I was really looking forward to seeing The Hunger Games movie, since I love the books to bits and have read them multiple times. It was really hard for me to contain my excitement (and snarky comments) throughout the movie, and I’m pretty sure my friends and I were the most obnoxious people there.
This blog post has nothing to do with my class, it’s just another one of those times where I’m going to give my not-so-expert opinion on something because, well, what else do I have to do that’s so important?
If you don’t want to be spoiled for the movie, you probably shouldn’t read this. You’ve been warned.
The movie was AWESOME. The set design was amazing. District 12 looked so much like how I had pictured it, the Capitol looked beautiful and over-the-top, just like it’s supposed to. The arena looked… woodsy. It was all fantastic, and it had great effects too (except for one thing at the end, which I will get to). I wasn’t sure about some of the casting at first, but it turns out that everyone played their part pretty well. I’ll talk more about some of the casting a bit later.
Thank God, the movie didn’t focus too much on romance! I hate romance, and it always annoyed me that many of the people who read the books seem to care more about that than anything else. Do they care about the themes of war and oppressive power in the series? Do they care about the many interesting characters and their tragic backgrounds? Do they care about the actual plot at all? Not really, it’s all about Team Peeta and Team Gale. Bleh.
I was afraid the movie would get all fanservice-y and put more focus on the romance than was necessary, but to my great relief, it didn’t. It kept the romantic stuff at a minimum.
A few small details were changed, but changes don’t bother me as long as they don’t mess up the plot and the characters too much. Which they didn’t. I mean, does it really matter that Katniss bought the Mockingjay pin instead of receiving it from Madge, or that she found water on her first day in the arena when in the books it took her three days? No, it doesn’t. You still get the same story and the same Katniss, so I’m not going to complain about it.
There are a few other things I will complain about, though. The movie felt extremely rushed. I mean, I know that there’s a lot of stuff they need to fit in, and the movie is over two hours long, but I felt like they were rushing through everything, especially the Games.
Katniss and Peeta were both great, but not perfect. I wish they had shown Katniss acting… bitchier, for lack of a better word. They talked about how she’s not very likable, but they didn’t show much of it. I would’ve liked to have seen her acting more sullen, more hostile, more, you know, like Katniss. Peeta, on the other hand, I didn’t think was quite likable enough. They should have shown more of his kindness and humor. Although, I guess there wasn’t much time for that, considering they about to be thrown into a fight to the death. Still, Suzanne Collins found a way to show it in the book.
Don’t get me wrong, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson were still great at their roles, those were really the only gripes I had about them.
Haymitch. Oh, how I love Haymitch. I wish he had been more drunk, but besides that he was perfect. Snarky and unpleasant, but intelligent and, when he wants to be, extremely useful.
Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman were awesome, too. Don’t really have much to say about them.
I loved being able to see Seneca Crane more, as the books never really fleshed him out. I loved the poetically brutal way he was executed, and DAT BEARD. Too awesome.
Rue was adorable, but I think they should have put more emphasis on the fact that she reminds Katniss of Prim, so that we understand why her death affected Katniss so much.
When I first saw who they had cast for Cato, I wasn’t happy. I thought he looked like too much of a pretty boy, and I was afraid they were going to turn Cato into some sort of bad boy heartthrob, which he really, really shouldn’t be. Turns out he actually made a pretty good Cato, he definitely came off as brutal and vicious. You know, I bet that thanks to to his looks, Cato is going to have a much bigger fanbase than he did before the movie came out. Sigh.
Now, I will get to my only major complaint about the movie: the end of the Games.
I was really looking forward to seeing the mutts in the movie, but they were pretty disappointing. They didn’t even look real. The effects in the movie had been awesome until that point, but the mutts looked computer generated, which of course they were, but they shouldn’t look like it!
What made the mutts in the book so disturbing wasn’t how fast they could run or how sharp their teeth and claws were, it was the fact that each of them resembled one of the dead tributes. They were more terrifying on a psychological level than anything else, and I thought it was a brilliant way for Collins to end the Games. The mutts in the movie didn’t resemble the dead tributes, so they didn’t have the same effect. They were kind of freaky, sure, but nowhere near as disturbing as they should have been.
And Cato… ugh, what was with Cato’s big speech about how he wasn’t supposed to win? That was as bad as Neville’s whole Harry-is-still-in-our-hearts speech at the end of Deathly Hallows Part 2! It was cheesy and unnecessary, and didn’t fit Cato’s character at all.
Speaking of Cato, his death wasn’t horrifying enough. I’m not saying this because I’m sadistic, I’m saying this because in the book I thought it was an important moment when Katniss realized that not even someone like Cato deserved to die in such a horrible way. I wish that had been in the movie.
Overall, I LOVED this movie. It was better than the last few Harry Potter movies combined, and I’ll probably go and see it again.
EDIT: I forgot to mention one other thing! PEETA’S CAMOUFLAGE! I always loved his camouflage abilities in the books, especially since he developed those skills by frosting cakes. Cakes! Simply brilliant. And they made his camouflage look absolutely AMAZING in the movie.
Kay, now I’m done.
Your Face Has a Blog 