Ant-Man spoiler free movie review

Behold, in the year of our lord 2015 a hero will emerge that may at first go unnoticed because of his stature.  Word will spread of his deeds and his renown will grow!


Saw Ant-Man this weekend.  Let me tell you, it was great.  I think I enjoyed it more than age of Ultron.  It just hit the right note.  I am not a huge Ant-Man comics fan.  I did read the Scott Lang origin story and an issue where he gets a job working for Tony Stark.  Classic Ant-Man was never really my thing, though.  I worried about Marvel's ability to put up a hero that would be believable in a battle against super-powered opponents.  I saw the movie because I trust Marvel.  They have not abused that trust to this point. 


This movie should have come out on Father's Day weekend as Fatherhood is a huge theme in this movie.  It covers absent fathers, distant fathers, step fathers, father figures, and redemption.  I think it handles the relationships pretty realistically, even in the context of and separated from realism, comic book universe. 


The action was amazing. They really surprised me with how they handled the fight choreography and the use of Ant-Man's powers.  They managed to make the combatants in the fight completely serious and still infuse humor into the fight scenes.  In the climactic fight scene you don't get the Spider-man, I am not really taking this seriously, banter (that is fine for Spidey, it his thing).  The characters are fighting and it feels like a fight,  hate on one side, and a defensive attitude on the other, lightened up by secondary scenes and plays on setting.  This created the perfect tone. 


Go see this movie, heck, take your dad to see this movie, you both will enjoy it immensely.  If you don't have a dad, take someone else's.  My girls took me, and the movie was all the better for it. 

I Am Legend- audiobook review

I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is just as good the second time around. It has been a few years since I read the book the first time. This time I listened to the audio. The director of the audio book made some different interpretations of the I Am Legend story, but the reading was well done. The other stories, though, I couldn't get through due to the reading. I remember enjoying several of the stories previously, especially the Mad House one and the monster funeral, but there were funny voices and whatnot and It kind of ruined the mood. I would suggest reading instead of listening to this one.

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Rocket Girl-comic review

Monday evening I recieved my copy of Rocket Girl numero uno in the mail. I had contributed to the kickstarter for this project and have been looking forward to it for the past few months. It is written by Brandon Montclare and art by Amy Reeder. This title is published on the Image imprint.

First off, the artwork is amazing. I really liked it. It was krisp, clean, and vibrant. For project updates they would release images from the book and they always looked like cover images. Every panel is done with that same quality.

The story was engaging but a little hard to follow sometimes as it divides itself between the future (2013) and the present (1986). The Future is a very futuristic and stylized 2013 with flying cars, jet packs, half Swedish/half Korean teenage girl police officers. DaYoung is sent back into 1986 to presumably stop her timeline from happening. Why? Well that isn't explained in the first issue.

Pretty good first issue, can't wait for #2.

The Historian's Tale -Book Review

The Historian's Tale by K.B. Shaw
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received the book as a review copy. I am usually skeptical of self published works, but I have read an earlier novel of Shaw's as well as the short story that he expanded this novel into. So I knew he was capable of delivering a good story and he didn't let me down here. He does a pretty good job of creating this society with its strange rules. He shows some world building skill in the part of the book where they explore the basin, and I imagine/hope that would be further developed later in the series. There are a few weeknesses of this book. The middle part slows down as the characters discover and try to understand the technology that they have found. Not sure how you liven that section up, though. I would have also liked a bit more explanation from the chancilor. I understand the implementation of the sex scenes to differentiate Neworld culture from Earth culture, but it did seem a bit gratuitous, especially for a YA book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I would love to see the solar map in a future book that shows the binary star and the planet's orbit around them and how it effects the cycles, but I realize, I may be in the minority on that part. It was a quick read, which was a welcome respite after a few of the more recent books that I have read (looking at you 2312 and Consider Phlebas). I would catagorize it more as teen than YA with a 14+ age range.

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Mistborn-Book Review

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't like to read fantasy. There I said it. I think a majority of the books labeled fantasy are dreck or are blatent rip offs of the Lord of the Rings. Every once in a while something will come along and I will pick it up for whatever reason and be pleasently surprised (GoT, NotW, first couple of WoT). Add Mistborn to the list. It has the chosen one cliche that pretty much all fantasy has, but it kind of puts a spin on it. The story was completely original, as far as I know, with its use of alomancy and the other thing that Terrismen can do that looks just as hard to pronounce as it is to spell. I see that there are two sequels of increasing length, but the story in this book wraps itself up in a nice tight package with a little bow. I can see where the next book would come from but it isn't a you have to read the whole series after reading the first book. I might or I might not. I have heard this described as postapocolyptic high fantasy and I think that is an apt description.

I would recommend this to people who like fantasy and even to people on the fense about it. It does take about 50-100 pages to really get into so be aware that it is a slow starter. I don't think it inclines itself more to women or men. Safe for kids that are okay with reading about violence.

Should I read the second book?

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Warlock- Movie Review

Warlock(1989) was on one of the pay channels recently and I sat down and watched it with my wife and kids.  I haven't seen it in years and years.  My wife had never seen it.  I remember absolutely loving it as a kid.  It is still good.  Well, if you liked it back in the day, it is still good.  If you hated way back when, then you probably won't like it any better. 

The premise of this overlooked movie is that a witch from the 17th century escapes through time before he can be tried.  A witch hunter, whose wife the witch killed, is able to follow him through the portal into the 20th century.  Upon arrival in the 20th century the witch proceeds to summon Satan and get orders to put together the Grand Grimiore, or, as it may also be known, Satan's spell book.  This would give the witch the name of God that he could then say backwards, uncreating creation. 

The movie is a lot of fun and spawned a couple of sequels.  It is rated R in the 1980s system, but might be more of a heavy PG-13 in current standards, for blood, violence, and profanity.  My wife, who will always raise objections if any are to be had, didn't say a word.  She gets scared easily and screamed several times.  If you don't watch it for any other reason, do so to learn the signs that a witch is in your house. 

Does anyone else remember this one?

Usurper of the Sun- Book Review

The story can get bogged down in technical mumbo jumbo. I didn't see a lot of character development. It was a very Japanese novel, which isn't a bad thing. Overall it was okay to good. I really liked some of the concepts presented even if I don't feel that the planet mercury has enough matter to create one ring, let alone a second around the sun. I thought the ending was kind of weak. No real payoff. You could easily cut 40 pages out of this story and make it much more enjoyable, or, conversley, Add about as much in character development and get a much better story.

This is a first contact story so if you like first contact stuff this may be up your alley.  You also may enjoy this more if you are interested in AIs.  Safe for the kiddies but they probably won't enjoy it much. 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

I must preface this review with the statement that I have read and enjoyed the book that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter  was based on.  My Review Here, Steve's review here.

Disappointed.  That is how I feel; disappointed.  I mean.  I told everyone how great the book was and how factual it was.  I think I have said that the book is 90% biography and 10% vampires.  I stick by that for the book. A lot of poeple I said this to, will not read the book, but they will watch the movie.  What will they think of me after that. 

The acting was good.  I saw it mentioned that the guy playine Lincoln looked a lot like Liam Neeson, my wife mentioned it as well.  Alan Tudyk was Stephen Douglas which was a pleasant surprise. 

The plot was similar to that of the book except that it wasn't any good.  They turned this into an action movie.  Actually it was more of a superhero movie with Lincoln having super human strength and agility.  According to the movie, Lincoln only had one child who was murdered by vampires.  In reality, Lincoln had 4 sons, two of which died before Lincoln himself (vampires?).  The other two sons outlived Lincoln, but only one made it to adulthood (vampires?).  The book gets this right. 

The beauty of the book is that it did not try and shoe horn vampires into the story.  It took tragic events in Lincolns life and attributed them to vampires.  It takes those empty periods when Lincoln wasn't making history and attributed those times to vampires.  The movie fails in this respect.  Maybe there wasn't enough time to tell the Lincoln story and the vampire story, but only telling half makes the movie lose its charm. 

Overall- It is an action movie.  It is not as good as the book.  I would say 10 and up due to action violence. 

Cloud Atlas- Book Review

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very frustrating. Some good concepts and interesting formatting, but, ultimately, not well executed. I an sure it had a theme, but I am not sure that I could be troubled to puzzle it out.

The story- There are like six stories of varying genres so chances are you are going to like one of them.  I really liked the Son-Mi story, but the ending of it was very unsatisfactory to me.  I think my comment on finishing that part was that I wanted to throw the kindle out the window.  The stories are all split in two and the first half of each starts in the past and move forward chronologically.  The most future story is told in its entirety and then the second half of each story is told in reverse chronological order.  Interesting formatting.

Overall- it was a slow book that is very long.  I can't really recommend it, though.  3 stars is me being generous, it is actually about a 2.5 but I really liked the Son Mi story (until the end).  I am not sure why it got all the praise it did and don't look forward to seeing the movie as it reads as a pretty unfilmable movie. 

Did you read it or see the movie?  Let me know what you thought. 
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It's a Wrap: Scare Me Blogfest

Thanks everyone for participating and making the Scare Me! Blogfest a huge success. 

Before I announce my favorites, we did have some late posts and entries some of you might have missed.  Undy a Hundy posted a little later than most others and Permission Granted didn't even sign up until the last minute. 

I was blown away by the stories, reviews, and real life experiences that people submitted.  We even had artwork submitted.  For that I am awarding everyone a blog Award.  If you participated just copy the image below. 

There were some standouts that required additional recognition.  So for these three, they will get a ebook of The Collected Stories of H.P. Lovecraft volume 1. 

 

For Book or Movie Review-  Me!, no just kidding, Economic Disconnect for his in depth look at the horror of The Exorcist. 

For most frightening experience-  The Warrior Muse and her run in with a psycopath as a child. 



Scariest Story acclaims go to-  Shallee McArthur for the Ghostification of Jonas Cray.

Thanks again to everyone that participated.  I hope everyone got lots of comments, page views, and new followers. 

The Hobbit- Book Review by Ashli (age 11)

The Hobbit was a very fun and exciting book by J.R.R Tolkien. I liked it because Bilbo was justanother hobbit, not a brave warrior who had set out to steal from the great dragon, Smaug.Another thing I liked about the book was that the characters kind of added Bilbo to

theirjourney, not Bilbo adding them to his. I particularly like how Tolkien told the story, and howthe characters presented themselves. The story had the kind of dialogue that you would haveexpected from a normal person, the way they talked and acted was very much imperfect,which to the books benefit, made it even better. This book is one of my favorites, and I wouldrecommend this book to anyone who loves adventure, humor, and suspense, or anyone inbetween the ages of 9 and whatever. It is a must read and you’ll find yourself not being able toput the book down!

John Carter-Spoiler Free Movie Review

John Carter of Mars was disappointing.  It was...too Disney.  I understand that some changes would be needed in order to make the movie work, but the end result of the movie is almost unrecognizable from the book it was based on.  Some of the changes I liked and some of them I didn't quite care for.  I thought the Red Martians should be more read or at least more different than humans on Earth.  The Tarks and Woolah were entirely too cute to be considered threatening. 

Ashli, who has not yet read Princess of Mars, thought the movie was great.  Maybe I will get her to do an unbiased review.  As I feel that reading the book less than a year before watching the movie, may have ruined things for me. 

If you can't tell from the above picture I am in love with Lynn Collins.  This may be compounded by the fact that I was already in love with Deja Thoris. 

Among Others- Book Review

Among Others, by Jo Walton, is a hard book to describe.  I guess the easiest way is to say that it is the winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo awards.  I don't know if it is deserving of the award as I have not read the other nominees as of this writing.  It is very interesting and it is in a diary type format, but I think the best way to describe it is as a coming of age story...for girls.  It has fairies and boys and father issues; yep, definitely a coming of age story for girls. 

Plot-  We meet young Mor on an adventure with her twin and then we are transported to a future where Mor is alone and her sister is dead.  Mor is leaving the Magical Welsh countryside and is stuck in a very unmagical boarding school.  It is kind of like Harry Potter in reverse.  Along the way we get to hear about all the wonderful science fiction and fantasy books that she is reading, some(most) of which, we still haven't read.

Characters-  I don't know how much to say here as I don't want to ruin anyone elses raw interpretation of the book.  Finish the book and then email me and we can talk about Mor.  Mor is really the only developed character.  Mor sees the other characters as fulfilling roles and they aren't established beyond these roles, this works as the book is a diary. 

Overall-  The book left me conflicted.  It has some action I guess, but that is always secondary.  It is more of an exploration of Mor and her coming of age story.  Thankfully the writing is good and it is very easy to be consumed into Mor's world.  I should have known it wasn't going to be a normal story as the narrator tells someone along the way that he is looking at things as if they were a story and that stuff doesn't happen in real life.  I was not, however, satisfied with the ending. 

I am not sure who to recommend this book to.  I am letting my 11 year old read it, knowing that there are some adult situations in the book and talk of sex, pregnancy, abortion, incest, and homosexuality.  She knows about all these things, but they are presented a bit differently in this book than what she may be used to and that we may discuss afterwards.  it was good, but I don't know if it was great. 

Parasite Eve- Book Review

Hey, do you remember that Parasite Eve videogame from the 90's? Well, it was a sequel to a Novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena.  It was also a movie, released direct to DVD around 2001 here in The States. 

Synopsis-  Toshiaki's wife dies in a car accident and she has an organ donor card for her kidneys.  Her mitochondria is what caused the accident and they are also manipulating her husband, a pharmicology professor who specializes in mitochondria, into taking her liver and creating cell cultures for experiments.  The mitochondria is tired of being enslaved by humanity and wants to become the lead in our symbiotic relationship.  To do this the mitochondria will have to create a hybrid baby.  Good thing one of the kidneys was transplanted into a 14 year old girl with a viable womb. 

Unfortunately the writing in this story is too acedemic.  The author really knows his stuff and tends to over explain every scientific detail.  This really slows down the story and takes all of the tension out of what could be a scary story.  Neal Stephenson also does this, but he usually just limits it to one or two places in the book.  You get a full explanation of all the science or math you could hope for in one chapter and then he lets it go.  I think this is a better approach. 

There are also translation issues.  Japanese people talk a certain way and it is perfectly normal in Japanese and not always literal.  When translated some things need to be changed to make it not sound completely stupid in English.  An example would be a graduation ceremony at the end of the novel, the character's name is called and she responds with "Hai!"  Hai literally  means yes, but in Japan it has a lot more roles, like present, or I agree, or okay, or just as an acnowledgement.  In this instance it is more like the character is saying "I am here to accept my diploma" but it is translated as "Yes!"  Another instance is at the beginning of the novel when a character calls someone.  After the character says who he is, the other character asks if that is really him.  It reads very corny in English, but in Japan it has more to do with respect and could have been translated better by having the character say "to what do I owe the pleasure of this call."  The book is full of little things like this in the dialogue, and that is annoying. 

Over all it was a pretty fun book and a bit educational if not over my head in few places.  I don't think I was ever really scared, but the book did have me hooked to see what happened.  I will not lie, I was kind of rooting for Eve as I thought a fully developed Eve would be a great antagonist and a bit more interesting than what we were given. 

This book would be pretty safe for 9th grade up, it does have some sexual situations, but nothing too graphic.  The violence isn't as bloody as you would expect.  I have a hard time calling this one Horror, but that is what it is classified as. 

Anthem- Book Review

Having never read Ayn Rand and hearing how polarizing her writing is, I decided to give it a shot.  Anthem is available for free at the Amazon store for Kindle, so I downloaded it and dug in.  This book isn't very long, I would say long short story or novellete range and is a fairly quick read. 

The story takes place in a post apocolyptic future where it seems war has sent us back to the middle ages, at least technically.  Man was forced to relearn such essential skills as glass and candle making.  The system that has developed in society is one of communism; communism so deep that characters refer to themselves as we and only think about their actions in light of how they will affect their brothers.  Equality 7-2521 is a character that doesn't fit in and has a love of knowledge and decides to pursue his yearning for knowledge despite being assigned the position of street sweeper.

The book is obviously an attack on communism.  Rand makes the arguement that the individual is more important than the group, and that individuals following their desires will do more to benefit society.  She shows that working and accomplishing something on your own is more rewarding than having that same thing given to you.  She argues that the human spirit needs individualism and will strive for it. 

I enjoyed the book.  I don't think this work is the one people feel so ademantly opposed to.  While you may not agree with her politically, this is a fairly unoffensive story.  The story is fairly predictable in format and feels like a lot of other Science Fiction from that time period, but some of the writing is very good.  One chapter towards the end when our friend Equality is discovering his own philosophy is a great example.  I would recommend this one highly. 


"There is nothing to take a man's freeedom away from him, save other men."

"What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it?  What is my wisdom,  if even the foos can dictate to me?  What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters?  What is my life, if I am to bow, to agree, and to obey?"

Avengers- Movie Review

If you are the one person in North America that did not see The Avengers this weekend, you are missing out.  It was a nonstop thrill ride with a surprising amount of humor.  The movie only slows down long enough for the viewer to catch their breath and then it picks right back up again. 

 

Avengers shows us that despite what the Dark Knight trilogy may have thought it taught us, a comic book movie does not need to be dark and 100 percent serious to be truly Awesome.  This movie showed us that we can have fun at the movies again. 

 

I did not see it in 3d so cannot comment on that, but the rest of the effects in the movie were excellent.  If you show up for a pre noon showing at AMC you can get tickets for any movie for $6, and that is what I did.  The whole family enjoyed the movie for $24.  Added bonus, my 7yo was wearing her Wonder Woman and Batman buttons that she had received on Free Comic Book Day and the lady behind the counter called her over and gave her a bag of Avengers buttons.  The movie was so good and spotlighted the stars so well, that my girls didn’t even argue about who got which pin, they were happy with any of them. 

 

It is fun for the whole family.  To be honest, had my kids not made a big deal about this movie, I might not have seen this one in theaters.  Well with all the buzz that is coming out this week, I may have.  But, I went to see this movie because my kids, especially my 7yo wanted to see it.  My wife just tagged along with no interest at all.  We all loved it.  My kids have not stopped talking about it since.  They want more.  They want to see the movie again. 

 

Go see this movie.  Be sure to stay for the stinger.  It is so worth it. 

 

 

Book Review: Graveminder, by Melissa Marr

A couple of months ago, I was casting about for a new audiobook to listen to and it happened to be right as Goodreads was releasing its Readers Choice Awards for 2011. Melissa Marr’s novel Graveminder won Best Horror, so I decided to give it a shot.

In the story, a young woman, Rebekkah Barrow (also, 2011 Egregious Name-Spelling Award Winner), is called back to her hometown of Claysville (vaguely Ozark-y/Appalachia-y) after her grandmother is mysteriously murdered. Rebekkah has fond memories of her grandmother, following her through graveyards as she tended the graves of the dead (I mean, who doesn’t?). Because apparently, the dead in Claysville don’t always stay dead…

What transpires is a tale the restless dead, family secrets, star-crossed love, trips to the Underworld, and deals with the devil, or sort of devil, or something, I’m not really sure, because it’s never made very clear, but it’s very clear that he’s The Bad Guy.

One thing that is very clear, however, is that Graveminder is a patchwork of supernatural cliches that never rises above formula and seems to be trying very very hard to capture the same audience as Charlaine Harris and Sookie Stackhouse. Sadly, this book sinks below what I would expect for even something mediocre — mostly because I feel that Marr was lazy.

At the beginning of the story, Rebekkah contemplates her youth back in Claysville from her apartment in the Gaslight district of San Diego. That’s a hard task, because there ISno Gaslight district in San Diego. It’s Gaslamp. Do you know how long it took me to find the correct use of Gaslamp versus Gaslight? About 40 seconds on Wikipedia. To me, that’s a lazy author (and editor). Now that may seem picky, but horror authors require readers’ suspension of disbelief to be effective, so being credible in other parts of the story is critically important. So she began to lose me almost from the outset. Still, I had hope.

Later, we learn that the “normal” citizens of Claysville get headaches and forgetful when confronted with anything supernatural. Seriously? That’s the way you’re going to handle the fact that someone sees a kid that died last week walking down the street? They just get a headache and forget it? How convenient. Then, when someone manages to man-up and ask a question, you get statements like, “Things are just different here” and “That’s the way things are here.” Oy. Again, I can’t suspend that much disbelief and for a storyteller, that’s just lazy.

Later, we find out that there’s a secret contract between the powers that be in the town and the Bad Guy. Rebekkah’s love interest goes to the Underworld and signs it (for a new generation) in blood without reading it. Without. Reading. It. I’m just going to stop here.

Clearly, by winning the Goodreads Readers Choice Award, there are a lot of people that liked Graveminder. Obviously, I’m not one of them.

One star out of five

Book Review: The City & The City, by China Mieville

One of my favorite books from a couple of years ago was Kraken by China Mieville. I enjoyed that audiobook so much that there was a part of me that had some trepidation about reading more of Mieville’s books because I worried that maybe they wouldn’t be as good as that first one, right? Please tell me that I’m not the only person that feels this way when they first discover a new writer or band.

Anyway, I overcame my perhaps unwarranted hesitancy and read Mieville’s novel previous to Kraken: The City and The City. At its core, it’s a detective novel. The setting is the rival Eastern European-ish cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. A woman from one city is found dead in the other and haggard Beszel detective Tyador Borlu must work through the barriers in his own corrupt department as well as navigate the other city-state’s unfamiliar customs and inherent distrust to solve the crime.

Now, this might sound all pretty straightforward, but Mieville’s innovation is the locale. Beszel and Ul Qoma aren’t neighboring cities like East and West Berlin, or Buda and Pest. Their streets and buildings literally co-occupy the same space. This creates an environment in which citizens of one city are required to “unsee” and “unhear” the citizens of the other, even though they might be walking down the same street or sitting on the same park bench. Monitoring everyone from both cities is the (almost) all-seeing secret police, Breach, which ruthlessly “disappears” offenders that break the rules of separation.

Of course, Mieville is too subtle a writer to spell things out with exposition. He just dunks you right in and makes you figure the nuances of this world out for yourself. For me, this caused the first several chapters to be downright disorienting. And I found that slightly off-balance feeling staying with me during the entire book – which I’m pretty sure was the intention all along.

The overlapping cities and the beaten down, paranoid police-state culture that comes with it are the real stars of the book and create a palpable noir feel. Of course, the construct invites clear parallels to our own society, whether it’s “unseeing” the homeless person you walk past everyday, or “unhearing” facts that disagree with your own political worldview, or having a population that’s willfully ignorant. These contemplations lingered with me long after I put the book down.

The City and The City is solid detective mystery set in one of the most original backgrounds I’ve come across in a long time that can even induce a little self-reflection. See? Nothing to worry about.

Four solid stars.

Zone One- A second look

Based on Steve's review of Zone One, I decided to pick it up.  This book isn't really your normal zombie novel.  It doesn't concentrate so much on the gore and is more philisophical.  This effect is magnified as the author writes in a stream of conciousness style.  The main character is suffer from PASD (post apocalypse stress disorder) so this stream of conciousness can jump around quite a bit and not seem to make much sense.  There are many instances where the timeline just shifts without any warning.  It makes the book a much slower read, but it is still a good story and quite enjoyable.  It is actually a litterary zombie story.  I think Steve's assessment of a 4 is fair.  I am not a huge fan of stream of conciousness, but this one was still engaging. 


Here are some things I clipped from this novel:
"Time slowed down in situations like this, to grant dread a bigger stage."
"He stopped hooking up with other people once he realized that the first thing he did was calculate whether or not he could out run them."

Yes the book is dark.  I won't say it is for everyone, but it is good. 

Hunger Games- Movie Review

Having read all the books, I can say that Hunger Games might be one of the best movie to book adaptations I have seen.  There were only a few things that were different and none of them were game changers. 

Jennifer Lawrence had a powerful performance as Katniss and showed us all that pretty faces can have acting chops.  The reaping scene was especially potent and you could feel the pain she was experiencing.  The three finger salute to district 11 was powerful as well and had all three of the girls that I went with in tears.  Everyone else did good jobs, but Lawrence knocked this out of the park. 

If I had to give the movie a flaw, I would have to say that it was in pacing.  It seemed to slow almost to a crawl in certain places, but maybe that was just from the perspective of the rest of the film.  I think any flaws the movie had were from the director as the screen play and the acting where right on target.  An example would be at the reaping.  It takes Katniss a good 15-20 seconds to get moving.  I think the time would have been better served having her fight through the crowd, knock some peace keepers down, be detained, look into Prim’s eyes, and then volunteer.  Lawrence worked with what she was given though and still made it one of the most powerful moments from the film.

The movie isn’t overly violent.  I mean, especially for a film about gladiatorial combat where 24 enter and 1 leaves.  Most death strikes are not shown, but there is a fair amount of blood shown.  I could tell that they were trying to ride that PG-13 line, but they did it in the best possible way.  I wasn’t as thrilled with the second and third books and will be interested to see if the screen writers make any changes to improve that.