Spoken like true Hunger Games fans

When the new "Twilight" trailer came on at the midnight showing, some people cheered, but they were overpowered by these shouts:

"Edward sucks!!"

"She (Bella) is ugly!"


Loved it.
And I mean everything about finally seeing this movie.

So, let's talk about it! (there will only be spoilers if you have never read the book)

I walked out of the theater completely satisfied with the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. If it hadn't had been 3am I would have watched it again. But then again, I realized that author Suzanne Collins helped write the screenplay, so it makes perfect sense that this movie was so good.

The casting was overall really great. But I still am not quite convinced of Donald Sutherland as "President Snow." Maybe he'll get nastier in the next movies, but he doesn't seem all that scary yet.

For Haymitch, I always kind of thought of him in my head to look like Mad-Eye Moody or something, but he totally made sense with Woody Harrelson.

Effie Trinkett was great. Peeta was fantastic. Gale was fantastic. And Katniss was perfection. Oh, and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna? He was awesome.

The thing that I anticipated the most of seeing a film adaptation of the book was how they captured Katniss's character and voice, since the book is told completely through her point of view. There are a lot of things you find out about Katniss through her thoughts so I was eager to see what they would do with the film. Would they maybe have a voice over Katniss narrator every now and then? Would they reveal things other ways? Or would they cut out those details all together?

They ended up handling it all really well, in my opinion. The truth is that the book and the movie really complement each other. You really need to read the book and see the movie to get the full effect of the story and the set up.

I'm talking mostly about point of view here. In the book, anything you see or any information you are given, it is coming from Katniss. When she is preparing for the Games, you know her frustration and anxiety about it all, even if she keeps quiet on the outside, you know she is screaming on the inside. And as she is waiting for the countdown, you feel just as nervous and scared as she does. You feel that eery feeling of isolation that she feels in the woods where it seems like she is alone and yet she is being watched from all angles. She has no idea what is going on in the outside world. What is Gale doing? What about Haymitch? Is he just sitting around drinking and not even caring to try to help her? The lack of information helps you understand what Katniss is going through. It really connects you to her character.

Then the movie comes along, and answers those questions for us. I wouldn't take away Katniss's point of view, which is why you need to read the book too, but it is also really cool and sometimes disheartening to see what's going on outside of the arena. I loved seeing Haymitch and how he really was fighting for her and Peeta, even though he seemed like a useless drunk. And the added stuff with Seneca Crane (the head gamemaker) was a cool foreshadowing of things to come. At first I disagreed with showing scenes of uprising in District 11, but after thinking about it, I really think it was effective in showing that there was a founded reason for the Capitol to be out to get Katniss for her "act of rebellion" at the end of the games, and not just paranoia.

One little complaint about the "staging" of the final scene of the games. Was it just me, or did it seem a little anticlimactic? I always imagined Katniss and Peeta on the cornucopia, still in the night, surrounded by the pack of mutts--chaos still around them as they plan a double suicide, and then comes the lights of the helicopter thing as it comes down to get them. I always imagined the chaos to make it more dramatic. Personally, if I were the producer or whoever decides this, I would have done it that way. But, oh well.

Still an overall success though. I wish I had it already on dvd so I could just play it on repeat, just like little kids do.


Any additional thoughts? Liked it? Didn't like it? Do share!