The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I am a huge fan of The Hunger Games series: both the outstanding books and the fairly good first movie. The second is my favourite when it comes to the novels, so I was nervous to see it translated onto the big screen.

But it really surprised me, as it not only managed to exceed the first film , but it was actually on par with the book, which is my aforementioned favourite, as to me the wider scope of the story-lines means it is by far the most interesting.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the highly anticipated sequel to the astonishingly popular, Suzanne Collins penned, Young Adult series. It features Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the champions from the previous film, as they, amongst other events witness a rising rebellion, still have to fake a romance whilst possibly genuinely falling in love and eventually , being forced back into the Hunger Games for the annual Quarter Quell.

The cinematography was absolutely outstanding, with the sets looking fantastic and the editing being absolutely brilliant- the story also ran smoothly and there was plenty of tension, especially in the Arena scenes.Interestingly, I thought that there was more tension having read the books and knowing what was coming, as you will anticipate the violent moments to a greater extent.

The acting was also spot-on, with  especially outstanding performances from Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, who portrays the increasingly tortured protagonist fantastically well, Donald Sutherland, who is a fantastically chilling President Snow and Jena Malone, who managed to make make me adore Johanna Mason, who I had previously felt neutral about whilst reading the book.

 However, this does not mean that the movie was flawless, as it still suffers from the same problems as its predecessor. The omissions from the book have resulted in less of a depth of characters and certain plot elements not making sense- certain things seem to come out of nowhere due to a lack of explanation and to a certain extent the characters also suffer from this , as their actions are not explained.

However, overall it is an outstanding film that is well worth a watch!

Frozen

This is one of those films that you could watch over 100 times and still not become bored. It is almost flawless- the animation is beautiful, the characters are brilliant, the story is interesting- with several shocking twists , the songs are all catchy and memorable- overall, this is yet another triumph for the Walt Disney Animation Studio.

The story centres around two sisters- Anna and Elsa. Both are Princesses and one was born with a incredible power- the ability to create ice and snow at her fingertips. When Elsa accidentally injures Anna whilst they are playing as children, their parents decide that the safest course of action is to seperate the pair. As they grow up, Elsa's powers slowly grow stronger and are finally revealed at her Corination. Fearing for the saftey of the citizens of her Kingdom, she flees, inadvertently creating an eternal winter as she goes. It is now up to Anna- and the friends she meets on her journey, including Ice harvester Kristoff, his pet Reindeer Sven and the hilarious Snowman Olaf- to save the Kingdom from it's icy fate by finding her sister.

What I mostly love about this film is the way that so many Disney stereotypes, from Evil Queens to the idea of love at first sight- are completly subverted. It is so new and yet it is still able to feel like a classic Disney movie- it could be shown alongside the greatest films of the Disney Renaissance and you would not be able to tell the difference.

The characters are also interesting and unquie- I especially love the two sisters, as they are both brilliant- Elsa is a complex, fansinating and overall wonderful character and Anna is refreshingly quirky  and arkward- what other Disney Princess could sing the line 'Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone'?

Another great thing about this film is the animation, as the snow is absoulutley stunning and the backgrounds are spectacular. I also liked the character designs, however, they do follow the style of Tangled a little too closley- there is nothing really new.

That's another problem with the film- certain sections feel very Tangled-esque- but luckily the section that most closley resembles Disney's previous fairytale blockbuster passes quickly and it soon develops into it's own story.

Additionally, some of the storylines are a little underdeveloped- for example, we never find out the source of Elsa's powers and some elements of the plot seemed to come out of nowhere. Although I liked the plot developments, I wish they had been a bit more foreshadowed.

However, overall Frozen is a fantastic film that is a worthy entry to the Disney Animated Canon.