Cinematic Experiences

We love movies and TV almost as much as we love books--maybe more some days. So, while exposing Phoebe to a variety of literature has been something we have spent a lot of time on, we have also focused on a variety of movie and TV genres as well.

Most of you know that we have movie night just about every Saturday--where we make pizza and watch a movie together. We alternate who gets to pick the film--though we do have veto power over anything Phoebe wants, and David and I occasionally veto each other--and the deal is that we all watch it together, even if it is a film someone else may not be jumping up and down about. This way, Phoebe has to watch some old movies, and David has to watch movies based on young adult books. I tend to be right on the middle, though my mission of late has been to round out the sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book genres.

A lot of sequels are coming out this summer, so we have also been working on watching the earlier film with her, so we can all go to the theater together for the new movie. Phoebe is turning into quite the geek, which I think is wonderful.

So far this year we have watched

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Galaxy Quest (this was to mark the death of Alan Rickman)
National Treasure 2 (we watched the first one last year)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Divergent
Smoke Signals
Thor
The Avengers
Iron Man 3
Laura (with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews--Phoebe needed to watch a film from the 1940s for a school project)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Planet of the Apes (the original with Charlton Heston)
Armageddon
Zootopia (this was in the theater)
Thor: The Dark World
Avatar
Now You See Me
Star Trek (the reboot with Chris Pine)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Ten Commandments (Charlton Heston)
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (we saw this in the theater, but we wanted to watch it again when the DVD came out)
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Sting (Paul Newman and Robert Redford)
The 5th Wave
Ant Man 

There is a preponderance of Marvel Comics movies because I wanted to take Phoebe to see Captain America: Civil War in the theaters, and I am really big on continuity. We are now all caught up on the movies, so hopefully we will be able to see Civil War this weekend. She has also watched the first two seasons of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. We still need to watch the two seasons of Agent Carter and Season 3 of MAoS, but they aren't really vital to the films, so she should be OK. Phoebe loves the female characters--Black Widow and Melinda May are tough, Skye is a hacker who gets superpowers, and Jemma Simmons is a genius biochemist.

There is a new Star Trek movie coming out this summer, as well as a sequel to Now You See Me, so we watched those also to be able to go see the new ones in the theater. Phoebe has also watched most of the original Star Trek series, but we still have to watch the later TV series and the movies with the original cast.

Phoebe gets to watch movie adaptations of books after she has read them, so she also read The Hobbit, Divergent, and The 5th Wave. She has actually read the entire Divergent series, but we haven't watched the other movies yet. She has not yet watched the short stories Smoke Signals was based on, but that is on her To Do list, and she also hasn't read the novel for Planet of the Apes, but the movie does stand on its own.

Monday night, we went to see The Shakespeare Show, which was a film of the April celebration in Stratford-upon-Avon marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. It aired live on the BBC, but since we can't get the actual BBC network here in the US, we had to wait for it to be released as a film. It was a great way to see how Shakespeare has permeated all aspects of culture--there were performances from plays, ballet, musicals, opera, jazz, scenes from the plays, and movie clips--even a Zulu Macbeth. This followed our going on Saturday to see the First Folio on its 50 State tour stop at Amherst College.

Our goal is a Phoebe who is well-rounded in all things, and I think we are well on our way! Now we just have to see what movie David will pick this week.....