I'm hoping that the big budget will not detract from the supremely high levels of talent the film possesses. It is no secret I am ridiculously biased towards Liam Hemsworth and all that he does (because I'm shallow and a sucker for a beautiful, beautiful face) but I adore Woody Harrelson, and Sam Claflin is an unsung treasure. I've restrained from blogging about the hacked photos of leading lady Jennifer Lawrence, largely because I didn't wish to give any more weight to the intrusive nature of the whole debacle. I pray that, given the popularity of this particular franchise, by the time the film airs everyone will be back to talking about just how talented Lawrence is at her chosen art form.

 

 

 

Because if the trailer is anything to go by, she is as on point as always. I, for one, eagerly await the release of The Mockingjay Part 1 despite the fact I'm inching ever closer to 23 and should really leave the Young Adult era far behind me.

 

As if.

 

IT'S COMING. And by 'it', I mean the first instalment of the The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Sixty three seconds worth of action and it's enough to make me want to watch the first two films all over again.

The majority of those most excited by this trailer have read the books (countless times, no doubt) so the excitement isn't about what's going to happen. It's about how it's going to happen. I remain in awe of Jennifer Lawrence's acting ability but she's in an all-star cast here (any screen time Liam Hemsworth gets is absolutely fine (read: welcomed greedily) by me). The musical score from the first two films courtesy of James Newton Howard were some of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I've heard in a while and I have no doubts that this film will more than match. Even in this 1 minute clip, we get a taster of the type of crescendo and climatic score that hypes up all the drama we can be sure to be seeing.

 

President Snow, draped in all white (everything) but is anything but innocent, stands as stoically evil as ever and J Law plays Katniss as true as before. I recently watched American Hustle and it amazes me just how well Lawrence is able to play such a range of ages. The cinematic start to the trailer, with the cuts in image and muted, pewter grey colour scheme both set the tone well. The excitement is building: this is the first half of the finale we've all been waiting for. I've been impressed with the first two filmic adaptations and I have no fear this one will be as true to the most important milestones in the text.

 

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In the advent of my journey to uni (and the onslaught of final year!) this Sunday, I've been trying to cram a bit of last minute reading. I do try and read quite a lot anyway: magazines are usually my literature of choice, followed very closely by novels I can lose myself in and bringing up the rear is poetry by unpublished poets. Sometimes I read proper poets too. The best writers are supposedly those who read as much as they write so I've been trying to read (and write) as much as I can. I've managed to read a couple of books this summer, some to do with my dissertation, some to do with my aspirations to improve my creative writing and some purely for fun. It's interesting to see how often all these can overlap!

1. Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins

I love the plot of these books as do many others and I got a bit too excited about the upcoming Catching Fire trailer being released earlier this year. I'm also basing some choreography loosely around the Hunger Games (more on that aspect of my life later!) so I wanted to refresh my memory by reading the books again. On the whole I'm not usually a massive fan of first-person writing but the plot is good enough to keep me hooked through all three books.


2. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson.

I first came across Kate Atkinson during my A Level English lessons; her book Behind the Scenes at the Museum was one of our core texts. I don't think I realised back then quite how genius Atkinson is though but reading Started Early has firmly reinforced her brilliance. It was suggested to me that I read more Atkinson by way of improving my creative writing but it actually holds a lot of benefit for my dissertation too - definitely one of my top summer reads.

4. The Nightmare - Lars Kepler

My Mum and I have both read a number of Jo Nesbo books over the last two or so years and from the blurb of Nightmare, it seemed that this book was of a similar standing. I can say I was well and truly gripped by this and I really like the style in which it was written. This book was bought and read purely for fun - no academic attraction at all, except for me lamenting how hard it will be to get a book published (especially when I find it so hard to stick to one idea!) I researched the author and found out that it's actually a couple who wrote the book together - I couldn't even tell, the writing was seamless and sucked me right in.


5. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

I starting reading this last summer, forgot about it and started it up again this year mostly out of boredom. It was a good read and ended up being pretty useful for my diss research. I love it when a plan comes together!

Anyone else had any good reads this summer?

Jade :)