The big epic Hunger Games review
Mar. 26th, 2012 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalYay, fun weekend! mcmegan came to town for the annual Shamrock Fest in DC (which, for reasons unbeknownst to us, was held a week after St. Patrick's Day). We got a little wet from the rain, but we got to see live bands, particularly Dropkick Murphys. :) Then on Sunday, I dragged her to see The Hunger Games. :)
Okay, for those of you who don't want to be spoiled with specifics, I'll say this: I think it is one of the most effective adaptations of a book I've ever seen. Part of it is that the subject matter is so well-suited to a visual medium, so some things actually work BETTER in the movie. Obviously it can't be translated word-for-word onto the screen, but I felt like the choices they made were mostly good - the bits that were cut were marginal anyway, and the scenes that were added enhanced the story.
Let's do this in list form!
Things I loved:
1. JENNIFER LAWRENCE. Fucking incredible. Seriously, haters to the left. (Yes, I understand and appreciate the whitewashing complaints, but having seen her in action, I kind of can't imagine anyone watching her audition and not immediately sending everyone else home, you know?) She's not how I pictured the character in my head, nor did she seem like an obvious choice when the casting was announced, but she was on screen for approximately 10 seconds and I was completely sold.
And a big part of it is that Jen Lawrence is generally an outstanding actor. One of the things I had worried about is how they would communicate Katniss' inner monologue without resorting to cheesy voiceovers and such. Katniss is already a pretty opaque character, and to lose that insight could've been devastating. But you can see absolutely everything on Jen's face without her needing to say a word. God, that moment before she gets in the tube, when she's with Cinna and literally shaking with fear? Her emotional response to the reaping and Rue's death? Fucking nailed it.
2. All the cast, basically. I was pretty skeptical about most of these actors - especially Josh and Liam - but perfect casting is perfect, yo. All right, Gale didn't have much to do except sit around and look angsty, but Josh completely sold Peeta's terror and pitifulness, lol. And Lenny Kravitz makes a fabulous Cinna. I don't know that I've seen him act before, but he's got that quiet determination and understated elegance. The girl who played Rue is just utterly precious, and Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks were just OTT enough.
The only one I wasn't totally convinced by is Woody Harrelson, oddly enough. I think I was distracted by the WHAT THE FUCK IS ON HIS HEAD thing. Also, he was far too sober. Moar drunk Haymitch. Thinking back, though, I probably am feeling like he lacked depth, even though that depth doesn't really show up until we get his backstory in Catching Fire. Still, he seemed too even-keeled. His volatility (and his subsequent softening toward Katniss) is what makes him a fully fleshed-out character.
3. The settings and costumes. I was worried they'd pull back on the poverty, but District 12 was exactly as I'd pictured it, and the contrast to the gratuitous opulence of the Capitol was as stark as it needed to be. I cannot wait until we get to see the other districts during the Victory Tour in Catching Fire. And, I dunno, I guess a forest is a forest, but the Arena was pretty much exactly how I'd pictured it, too. (Except for the Cornucopia, LMAO. What WAS that thing? I figured it would look like, y'know, a horn, not a mangled helicopter.)
4. The broader POV. Although I love being inside Katniss' head, one of the things I found myself wanting more of was a deeper exploration of other characters, and a broader knowledge of what was going on. And the movie certainly delivers on that front. I LOVED that we got to see Haymitch talking to sponsors, and District 11's reaction to Rue's death. Introducing President Snow early on and adding Seneca Crane as a prominent role made the Games so much richer, seeing all the action in the control room and making it clear just how much of the environment is manipulated in order to create a good show. Also, Seneca Crane and the bowl of berries!!! OMG. So perfect. Character death I didn't even know I cared about.
5. Much as I loved Madge, the Avox girl, the prep team, and some of the other things that were cut, I felt like they did the best they could to streamline the story without losing anything essential. I honestly can't think of anything I would cut in order to make room for them. Also, THANK THE BABY JESUS those early spoilers about Gale's bizarro quest to the Capitol got scrapped.
6. The way the violence was handled. I really wondered how they were ever going to keep it to PG-13 with all the brutality described in the book, but I thought it was done very well. There was enough of it (the bloodbath at the Cornucopia especially) that it conveyed the horror of what these kids have to go through, but not to the extent that the violence and gore take over or become sensationalized.
Things I did not like:
1. THE SHAKY CAM. I get what they were going for there, but they could've cut it down by at least half and still gotten the same effect. It was really distracting in the beginning, then got better once the action moved to the Capitol. I liked the shaky-cam filming of the action sequences (again, to give the sense of violence without being explicit about it), but scenes like the reaping absolutely needed to be steadier.
2. Angsty Gale reaction shots to Katniss/Peeta kissing. I have seen other people object to this on the grounds that the movie was playing up the love triangle more than in the books, which I don't think is really the case? Again, this is a factor of no longer being in Katniss' head, where we know she misses Gale and thinks about him often in the Arena, and more than once, she wonders what he thinks of what he sees. Obviously, she can't say those things out loud, so actually seeing Gale's reactions is a substitute for that.
I don't have a problem with that. In fact, I like that we get to see the reactions back home - it's one of the benefits of opening up the POV. Where I do have the problem is that they only ever show him reacting to the kissing. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of think Gale would be much more concerned about whether or not his best friend is going to die than the fact that she's kissing some other dude. I would rather have seen him looking worried when she was in danger instead of (or even in addition to, if it was absolutely necessary) the kisses.
3. What happened to the humor? While I generally don't quibble about dialogue changes, I couldn't help but notice that many of the really funny lines (which have become iconic because fandom glommed onto them) were rewritten or cut entirely. I don't know if that was deliberate or not, and I'm not going to cry over any individual line that was missing, but overall, the effect is a much more humorless tone than the books. I mean, isn't the subject matter grim enough? I enjoyed the dry humor. (Although I noticed that our audience laughed at some unusual places, but they may have been unintentional.)
Particularly, I felt like Peeta and Haymitch's characterization suffered a bit, because self-deprecating humor is a huge part of Peeta's personality, and Haymitch is a drunken, sarcastic jackass. It makes me worry a bit whether Finnick and Johanna will lose their snarky edge when they're introduced.
Things I am ambivalent about:
Several things, mostly minor details but kind of crucial, did not come across as well as I would've liked, but I knew what I was looking for, so I don't know. Maybemcmegan or someone else who saw the movie but hadn't read the books can chime in here.
1. I don't think the flashback really conveyed the extent to which Katniss was starving to death when Peeta threw her the bread. It's not just a nice gesture; he literally saved her life. I don't know, maybe it's not necessary for their relationship, but it seemed pretty important to Katniss in the book - even before she fell in love with him, she had that "oh no, not HIM" reaction at the reaping, and that factors into her wanting to save him.
2. On a related note, I'm not sure the ending conveyed the fact that Katniss was mostly pretending to love Peeta for the audience, whereas his feelings were real. In the book, Haymitch makes it explicit, and Peeta is hurt when he finds out. Not a big deal here, but it becomes a pretty big deal in Catching Fire, so maybe they'll deal with it there? Mostly, it bugged me because it felt like the movie was trying to sell it as more of a love story when it isn't really, not yet.
3. MORE FOOD PORN. Okay, this one is slightly gratuitous, but I think we needed to see Katniss eating all the yummy delicious food, not just looking at it. Kinda goes along with the Capitol's excesses contrasted with the starvation in the districts.
4. While I appreciated that Cato's little speech at the end there humanized the Careers, I do wish the rest of them hadn't been so cartoonishly evil? They're just as much victims of the Capitol as anyone else. Sure, they have a better chance of survival, but no matter how trained they are, they still know that only one of them will be the Victor.
Okay, I think I might be out of thoughts, except I totally will think of more things later. Anyone else seen it? Talk to me!
ETA: GAH! I knew there'd be something I'd forget to mention. Let us talk about Peeta's leg for a moment. For whatever reason, they decided to significantly decrease the amount of damage to Peeta's leg during the Games. In the book, it needed to be amputated; considering that there was no mention of it whatsoever in the movie, I'm assuming the injury was fully healed by that magic medicine. Which... okay, the Capitol's technology makes it so the artificial limb is hardly any different from a real one, so it probably wouldn't impact the story from a plot perspective. And I'm assuming it's another one of those things cut for time. But. How many amputee characters are there in mainstream media? How hard would it have been to carve out a few minutes for that? And I feel like the film misses the point if they're afraid to leave its main characters permanently damaged by the Games.I'm guessing Katniss probably isn't going to have the patchwork grafted skin after she gets burned in Mockingjay either, because God forbid our leading lady lose her looks.
mcmegan came to town for the annual Shamrock Fest in DC (which, for reasons unbeknownst to us, was held a week after St. Patrick's Day). We got a little wet from the rain, but we got to see live bands, particularly Dropkick Murphys. :) Then on Sunday, I dragged her to see The Hunger Games. :)Okay, for those of you who don't want to be spoiled with specifics, I'll say this: I think it is one of the most effective adaptations of a book I've ever seen. Part of it is that the subject matter is so well-suited to a visual medium, so some things actually work BETTER in the movie. Obviously it can't be translated word-for-word onto the screen, but I felt like the choices they made were mostly good - the bits that were cut were marginal anyway, and the scenes that were added enhanced the story.
Let's do this in list form!
Things I loved:
1. JENNIFER LAWRENCE. Fucking incredible. Seriously, haters to the left. (Yes, I understand and appreciate the whitewashing complaints, but having seen her in action, I kind of can't imagine anyone watching her audition and not immediately sending everyone else home, you know?) She's not how I pictured the character in my head, nor did she seem like an obvious choice when the casting was announced, but she was on screen for approximately 10 seconds and I was completely sold.
And a big part of it is that Jen Lawrence is generally an outstanding actor. One of the things I had worried about is how they would communicate Katniss' inner monologue without resorting to cheesy voiceovers and such. Katniss is already a pretty opaque character, and to lose that insight could've been devastating. But you can see absolutely everything on Jen's face without her needing to say a word. God, that moment before she gets in the tube, when she's with Cinna and literally shaking with fear? Her emotional response to the reaping and Rue's death? Fucking nailed it.
2. All the cast, basically. I was pretty skeptical about most of these actors - especially Josh and Liam - but perfect casting is perfect, yo. All right, Gale didn't have much to do except sit around and look angsty, but Josh completely sold Peeta's terror and pitifulness, lol. And Lenny Kravitz makes a fabulous Cinna. I don't know that I've seen him act before, but he's got that quiet determination and understated elegance. The girl who played Rue is just utterly precious, and Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks were just OTT enough.
The only one I wasn't totally convinced by is Woody Harrelson, oddly enough. I think I was distracted by the WHAT THE FUCK IS ON HIS HEAD thing. Also, he was far too sober. Moar drunk Haymitch. Thinking back, though, I probably am feeling like he lacked depth, even though that depth doesn't really show up until we get his backstory in Catching Fire. Still, he seemed too even-keeled. His volatility (and his subsequent softening toward Katniss) is what makes him a fully fleshed-out character.
3. The settings and costumes. I was worried they'd pull back on the poverty, but District 12 was exactly as I'd pictured it, and the contrast to the gratuitous opulence of the Capitol was as stark as it needed to be. I cannot wait until we get to see the other districts during the Victory Tour in Catching Fire. And, I dunno, I guess a forest is a forest, but the Arena was pretty much exactly how I'd pictured it, too. (Except for the Cornucopia, LMAO. What WAS that thing? I figured it would look like, y'know, a horn, not a mangled helicopter.)
4. The broader POV. Although I love being inside Katniss' head, one of the things I found myself wanting more of was a deeper exploration of other characters, and a broader knowledge of what was going on. And the movie certainly delivers on that front. I LOVED that we got to see Haymitch talking to sponsors, and District 11's reaction to Rue's death. Introducing President Snow early on and adding Seneca Crane as a prominent role made the Games so much richer, seeing all the action in the control room and making it clear just how much of the environment is manipulated in order to create a good show. Also, Seneca Crane and the bowl of berries!!! OMG. So perfect. Character death I didn't even know I cared about.
5. Much as I loved Madge, the Avox girl, the prep team, and some of the other things that were cut, I felt like they did the best they could to streamline the story without losing anything essential. I honestly can't think of anything I would cut in order to make room for them. Also, THANK THE BABY JESUS those early spoilers about Gale's bizarro quest to the Capitol got scrapped.
6. The way the violence was handled. I really wondered how they were ever going to keep it to PG-13 with all the brutality described in the book, but I thought it was done very well. There was enough of it (the bloodbath at the Cornucopia especially) that it conveyed the horror of what these kids have to go through, but not to the extent that the violence and gore take over or become sensationalized.
Things I did not like:
1. THE SHAKY CAM. I get what they were going for there, but they could've cut it down by at least half and still gotten the same effect. It was really distracting in the beginning, then got better once the action moved to the Capitol. I liked the shaky-cam filming of the action sequences (again, to give the sense of violence without being explicit about it), but scenes like the reaping absolutely needed to be steadier.
2. Angsty Gale reaction shots to Katniss/Peeta kissing. I have seen other people object to this on the grounds that the movie was playing up the love triangle more than in the books, which I don't think is really the case? Again, this is a factor of no longer being in Katniss' head, where we know she misses Gale and thinks about him often in the Arena, and more than once, she wonders what he thinks of what he sees. Obviously, she can't say those things out loud, so actually seeing Gale's reactions is a substitute for that.
I don't have a problem with that. In fact, I like that we get to see the reactions back home - it's one of the benefits of opening up the POV. Where I do have the problem is that they only ever show him reacting to the kissing. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of think Gale would be much more concerned about whether or not his best friend is going to die than the fact that she's kissing some other dude. I would rather have seen him looking worried when she was in danger instead of (or even in addition to, if it was absolutely necessary) the kisses.
3. What happened to the humor? While I generally don't quibble about dialogue changes, I couldn't help but notice that many of the really funny lines (which have become iconic because fandom glommed onto them) were rewritten or cut entirely. I don't know if that was deliberate or not, and I'm not going to cry over any individual line that was missing, but overall, the effect is a much more humorless tone than the books. I mean, isn't the subject matter grim enough? I enjoyed the dry humor. (Although I noticed that our audience laughed at some unusual places, but they may have been unintentional.)
Particularly, I felt like Peeta and Haymitch's characterization suffered a bit, because self-deprecating humor is a huge part of Peeta's personality, and Haymitch is a drunken, sarcastic jackass. It makes me worry a bit whether Finnick and Johanna will lose their snarky edge when they're introduced.
Things I am ambivalent about:
Several things, mostly minor details but kind of crucial, did not come across as well as I would've liked, but I knew what I was looking for, so I don't know. Maybe
mcmegan or someone else who saw the movie but hadn't read the books can chime in here.1. I don't think the flashback really conveyed the extent to which Katniss was starving to death when Peeta threw her the bread. It's not just a nice gesture; he literally saved her life. I don't know, maybe it's not necessary for their relationship, but it seemed pretty important to Katniss in the book - even before she fell in love with him, she had that "oh no, not HIM" reaction at the reaping, and that factors into her wanting to save him.
2. On a related note, I'm not sure the ending conveyed the fact that Katniss was mostly pretending to love Peeta for the audience, whereas his feelings were real. In the book, Haymitch makes it explicit, and Peeta is hurt when he finds out. Not a big deal here, but it becomes a pretty big deal in Catching Fire, so maybe they'll deal with it there? Mostly, it bugged me because it felt like the movie was trying to sell it as more of a love story when it isn't really, not yet.
3. MORE FOOD PORN. Okay, this one is slightly gratuitous, but I think we needed to see Katniss eating all the yummy delicious food, not just looking at it. Kinda goes along with the Capitol's excesses contrasted with the starvation in the districts.
4. While I appreciated that Cato's little speech at the end there humanized the Careers, I do wish the rest of them hadn't been so cartoonishly evil? They're just as much victims of the Capitol as anyone else. Sure, they have a better chance of survival, but no matter how trained they are, they still know that only one of them will be the Victor.
Okay, I think I might be out of thoughts, except I totally will think of more things later. Anyone else seen it? Talk to me!
ETA: GAH! I knew there'd be something I'd forget to mention. Let us talk about Peeta's leg for a moment. For whatever reason, they decided to significantly decrease the amount of damage to Peeta's leg during the Games. In the book, it needed to be amputated; considering that there was no mention of it whatsoever in the movie, I'm assuming the injury was fully healed by that magic medicine. Which... okay, the Capitol's technology makes it so the artificial limb is hardly any different from a real one, so it probably wouldn't impact the story from a plot perspective. And I'm assuming it's another one of those things cut for time. But. How many amputee characters are there in mainstream media? How hard would it have been to carve out a few minutes for that? And I feel like the film misses the point if they're afraid to leave its main characters permanently damaged by the Games.
no subject
Date: Mar. 26th, 2012 07:27 pm (UTC)SO TRUE.
So I pretty much agree with you on all, lol. Esp the stupid Haymitch hair and way too "sober".
no subject
Date: Mar. 27th, 2012 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 26th, 2012 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 27th, 2012 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 26th, 2012 09:56 pm (UTC)I'm not surprised that they did that and, in fact, I was expecting that they'd do that, the main reason being that when they initially only greenlit this movie, they didn't initially sign on for a trilogy. So, I figured that they'd have an ending an ending that would allow a slightly more "the end" than the books gave us.
I'm not really bothered by that because I think it'll help flesh out some of the character dynamics in "Catching Fire". I'm pretty sure we'll get a scene of Katniss and Peeta discussing their different reactions when they are forced to be 'in love' for the Victory Tour. So while that note wasn't struck in the ending sequence of "The Hunger Games". I'm pretty sure it'll be struck early in "Catching Fire."
no subject
Date: Mar. 27th, 2012 04:22 pm (UTC)Fortunately, it's one thing that wouldn't be too hard to push back to Catching Fire. :)
no subject
Date: Apr. 7th, 2012 12:19 am (UTC)But yeah, having just seen the movie and nit read the book, the flashback to Peeta giving her the bread didn't seem to make much sense. Like ok, he's being nice and giving her food. Not oh, she's almost dead and he's pretty much saving her life.
You don't think my "she looked at Gale" explanation at the end of the movie suffices that she's nit in love with Peeta? Ha. But I know what you mean.
Now I feel like I need to see it again since I've read the books. I heard a lot of people seemed disappointed in it (those that had read the books first). But I liked it a lot, and ran out to get the books. Now I want to see movies of the other books! And also need something else to read.
no subject
Date: Apr. 10th, 2012 01:36 am (UTC)Hahaha, your explanation probably does make sense - I think I just didn't catch Peeta's reaction well enough to get that he understood what was happening.
I think some fans didn't like it, because it didn't match what was in their heads, but the complaints are generally nitpicky. It's not perfect by any means, but I think, as movie adaptations of books go, it's pretty close to the source.
If you're looking for similar books to read, Delirium by Lauren Oliver (which is also going to be a trilogy) is another good dystopian future series, but with less children killing each other. :)