So, it's a New Year. It's Bye Bye 2013 and Hello 2014. I haven't been as active as I've wanted to with this blog but hey, some weeks or months are just like that. When you eat like a ton of calories from cheese and noodles important things take a backseat. Like these two great sequels that blew the theaters out of the water when they came out during the last 2 months of 2013.

Usually sequels come out disappointing and less than well received by fans of its predecessor, but one thing I can say about these two is that they do not disappoint. Watching movies in the Philippines can be a bit pricey but I didn't feel that I wasted resources watching them.

More awesomeness after the cut. *Contains Spoilers. A LOT of Spoilers*


The movie The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire came out November 22 of last year, this isn't a book series that my good friend Gracie particularly follow. Between the two of us, I'm the fan of the book. But before I fell in love with the book. I, first, got to watch the 1st movie, The Hunger Games last year on DVD. It was good, despite the obvious lack of budget, but it still did really well in the box office. Even getting an 84% from RT, a famous movie review website. I read the books and loved it, shrieking in anticipation when the 2nd movie was announced.

So, when it came out, I was really excited and begged Gracie to watch it with me. The movie starts with Katniss coping with her life after the Games. She's back in 12 living her life as a Victor waiting for the dreaded Victory where she has to tour around Panem, pretty much like promoting a movie but instead she's promoting how awesome the Games is and how merciful the Capitol is but they really aren't. It's like the worst kept secret on Panem but hey, its their world, not mine. Anyhow, Things are pretty ice cold between Peeta and her after the games and they have to continue the lovey dovey act because President Snow threatened to have her and Gale's Family killed if she doesn't subdue the mini rebellions in the districts. She promises to convince the people of Panem, no matter what.

The tour begins in 11, things get violent quickly when an old man does the 3 finger salute and whistle to Katniss and Peeta. Peacekeepers execute him in front of whole District 11 while Katniss is dragged inside the building but not before seeing the slaughter that's happening outside. She freaks out to Haymitch and Peeta and they hatch out a plan that they just continue on playing the star crossed lovers that they are. They continue with the Tour, getting engaged in the process.

At the last stop of the tour, The President's Mansion, they meet Plutarch Heavensbee, a former Game Maker, who just recently returned to the post after Crane's untimely death by berries. He becomes all creepy and cryptic while dancing with Katniss, earning a few Oh Nos from the crowd who hasn't read the books.

After the tour, The Capitol announced that the 75th Annual Hunger Games, The 3rd Quarter Quell. Quarter Quells are basically the same Hunger Games but more brutal since they have a special rule, like in Haymitch's Game, the 50th one, the districts has to reap 4 tributes instead of 2, having 48 tributes trying to kill each other inside the arena.

The next games will be played by former Victors devastating Katniss because she's the only living female tribute making her automatically part of the games. They were reaped again, Peeta volunteering for Haymitch when his name was called to be with Katniss. Oh, poor sweet Peeta, Bless his heart.

They're shipped to the Capitol for the 2nd year in a row. Haymitch once again tutoring them how to survive. They learn about former victors, crowd favorites like Gloss and Cashmere, Brutus and Enobaria and of course, the Peacock. Finnick Odair.

 Note: One thing that disappointed me in the film is that they didn't include a single shot of Haymitch's Games. I know its a detail that gets lost in the translation from books to movie but it would've provided a lot of explanation to Haymitch's character, it also goes to show how tough he is surviving one of the most brutal Games in the history of Panem. It's disappointing but not at all necessary for the story. 

The Games commence and our heroes are then forced to cooperate with Finnick, showing him that he has Haymitch's token, a golden bangle he wears on his wrist signifying their allegiance. I wouldn't go into specifics about the actual scenes from the part of the Games but they encounter venomous fogs, big toothed carnivorous monkeys,blood rain and a huge tidal wave. They encounter Johanna Mason, Beetee and Wiress and expands their group. They lose Mags, the old lady tribute, dies from the fog, A morphling tribute from the monkeys and Wiress when she got her throat slit open by Gloss.

Shit goes down at the last 20 minutes of the movie. Peeta and Katniss gets separated, She thinks Johanna tried to kill her. She tries to find Peeta but fails. She sees Beetee lying on the ground unconscious, while Finnick looks on from a distance. She was about to shoot him when he utters the one line that isn't from the book that perfectly sums up the purpose of the 2nd book, "Remember who the real enemy is", she shoots an arrow toward the force field above them, destroying the arena in the process, losing consciousness right after.

She wakes up in a hovercraft, and hears people talking in the other room. She arms herself with a big ass syringe and attacks then realizing that it was Haymitch, Finncik and Plutarch. They reveal that it was their plan to get her out of the Arena and that she's the key to the rebellion and that one tiny detail that made her lose it. They couldn't get Peeta. He's there in the Capitol being tortured. She loses her shit again and has to be sedated. She again wakes up with Gale, telling her that District 12 is now in ruins but her family is safe and they got out safely but probably killing thousands of other people in their district. The camera shifts to Katniss' face, looking al heartbroken for a second then, it changes into complete apathy. I know my words doesn't give it justice but damn that scene was haunting.

All I can say is, out of all the sequels that I've watched in my entire life. This is the one that impressed me the most. it may be a biased opinion but I really think that the director, Francis Lawrence gave justice to the book. One of the themes that I like from this sequel is that they showed PTSD, and how these tributes decided to cope with the horrors of the Games. They also succeeded doing what sequels are supposed to do. Hype up the Game. Like the title suggests, Catching Fire, this movie was about the start of a full blown rebellion from the oppressive capitol. And Katniss, the Girl who was on Fire, sparked that rebellion. I dunno why Suzzane Collins killed of Cinna but damn, that character is a damn genius. I'm half sure he's partly responsible of this rebellion along with Finnick, Haymitch and Plutarch. I will miss Lenny Kravitz in the next two movies but I will look forward to them nonetheless.

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Damn, this post will be long. Haha, But I shall move on to the last movie of 2013 that I had the luxury of watching in the cinema. The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug.

This movie is one that Gracie and I have waited for a whole year, having watched the 1st installment of the movie series we wanted to continue the tradition and watch it in the theaters to. Almost didn't get to see it to because of scheduling difficulties, but alas, we were able to watch it. We had to go through some shitty service from the staff of RACKS SM MEGAMALL but heck, we were full and we wanted to watch dwarves fight a dragon and we did, and it was AWESOME. This will be  lot shorter since the story is just part of the novel, the movie lasted for over 2 hours with cinematics and action scenes alone.

The story picks up right after the 1st movie, with Bilbo and the company of dwarves he's with travelling to the Lonely Mountain. They're still running from the Orcs they encountered in the first movie. They are helped by a Skin-Changer, though not really with his consent, by providing shelter and horses to the group for them to reach Mirkwood's gates.

Gandalf, being forewarned by Galadriel in the first movie of a dark sorcerer named The Necromancer, residng in Dol Guldur. Gandalf leaves the company of the dwarves and goes to investigate

While walking inside the dark forests, they are then confused by the air in the forest giving them visions that stray them from the path to get to the exit. They are attacked by humongous spiders threatening to eat them. Bilbo, still holding on to the one ring, is starting to get corrupted by it. He brutally killed a baby giant spider when it was about to take the ring from him. He realizes what he has done, pockets the ring and helps his friends. They are ultimately outnumbered and was helped by Tauriel, Legolas and their other elf soldiers. The dwarves are captured and brought forward to the Elven King Thranduil, Legolas' father, while Bilbo still wearing the One Ring remains invisible and follows them to Mirkwood to help them.

Note: Lee Pace, the actor that plays Thranduil is the hottest piece of Elven ass I've ever seen. There is a significant lacking of bad ass Elk riding but damn, He sure knows how to work those eyebrows. 

 Thorin and Thranduil then have a screaming match about who did not help who during the first attack of Smaug. Thranduil, believing that he will just let his people get slaughtered by a fire breathing dragon, decided not to help the dwarves and turned his back on Thorin when they needed his help. I get Thranduil and why he is doing this things, but damn, he's a coward. I guess Legolas was compensating for his father's behavior.

The Dwarf company is then thrown to the dungeons. We see a little flirting happening between Tauriel and Kili. Talk about Interracial love, right? and totally pisses off Legolas,who has the hots for Tauriel. Bilbo finds a way to help them when the guards are drunk from meade and then proceeds to free them from their dungeons, smuggles them to the kitchen and makes them ride barrels to ride onto towards freedom. This when when the fire benders attack. Ooops, Wrong movie. So, Orcs attack them while they're floating in the water, Elves hot on their heels realising their prisoners are gone. They kind of help each other out kills Orcs in the river. Tauriels decides to follow them out of sense of duty to Middle Earth and and Legolas joins her because well, he wants to get up on it.

While all of these shit are happening, Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur to investigate about the Necromancer. He then lifts the concealment spell in the area and it is then revealed that Dol Guldur has been the hiding placed of a dark power, a reawakening of Sauron, and pretty much a millions Orc and their monster dogs. He gets defeated by the Dark power and we would not know what happens to Gandalf till the next movie.

This is when they meet Bard, the Boatman and he agrees to smuggle them across the lake for a price. They go through his town, Esgaroth, a lake town which was once prosperous before the attack of Smaug. Bard helps them get weapons, but when he learns that one of the dwarves he is smuggling is Thorin, he cahanges his mind to help him, saying that a prophecy was told the Thorin will bring death by dragon fire to the citizens of Esgaroth.But their balding town mayor, is convinced that Thorin will share his gold to the citizens. He provides them with real weapons and a boat to cross the lake. Bofur, Fili and Kili are then left in Esgaroth because of Kili's injury from an Orc arrow that hit him in the leg. It got infected and it's killing him. Bard helps him and Bofur tries to find the herbs they use to clean wounds. This is the time Orcs once again attack, destroying Bard's house in the process. They are rescued by Tauriel and Legolas killing the Orcs following Bilo and company. Tauriel does some Elf Magic Healing on Kili, so yeah, fanservice.

 They reach the mountain, almost leaving before they could open the secret door, they ask Bilbo to find the Arkenstone and hopefully not wake the fire breathing dragon sleeping below all the treasure.

But we won't get any action if the dragon doesn't wake up, Bilbo, while looking for the stone pulled a chalice that revealed the sleeping dragon, and ultimately wakens it. Smaug correctly deduces what Bilbo is doing and for what and whom. The scene where Bilbo and Smaug exchange lines is absolutely to watch out for.

A fight scene commences when Thorin finally decides to help Bilbo risking his own life to get the Arkenstone. Smaug recognizes Thorin. Huge series of amazing CGI scenes follows as they try and stay alive and out of range from Smaug's fire. Bilbo sees a small weak spot of Smaug that was put there but Bard's ancestor. I imagine that this bit of info will play a great deal in killing Smaug the dragon and preventing him from toasting everyone in Esgaroth. The movie ends with Bilbo watching Smaug flying towards Esgaroth saying, "What have we done.."

For a viewer that hasn't read the book or watch the 1st Hobbit movie, this movie would not make sense for shit. That's why its a sequel. you have to watch the 1st one first. but unlike other sequels like Catching Fire, The Hobbit is one book that is hard to summarize without sounding like a complete nutter. It's too complicated and the movie has to many details that they get from the previous movie, for it to make sense. It's certainly not a stand alone movie. This, mi amigos, is marathon material.

But for someone who refreshed on the LOTR movie series and the first Hobbit movie, this movie an absolute thirst quencher for one who is aching for some Middle Earth ass kicking and Elven Sorcery. It delivers well as a sequel to yet another block buster trilogy. The actors are great. The action scenes are freaking awesome and as a personal treat for me, Benedict Cumberbatch voices the dragon Smaug  and damn, He is one menacing sonofabitch. He deep voice delivering the articulate lines of Smaug is utterly chilling, and yes, this is all biased opinion. What can I say? I love them Good British Actors, and Bilbo is amazingly played by Martin Freeman, you can really hear the fear from his voice. he looks absolutely terrifed too. I am once again aching for December for the last installment of the story.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE : 4 movie reels out of 5

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG: 5 movie reels out of 5