Top 5 SFF releases of 2012

2012 looks set to be an good year for SFF fans, who can anticipate a number of exciting releases (no, I’m NOT talking about G.I. JOE: Retaliation or, worse, John Carter). Here are my top five picks of new SFF material coming out in 2012 (not including novels):

5) The Hunger Games movie (release date 23 March 2012 (NB. UK release date, as found on IMDB)) – Having just finished reading the books (find my reviews here and here), I’m curious to see how director Gary Ross will transform these brutal YA novels into film. My hopes are high, as the trailer looks pretty good:

4) The Dark Knight Rises (20 July 2012)- I will confess, The Dark Knight is the only Batman film I’ve seen (apart from the oldie, which has the whole POW, SPLOSH, KABOOM! action going on), but it was more than enough to whet my appetite. And now I’m picturing more of that awesomeness, with the additions of Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt! WOOT! ‘Tis gonna be amazing.

To add my opinion to the whole ‘I can’t understand what Bane is saying’ debate: that’s only ONE LINE in the trailer that you’re having difficulty hearing, and I’m sure it won’t be that hard to understand him all the way through (it just CAN’T be). And, if you really can’t figure out the line in the trailer, he says: ‘When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die.’ Which is, you must agree, a brilliantly badass thing to say. I think I’m going to like him…

3) The Master and Margarita performed by Complicite (15 March 2012, Barbican theatre London) - A more obscure choice, but OHMYGOODNESS am I excited about it! The Master and Margarita is one of my favourite books, and Complicite is one of my favourite theatre companies. What a combination! If you haven’t heard of Complicite, they are a company under the artistic direction of Simon McBurney (who you will have seen in films and TV series, mainly as side characters/cameos e.g. Oliver Lacon in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Archdeacon Robert in Rev, Fra Pavel in The Golden Compass etc.). Aside from this, he also happens to be a theatrical genius. Complicite are known for their innovative physical performances, and their employment of ‘total theatre’ i.e. using light, sound, setting, projections, etc. to create a piece of theatre in which all the elements are in harmony and play a crucial role in the telling. I have my ticket booked for their show in April, and I cannot wait!

2) Game of Thrones, Season 2 (April 2012)- Need I explain? Wasn’t Season 1 awesome?? Isn’t Jon Snow gorgeous? (*ahem* OK, so I can be shallow, right?) Heh… Anyway, BESIDES gazing at Jon Snow I’m also looking forward to seeing how they depict Sansa’s storyline this season, because I felt that her character really bloomed and became much more likeable/interesting in A Clash of Kings. Bring it on, HBO!

1) Yep, you’ve guessed it… The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (14 December 2012) – How could this not be my number 1? I mean, have you SEEN the trailer (well, it’s OK if you haven’t ’cause I’ve embedded it below)?? It makes me PAINFULLY excited. Yes, that’s NEAR PHYSICAL PAIN. REAL PSEUDO-PHYSICAL PAIN. (No, I don’t know what I mean either, but it hurts, I tell you, it HURTS!) From the looks of the trailer, The Hobbit will be just as excellent as LOTR, albeit with a necessarily lighter tone, as stakes in The Hobbit are not as high as in LOTR. NB. I have to say, I couldn’t quite believe it when I heard that Richard Armitage was cast as Thorin, but now I understand; he has such regal, aquiline features, and manages to remain sleek and noble-looking even with that bushy dwarven beard!

So those are my year’s top excitements mapped out — which 2012 releases are you looking forward to most?

Review: The Hunger Games books 2 & 3, Catching Fire and The Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games trilogy, book 2)

Suzanne Collins

Scholastic, 2009 (YA)

ISBN 978-1-40710-936-7

The first book of The Hunger Games is good, but the second is better. In fact, it’s brilliant. In Catching Fire, the story begins to open out and we understand more and more about how Katniss’s story will influence the fate of her country, Panem. Against a background of civil unrest and brutal government ‘silencing’, she finds that she has inadvertently become a key player in the political battle beyond the arena – the game of power. But can Katniss survive in this role, dodging the vengeful manoeuvres of President Snow? And can she make sure that the ones she loves also come through unscathed?

As you can see, the stakes are raised in Catching Fire, and Katniss’s personal struggle for survival becomes ever more interwoven with the wider political events of Panem. Collins handles this shift with apparent ease and to great effect – the reader is shocked along with Katniss as she discovers the enormity of the events her actions have triggered, and feels keenly for her as she is once more caught up in other people’s machinations. The broader scope of Catching Fire also means that the Battle Royale similarities fade almost completely; as these were the main cause of my reservations about book 1, I found that enjoyed book 2 that much more for it.

And on top of that – while the first book was exciting, the second is even more so. New characters are introduced, with their own secrets and complex backstories; there’s more, and more varied, action; there’s an array of new settings, giving the reader a wider overview of Katniss’s world; and there are yet more unexpected twists – real edge-of-your-seat stuff!

This has been a rather shorter review than usual, but it’s safe to say that I thought Catching Fire was a fantastic continuation of The Hunger Games trilogy!

The Mockingjay (The Hunger Games trilogy, book 3)

Suzanne Collins

Scholastic, 2010 (YA)

ISBN 978-1-40710-937-4

After the excellence of Catching Fire, I was a little disappointed with The Hunger Games’s final instalment. The structure seemed less tight than in the previous two novels, which meant that it didn’t achieve the tense, climactic build-up I was hoping for. Also, in this book, Collins’s forthright style moved us along a little too swiftly at times. As you would expect from the third book in a trilogy, the stakes are raised to their utmost height in The Mockingjay, and sometimes I felt that Collins should have dwelt longer on certain scenes, to allow us to feel the full emotional impact of what she described. The action centring on The Nut, for example, felt as though it was rushed over, and overall I felt less involved than I would have liked.

And, while we’re on the subject of emotional impact, I have to say that I started to feel a bit uneasy about the number of gruesome deaths that occur in The Mockingjay. The Hunger Games is intended as a gritty YA trilogy (massive understatement), and I applaud Collins for her courage and for handling the violence well… for the most part. I had no problem (aesthetically speaking) with the level of violence in books 1 and 2, which generally served to emphasise how ghastly and wrong it was to kill another person (and to force children to kill each other). In The Mockingjay, however, I felt that Collins took this too far. We are of course meant to be disturbed by what she narrates, but after a while the sheer number of deaths begins to undermine the outrage about the violence in books 1 and 2, and I felt that The Mockingjay actually got a bit ‘trigger-happy’. So, whereas I zoomed through the first two instalments, I needed constant breaks from the horrors of the third.

Also, Katniss began to irritate me – especially when it came to her interactions with/thoughts about Peeta and Gale.

It is true, though, that my expectations of The Mockingjay had been raised to a perilous height by the quality of the first two books, and that, despite my griping, the final novel in The Hunger Games trilogy was very good. The atmosphere of overhanging danger and dread was sustained throughout, and Collins’s use of the rose references (you’ll see when you read it) was a stroke of genius, truly sinister. Moreover, the twists in the final book are very well judged – I was really impressed with how Collins concluded the power-play between the Capitol and… well, I won’t give it away – and the ending is both bittersweet and poignant. There was still something lacking that meant it didn’t *quite* fulfil its potential – maybe this was a problem with the structure/pacing – but nonetheless it was an admirable finish to the trilogy and certainly not a let-down.

In conclusion… Though I have grumbled about the shortcomings of the final book, overall The Hunger Games trilogy was fantastic. It’s ambitious, brutal, and consistently exciting, and dwells upon some extremely difficult issues – of oppression, war, sacrifice, and the price we pay for freedom.