The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Black Carpet Premiere in Los Angeles!

December 13, 2014December 13, 20141 Comment

Hello everyone! It is finally time to talk about The Hobbit Part 3: The Battle of Five Armies. I’m pretty sure that’s not the EXACT title but meh, order that’s what I’ll call it. I’ve been so MASSIVELY busy this week and I’m finally ready to share my awesome day at the premiere!

I was so excited to finally go to a Hobbit premiere and I’m sad because it was the very last one. It was a very bittersweet feeling, even though I’d never been before.

Setting up for the black carpet. They had all these posters and white trees and it looked really awesome.

I spent the day with my girls Cassandra and Ally. The premiere took place at the Dolby Theater on Hollywood boulevard. Its right next door to the Chinese Theater and home of many movie premieres and the Oscars. Premieres there are always kind of wacky so we lined up across the street. We spent lots of hours there, as per usual.

They had a MASSIVE jumbotron. They showed the trailer for the movie, and then showed the action on the black carpet once the actual carpet event started.

We waited awhile to see what the deal was going to be. We talked to our friends from SPEC, who run the security and they told us our best bet was to go across the street so that’s exactly what we did. By this time, we were tired, dirty from the LA streets haha and just ready for the carpet to start already.

Before the carpet started, there were all kinds of people handing out things. They had these really cool flags that had the hashtag #OneLastTime. I wanted one SO bad but they completely skipped us and so I didn’t get my hands on one, unfortunately. Then I spotted people giving away wristbands. I had NO idea what they were for, but I knew I wanted one. The people handing them out seemed to be looking for something in particular, while handing them out. I noticed that they seemed to be going for Hobbit stuff. Luckily, I was wearing my Thorin shirt for the premiere and I pointed it out to them. I totally guessed right and they came right up to me, asked how many people were in my party. The wristbands were for the screening immediately after the carpet! Yay!

Fangirling SO hard. Meeting the great Andy Serkis. In the LoTR and Hobbit sagas, he plays Gollum/Smeagol. He’s just all around BADASS. He was the first person that I met on the carpet and I was STOKED.

The absolutely GORGEOUS Lee Pace, who plays Thranduil in the film. He was pretty much my #1 goal to meet once we had figured out that Benedict, Martin and Ian weren’t coming to the premiere. Look at that face. Seriously. YUM.

This is Mark Hadlow, who plays the dwarf, Dori.

The lovely Stephen Hunter, who plays Bombur!

MY LIFE. I adore Evangline Lilly. I think she’s one of the first actresses that I had a crush on before I realized I also liked girls. I used to watch the first few seasons of Lost and she plays a seriously badass female elf, Tauriel. I was SO excited to meet her and get her autograph. I liked her in the second movie, but I had some issues, but after seeing the movie, I’m so sold on her character. She was even better in the third one.

I fangirled SO hard on this. I’ve had a crush on Orlando Bloom since he played Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean, when I was like 13 years old. I was a little bummed that he didn’t sign my book. I’ve heard that he doesn’t really do that. Not sure why. But I got a picture with him and that was pretty awesome. He plays Legolas, of course.

My awkward, blurry selfie with Richard Armitage in the background. He, of course, plays Thorin Oakenshield. He signed for us, but wasn’t taking pictures so I had to do this. I get creative sometimes ;)

William Kircher, who was a totally sweetheart. I seriously adore him. He plays the elf, Bifur, and I’m just massively in love with him. He was really just SO nice.

Also, mad props to that photo bomber in the background haha.

Jed Brophy, who plays Nori! He was such a delightful guy!

Me and Cassie and Graham McTavish, who plays the badass dwarf, Dwalin in the film. Apparently he is also in Outlander as well but I haven’t had a chance to watch that show yet. He was seriously awesome in his kilt!

Be still, my fangirl heart! Meeting Peter Jackson was INCREDIBLE. He wasn’t doing pictures so hence the super awkward, blurry, funky selfie but I’m stoked beyond belief that I got to meet him and get his autograph. I mean, he’s the brains behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy and he’s just genius. My mind is still BLOWN that I met him.

My beautiful beautiful beautiful book signed by:

Andy Serkis (Gollum)
Lee Pace (Thranduil)
Richard Armitage (Thorin)
Mark Hadlow (Dori)
Stephen Hunter (Bombur)
William Kircher (Bifur)
Jed Brophy (Nori)
Graham McTavish (Dwalin)
Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel)
Peter Jackson (Director)

I was really bummed because Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Billy Boyd (Pippin) were there. I was fangirling SO hard but they completely skipped our section. It made me incredibly sad. James Cameron was also there and he directed one of my favorite movies ever, Titanic, and he just waved as he passed by. Sad face. It was a bit disappointed that actors like Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan and Luke Evans weren’t there, but it was just the LA premiere, not the world premiere, so it made sense.

After the premiere was over, there was parking drama with my car and I had to run to my car, drive it to a different parking lot and then practically run to the movie theater. Cassie and I grabbed our seats, and our super cool Hobbit 3D glasses and settled in to watch the movie.

I LOVED it. There will be an actual full reviews to come BUT I truly loved it. I think everyone did a fabulous job. After the film was over, no one wanted to leave. No one. They stayed all the way until the very end, once the credits had ended and the screen went blank. Its always very sad when a series ends that way. Saying goodbye and all that. I was a little emotional but not nearly as emotional as I was when I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2.

All in all, it was one of the easier premieres that I went to, and I had a fun time. I’m glad I decided to go and I’m urging you ALL to go see the movie when it releases next week! A review is coming this weekend so watch out for it!

Giveaway: Win a Signed Copy of The Maze Runner!

September 19, 2014September 19, 201430 Comments

Happy Release Day to The Maze Runner!

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this movie for quite some time, rx and was able to see it last night at the 10 pm showing and I’m SO blown away by it. As much as I enjoyed the book, I think the world that James Dashner created exploded even more on screen and it was just brilliant. Great casting, great effects…I could go on for ages but I’ll save that for later in my review of the movie!

Now, unfortunately there was no Hollywood premiere for the movie so I was unable to meet any of the cast for the movie.

BUT!

Fear not, my dear followers! I promised to have a Maze Runner giveaway and I have not failed you.

Think about this: this movie would not exist without the awesome writing and creativity and world building of one James Dashner. He’s the brains behind this operation and he’s honestly just brilliant to meet in person too.

So here’s the prize!

One Copy of The Maze Runner signed by author, James Dashner!

The Rules (yes, there has to be rules!)

The contest will run from today, September 19th to October 1st!

The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest end. If winner(s) do not respond within a 24 hour period of contact, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen.

Come back every day to share on Twitter and Instagram to earn more entries!

If you check off an option on the rafflecopter, please make sure that you have fulfilled that option. Please be honest! I double check every winning entry and if you are dishonest, you will not win the prize!

This giveaway is in NO way endorsed by any authors, their publishers, the movie studios or any other affiliates.

What A Nerd Girl Says is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged prizes. It HAS happened before, but only once!

How to Enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*****

Good luck!

Don’t forget! Get to those theaters and see the movie! YA movies depend on every ticket sold to do successful in order for sequels to have so go see the movie and see it again and tell your friends all about it!

Movie Review: If I Stay

August 25, 20141 Comment

If I Stay

Official U.S. Release Date: August 22nd, find 2014

Rated:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some sexual material

Directed By:

R.J. Cutler

Cast:

Chloe Grace Moretz, this Jamie Blackley, Liana Liberato, Joshua Leonard, Jakob Davies, Mireille Enos

Find the rest on IMDB here.

IMDB Movie Synopsis:

Mia Hall thought the hardest decision she would ever face would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at Juilliard or follow a different path to be with the love of her life, Adam. But what should have been a carefree family drive changes everything in an instant, and now her own life hangs in the balance. Caught between life and death for one revealing day, Mia has only one decision left, which will not only decide her future but her ultimate fate.

My Review:

The thing about contemporary novels is that a huge part of what they are is based on emotions. They don’t have the constant action that usually comes hand in hand with a science fiction, fantasy or dystopian novel. They literally have to carry the entire book with emotion, whether good or bad. If I Stay is perfect at doing that…and I had hoped so much that this emotional journey would carry over to the movie.

I was so please to find that it did.

First off, just a shout out in general for making a movie that actually is a good representative of the book. I had just recently reread the book a few days before seeing the movie so it was completely fresh in my mind and I loved recognizing so many scenes in the book. They really made sure to get all of them. Some were tweaked a bit but that was okay, because it made sense for the movie. But they really did a great job at adapting and I don’t often say that.

But what made me so incredibly happy is that I felt the same emotions when watching the movie as I did with reading the book. That book is an absolute emotional roller coaster. One minute, I’m laughing and the next, my heart is racing and I’m envious of the romance between Mia and Adam, and the next, I’m literally sobbing in the middle of the theater. All the characters in the movie felt so real, so genuine that it was so easy to connect with them and believe in their story.

If you’ve read the books, you know that the accident, the loss of her parents, even the loss of her brother, comes very fast and yet, you feel that pain. You connect with all of them so fast, and they accomplish that in the movie as well. But what is absolutely beautiful about it is that the flashbacks make you fall in love with the characters even more, so you’re torn between feeling the happiness at getting to know this extraordinary family and the gut wrenching sadness at the fact that they are already gone. The movie does that, and every flashback is so painful and you know why its so hard for her to stay. Every person who was cast, was cast so perfectly for the role. They played the perfect rocker parents, the little brother, the best friend, the boyfriend, they all did. It was incredible how much I believed every single one of them was that character.

But I think what really makes this movie stand out so much is the music. The music is something that we need to picture ourselves in the book, something that we have to imagine, but in the movie, the music is a character all on its own and I’m just so blown away by that. The music is there through all the emotions, the sadness, the joy, the love, family, friendship, loss, all of it, comes through in that. Music is magical that way and I think having the music that is so central in the book in the movie just makes it that much better. It captures the very essence of the film.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Divergent Giveaway: Win a Copy of Divergent Signed by the Author and Cast!

March 21, 2014March 19, 201474 Comments

Happy Divergent Release Day!

I hope you all are going to the theaters today (and ALL WEEKEND) to go see this movie. Remember guys: movie sequels are only made if the first one is successful so let’s go out, visit this see Divergent and get Insurgent made!

So I hope by now that you all have watched my vlog recap of my time at the Divergent Black Carpet Premiere in Los Angeles. It was an absolute blast and I had such a great time. I am so glad I was able to meet people like Theo and Miles and Ansel. SO much fun.

Check out my full collection of pictures from the premiere on Facebook here.

Check out my vlog about the premiere here.

Luckily for all you who were unable to attend, my friend Abby got an extra book signed and by a TON of the cast and it looks like its time for me to have a giveaway!

Make sure you read this whole post! Its VERY important!

Here is the Prize:

One Copy of Divergent Signed By:

Author Veronica Roth
Kate Winslet (Jeanine Matthews)
Tony Goldwyn (Andrew Prior)
Ansel Elgort (Caleb Prior)
Theo James (Four)
Miles Teller (Peter)
Ashley Judd (Natalie Prior)
Zoe Kravitz (Christina)
Maggie Q (Tori)
Amy Newbold (Molly)
Christian Madsen (Al)

The Rules (Yes, there has to be Rules):

The contest will run from today, March 21st to April 4th!

The winner will be contacted within 12 hours of contest end, and if the winner does NOT respond within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

The contest IS International

Make sure to come back every day to tweet about the giveaway and earn extra entries!

Share with your friends!

This contest is in no way endorsed by Veronica Roth, Neil Burger, Lionsgate Company, Summit Entertainment, Katherine Tegen Books, etc. WhatANerdGirlSays is not responsible for any lost or damaged prizes.

The Catch (Yes, There’s a Catch)

Now, that’s a ridiculously amazing prize. Look up above at that list. That’s incredible and it took some hard work to get those signatures. Which means I expect some hard work to be done to earn this prize.

There are a TON of ways to enter, so enter a LOT. Do all of those entries! Show me that you want this. Every person who does every single thing on the rafflecopter list will be entered into a special secret giveaway. Please email a snapshot of your completed rafflecopter to whatanerdgirlsays at gmail dot com.

There are also options to show off your Divergence. Show me you are Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor. More details in the rafflecopter. Those who do those entries will also be entered in the secret giveaway!

Are you ready to enter already? Here you go!

Enter Now!