
Price: 3 (Is in the above average price range but does fill up the person sufficiently and the quality of food can somewhat justify the cost)
Accessibility: 4 (Very very easy to go even on a whim as there should be space and its near the MRT)

Overall: 3.6/5 (Like I said in the previous review, 3 would be a place you wont regret visiting once just for the experience. 3.6 would be a place that you can consider going on the off occasion of trying to find a place to meal and you happen to have a pizza craving. Only issue that it has is that pizza in general, is not difficult to do well and hence there are many similar places and similar prices all over Singapore.This is a good place especially if you want to have a area to just hang out and slowly enjoy a peaceful evening. )

Pay the place a visit and see if you agree with me :)