So this evening I went and saw the hunger games with my younger brother who is thirteen. I had gotten the book almost a month ago from my boyfriend as an anniversary gift and only finished reading it about 2 days ago.
It was an absolutely fantastic book and I loved it so much. if you haven't read it yet you really need to. NOW. I am not going to say spoiler alert for this next part because I feel like to be interested in the series you should have read the book or at least seen the movie. if you haven't done so.... Why are you here?
Ok, so to start off with, the casting. I liked this Jenifer Lawrence who played Katniss from when I first saw her, but I didn't think that she would be quite gruff or forceful enough to pull off the character of Katniss. Boy was I wrong. The character was played out brilliantly, she was heroic when she needed to be, motherly, and snarky. All in all Katniss was cast brilliantly.
Now Peeta I was sure was a terrible casting. He, in my opinion just looked helpless and honestly a little bit dumb. Now Josh Hutcherson is not a bad looking guy, but for some reason in this movie he just seemed very unattractive to me, and I feel like that's mostly in fault of his stylists. But after watching a few scenes with Peeta and Katniss and the other tributes, I knew I had been wrong. He played the part of Peeta very well. And I have to say, the filmmakers must not have liked him very much because there were several unflattering shots of him, especially in the cave with Katniss.
Now I could write 7 pages about what I felt about Casting but I'll just skim over some of the characters quickly. President White I felt wasn't bad enough, he just reminded me of Santa Claus the whole time, he needed to be more mean looking and acting. Whoever played his right hand man had a magnificent beard. Rue was so adorable. She was cast brilliantly and was such a great actress. I cried a little when she died. The Carreers were terrifying in themselves, not because of their stature, but at the way they all played off killing the other tributes. It was terrifying watching them kill other teenagers and having a good time. Haymitch was just perfect. and I absolutely adored the actor who played Cinna. I want him to my teddy bear.
Now I'll briefly comment on the sets and costumes. District 12 was fantastically done. I felt depressed and hopeless just by looking at it. I also really loved the costumes for district 12, 11, and 10. The districts really represented themselves through their 1960esque fashion. I felt everything about these districts represented poverty in themselves. The other districts, especially the capitol, had brilliantly colorful, interesting, and futuresque costumes. I feel like the costumes were very good analogies for the two very different ways of lifestyles these two districts had. I also absolutely loved the makeup in this movie. I'm sick of porcelain looking dolls plastered on the screen. The makeup done for all the tributes was very natural and helped them retain their innocence. You could see freckles and imperfections without them being caked in powder.
Now when a movie is made from a book they usually take a few liberties and alter a few things from the book, this movie is no exception, but they were very careful with what they added to the movie. One of the main things that bothered me that was altered from the book was the way the Mockingjay pin was given to Katniss. Katniss in the book received it from the mayor's daughter, which later they use this to expand their relationship in the series. In the movie, Katniss takes it from the Hob and gives it to Prim. Prim then gives it to Katniss after the reaping. Cinna then 'sneaks' it on her clothes so she can wear it in the arena. In the book Haymitch talked the judges into letting her take it in. Another was the hounds that were sent into the arena in the end. These hounds were supposed to resemble the tributes that were killed earlier in the games. I was very upset when the hounds were simply sent in and had nothing to do with the story other than making Peeta and Katniss run. There were two things that they added to the story that I absolutely loved. After Rue died it showed district 11 saluting Katniss and then rioting, which I loved. I love rebellion :3. The other addition that I loved was Cato's few simple lines that he said at the end; "killing is all I know how to do." Those few simple lines brought so much character depth and made you feel pity for him.
The one mistake they made in this movie was how much they brought out the romance. Yest there was a romance between Peeta and Katniss, but as soon as they lip locked they bring Gale into the picture. It shows him a little hurt as he watches it televised on TV, then later shows him looking jealously at Peeta. Now, what makes this story great is that it has a storyline apart from the romance. Ever since Stephanie Meyer, idiot author of the Twilight series, brought her fans over from her series, I've heard that everything's been going downhill from there. The whole 'team Peeta' 'team Gale' thing could bring this whole series to it's knees.
The biggest mistake of this film though I felt was at the very end. In the book Katniss confesses to Peeta that she's not actually in love with him. She only did it to help both of them in the Hunger Games. This was never even brought up in the movie, and since the next book deals a lot with this idea I'm confused how their going to do this. I also felt the ending was very, very, very rushed. it was all of one minute from when they were crowned to the credit reel. Another thing they failed to do was bring character depth to Rue and Peeta. Katniss spent a lot of time with both of them in the arena, and although most people would have not sat through a four hour movie where there were many meaningful character building dialogues. The thing I was most upset that they didn't put in the movie is so stupid. It was the moment Katniss jumped down from the tree after being betrayed by Peeta, (again) when he joins the careers. In the book she sent a smile to the cameras saying "let them figure out what that means". In this moment I fell absolutely in love with her character, I feel like that moment has a lot to do with her and her personality.
Now the violence in the series is part of what brings so much horror and intensity to the story. I feel it is necessary in the movie that it is brutal and hard to watch, and they definitely did not disappoint. The violence was not overpowering and there was not an overabundance of blood and gore, but there was some involved. The two most violent scenes in my opinion were the beginning cornucopia scene and the ending fight with Peeta, Katniss and Cato. The only significant blood or gore in the movie was when Katniss got burned, Peeta was cut, and Cato was close to death. The scenes were not done up with fancy tear jerking John Williams. No, the first cornucopia scene has a silence to it, with a low pitched buzzing sound, which I think brought out the raw horror of the scene that unfolded before you. Teenager killing teenager. The two times the audience responded most to the film was when the boy who set up the mines had his neck broken, and when Rue got speared. When Cato killed the mine boy there was a collective gasp in the audience, and I couldn't help but cringe. When Rue died at least 15 people in the theater cried, and I have to admit I shed a tear or two.
All in all this was an absolutely fantastic movie, it brings out what, in my opinion, could actually happen if our government went crazy. Well, more crazy then they already are. It followed the book very closely, and actually was one of the best movie adaptations of a book I've ever seen.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
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