I spent my Easter Sunday at the movie theater.
After 2 weeks, I went to see The Hunger Games.
Why did I wait 2 weeks? Well, I kinda wanted to save it so I had something to do on Easter.
Also, I was afraid.
After the hellish experience that was "Twilight", I was afraid that some dumb screenplay writer would screw up The Hunger Games too. (Dumb screenplay writers are the worst, aren't they?)
I don't give this kind of praise on the regular, but I thought it was just as good as the book. I left the theater fulfilled and wanting more. I was glad that I could come home to read Catching Fire.
So let's start with the cast. I think the best thing about this movie was the casting. I loved being able to put faces to the characters I had previously only envisioned in my head. They made all the right choices in all the right ways. Jennifer Lawrence?? Hells, yes. I love her movies. She is the perfect Katniss. She can act. Verbally and through expressions (imagine that, K. Stewart, imagine that). Also, Katniss is a badass. She's an excellent role model for girls.
Liam Hemsworth? He's pretty much how I pictured Gale. Tall, rugged, the outdoorsy boy next door. The only bad part is that I wanted to see more of him.
Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. Hmmm..I struggled with this. I wavered between Team Gale and Team Peeta when I was reading the books. But honestly, I finished the series so long ago (September 2010), that I can't remember who I landed on.
At the beginning of the movie, I wasn't into the Peeta character, but he became decidedly more endearing and attractive toward the end (I think it was the messy hair). In fact, I thought the cave scene with the soup and all would be majorly corny. But it wasn't! Somehow these actors were good enough to pull it off and make it believable. That sold me on Josh Hutcherson as Peeta.
Now I'm stuck. I have no idea what I'll tell the child who comes to school every day asking me my opinions on The Hunger Games. I told her last week that I was Team Gale and she wanted to know why. I'll have to think on this a bit further...
Other points:
- I enjoyed the way Katniss was "thinking" her way through most of the movie. A lot of the book is her thoughts, explanations, and inner dialogue. If you read it, you knew exactly what she was thinking as she appeared to be staring off into the distance.
- They didn't do the dogs at the end as they did in the book, with the eyes and physical characteristics of the dead tributes. I personally didn't care; that part creeped me out anyway. And by the time it got to this point in the movie, I was all distracted by the idea that Peeta might not be that bad after all.
- I noticed some reviewers pointing out that there wasn't a lot of lead-up to the Reaping. Once again, because I read the book and felt like I had all that stored away as prior knowledge, it didn't bother me. Without reading the book, it could be an issue. However, I would've loved to see some more Gale/Katniss hunting time.
- They didn't hit on the Avox with the cut-out tongues. They also didn't mention that time Gale and Katniss watched the boy being killed and the girl being taken away (and turned into an Avox) outside the District 12 fence.
- Katniss totally didn't listen for the electricity in the District 12 fence before hopping through it.
- Peeta's leg was much more seriously injured in the book.
- Katniss's eardrum didn't break during the explosion at the Cornucopia in the movie.
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| Elizabeth Banks was awesome. |