Young Adult Month - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

In the not too distant future, after a disaster takes place

A nerdy guy with Rage Issues, among the last of the human race

He was just a media nerd, he ranted a lot, it was quite absurd

But he was special for some reason, so bad men decided it was Rage Issues season

He’ll star in 3 movies, 4 if we squeeze him dry

He’ll go and join a rebel force, as he’ll slowly lose his mind

Now keep in mind, he’s just a guy, no different from you or me

So, he’ll have to learn how to survive, with the help of YA Movies

Franchise Roll call:

The Hunger Games

The Maze Runner

Diiiiiiiivergent

If you’re wondering how he posts his thoughts, and who he’s posting for

Repeat to yourself, it’s just a theme, and stop thinking any more

It’s Young Adult Month!

And we’re continuing with the Hunger Games with Catching Fire. Released in 2013, the first thing of note about this movie is the change in director. Francis Lawrence takes the helm with this movie sees it through to the franchise’s conclusion, Gary Ross stepping down due to the ‘tight’ scheduling of the movie.

They also had an issue that Jennifer Lawrence was working on X-men: Days of Future Past (where she plays Mystique) at around the same time, so scheduling had to be agreed between Fox and Lionsgate.

Still, it was successful earning over $800m on a $140 budget and has a respectable 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critic score of 7.6/10 and an audience rating of 89% with an average 4.2/5.

Young Adult Month - The Hunger Games

In the not too distant future, after a disaster takes place

A nerdy guy with rage issues, among the last of the human race

He was just a media nerd, he ranted a lot, it was quite absurd

But he was special for some reason, so bad men decided it was Rage Issues season

He’ll star in 3 movies, 4 if we squeeze him dry (la-la-la)

He’ll go and join a rebel force, as he’ll slowly lose his mind (la-la-la)

Now keep in mind, he’s just a guy, no different from you or me

So, he’ll have to learn how to survive, with the help of YA Movies

Franchise Roll call

Hunger Games

Maze Runner

Diiiiiiiivergent

If you’re wondering how he posts his thoughts, and who he’s posting for

Repeat to yourself, it’s just a theme, and stop thinking any more

It’s Young Adult Month!

After the success, such as it was, of the Twilight series, Lionsgate and other studios greenlit a bunch of other book adaptations aimed at Young Adults. The best and most popular of these, in popular consciousness at least is The Hunger Games. Released in 2012, the movie gained popularity, making nearly $700m on a $78m budget. And it was critically well received too, with an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 7.3/10, with an 81% audience score, averaging 4.1/5.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge - Season 1 Episodes 10-13

Pixar Playlist #2 - A Bug's Life

Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not: The Pixar Playlist

Goddamn it, I thought I’d gotten away from Kevin Spacey, f*ck this guy! I guess it’s time for A Bug’s Life! Released in 1998, A Bugs Life is notoriously started a spat between Disney and Dreamworks, as Disney conveniently stated the release day for A Bug’s Life on the same day as Dreamworks’ Antz film. The result of this is for another day, maybe…

But A Bugs life has a pretty positive reputation, a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average 7.9/10 and a respectable 79% audience score with an average 3.3/5. It made $380m on its $120m budget, which is a big budget considering the first movie had ¼ of that.

I won’t lie, I don’t like this film very much, so let’s start with the narrative

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge season 1 episodes 7-9

 

Mini Review - Elektra

I was hoping to make a long review of this, but upon a rewatch, I didn’t think I had the material to do that. My thoughts on Daredevil have somewhat changed, but I’m leaving the details for something special next year, for now, just know that Elektra Natchios was introduced in that film and because of the relative success of Daredevil, a spin-off was released in 2005 with Elektra as the star

Elektra was not successful in any way, it scored a meagre 10% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 3.8/10, it has an audience score of 29% with an average 2.6/5, but worse than that it made only $56.7m on a $43 budget, which when you factor in theatre cuts and marketing, results in a net loss for the studio. This film has a certain infamy as one of the worst (the worst is coming, we’ll get to it) but it that entirely warranted? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge - Season 1 Episodes 4-6

 

Guilty Pleasures #54 - Pacific Rim: Uprising

There’s something about giant robots fighting giant monsters that’s just awesome. It’s why shows like Power Rangers, Transformers, Voltron and various anime still last till this day. I said I’d be awaiting this sequel with interest, and so here we are. Pacific Rim: Uprising.

Pacific Rim Uprising had a troubled development, there was a dispute over something or another (likely budget) between the distributors Universal Studios and the production company Legendary Pictures that lead to production being delayed by a year. Guillermo Del Toro, although instrumental in getting the film off the ground, was not directing this one (he was doing The Shape of Water, he got the better end of that deal) and a rewritten script by Steven S DeKnight (who also directs), Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder (no relation to Zack or Scott Snyder) and the soon to be infamous on Rage Issues T S Nowlin

The film had a budget of around $190m and made $270m at the box office, a significant downgrade on its predecessor and likely a financial failure for the studios. Critics and audiences gave it a mixed response with 44% and 41% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes respectively with average scores of 5/10 and 3/5. So, what is it about this one where people drew the line where they didn’t last time? Let’s take a look and find out.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge - Season 1 Episodes 1-3

How to Train Your Dragon has been a great success for Dreamworks and whilst the latest film is to bring the film trilogy to a close, there may still be life for it on Television. Dreamworks’ Dragons began as 2 20-episode series, the first titled Riders of Berk and the second Defenders of Berk. I would have covered these but I don’t have copies of them and they’re not on Netflix, but the follow-up: Race to the Edge is, so we will be covering that. Whilst there are a few story beats that carry over between the series, there’s nothing that makes the show difficult to follow so without further ado, let’s begin this Retrospective on Dragons: Race to the Edge.