Hunger Games: Catching Fire - by Danny

We were going to watch Gravity but I was persuaded to watch the new Hunger Games movie instead. I thought we'd be the oldest people there who didn't have kids, but actually there were plenty of 30 year olds, and the cinema was packed. Afterwards I overheard someone saying how much more mature Hunger Games is than Twilight.

It was actually really good. There's basically three acts. First there's a very long intro where it's established that the Capitol are horrible, and that Katniss is torn between two hot guys (that bit is like Twilight). In the Second Act her and Peeta get dragged back into the Games, and go to practice and meet the rest of the unlucky tribunes/tributes. I like training montages, and for me this was the best part of the film. In the Final Act there's the games themselves. Since there's a revolution brewing the games don't seem quite so important, but it ends well and things are nicely set up for the next instalment - which in standard trilogy marketing will be released in two parts, in 2014 and 2015.

I read all three of the books on the same holiday. The first one is the best, but then it goes downhill, I think as the author couldn't handle the more difficult themes that come up in describing the whole Panem Universe. She should have co-written the sequels with Iain M. Banks.

Stanley Tucci, who plays the flamboyant TV presenter Caesar Flickerman, said in an interview that the film is mostly pulp to get people interested, but the audience do get drawn into the political element through the character of Katniss. She refuses to ever commit to the revolution, and also never seems to make her mind up about the two men in her life. In fact, although I think Jennifer Lawrence is really good, she's so non-committal that sometimes she just appears to be a bit vacant, and you wonder if she actually knows what's going on.

The Games themselves in this film are a bit of a disappointment. Because it's a Quarter Quell they set it up as a sort of Champion of Champions with all the previous winners. But actually, it's no different to the first film . The tribunes/tributes from District 1 and District 2 are professionals (careers) and apparently look forward to the Games, District 3 are tech mad and the rest are mostly quite nice and make up the numbers. Although the Games are billed as a winner takes all, just like the first movie there's multiple survivors. It's hardly There Can be Only One (but neither was Highlander, with four sequels and a spin-off TV series).

In order to avoid having too much humans killing each other there's lots of mechanical threats in the arena, and it's a bit like Cube in a hemisphere. The chief games-maker is played quite ambiguously by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I'll say no more. Donald Sutherland is President Snow. It's a good cast.

I've a general criticism of the whole franchise. Why would a totalitarian state puts lots of people who hate them and have nothing to lose on TV and film them? You'd think a Hunger Games would be the last thing the Capitol would do. But I suppose that's the conceit of the film, if the Capitol just had Five Year Plans it wouldn't be much fun. And if you are going to have a Games, why have it with kids, who would be rubbish at fighting and probably just cry all the time? That's just depressing. Each district should send their best fighters.

Finally, I enjoyed that the film was in mind-blowing 2D, rather than mind-blowing 3D. It's the way forward. It still looked great, and there's so many distinctive outfits a Hunger Games costume party is inevitable. I'm going to knit myself a cowl.

Thor: The Dark World - Danny's review

This is effectively Thor 2 1/2 , after Joss Whedon made the first Thor movie in 2011 and also Avengers Assemble in 2012. Only one year later Thor is back. This time it's directed by Alan Taylor, who has previously made a lot of good TV.

Although Thor headlines the movie, he's not much of a character. Instead he's easily outshone by a very good cast, especially an incredibly old Anthony Hopkins as the 1000 year old God Odin. He looks about 1000. I thought he'd retired, but he's apparently still going, and unlike the equally old Christopher Lee he actually gets up sometimes to say his lines. When he does stand up it's both intimidating and a bit worrying, as you're afraid he might fall over.

Idris Elba brings some dignity to a very silly costume as some sort of all seeing half-blind man. Christopher Ecclestone fails to bring any dignity to the chief bad guy, a dark elf determined to end the Universe, just because he wants to. A much better villain is Loki, who makes a low-key entrance but becomes increasingly interesting, right up to a silly twist at the very end.

There's a lot of people and a lot going on. Thor: The Dark World is good value for money, and I enjoyed it. I think that might partly because I haven't been to the cinema for a few months, and it was a big exciting spectacle and cost me £11.20, plus an extra 80p for my fourth pair of 3D glasses. I barely noticed the 3D effects at all, not sure if that means they were good or not. The only time it was apparent was during Frigga's funeral scene, which was nicely done but wasted on a character I didn't care about.

The plot is this: the nine realms of the Universe are colliding in a once-every-five-thousand years event called the Convergence. At the same time a villainous dark elf reawakens, and also a magic liquid called the aether is rediscovered. I'm not sure which came first, and what caused what. All of these events are heralded as being hugely significant and important, though I don't think they've ever been mentioned before (or probably since).

The important bit is that it happens to be Thor's illicit Earth-love Natalie Portman who rediscovers this dubious aether, and that gets her swept into the plot. Loki tags along with the good guys (some of which have come straight from The Hobbit), but you know he might turn bad at any point. There's plenty of brooding male angst, and I like it.

Some of it is fun, but I don't feel like this movie connects with me at all. Obviously it's a comic book story, but even knowing that it's a very silly movie. The aether, the Tesseract, the Eternity Stones. It feels like they're just making stuff up. There's enough odd Viking stuff already, without all of that.

But I'll probably watch the next movie too.