**if you havent read the books or seen the movie, do not read any further. youve been warned**
1. i read the trilogy in record time (for me... which maybe means two weeks. i read slow).
2. wednesday night i finished book #1, for the second time. its been awhile since ive re-read a book. (others include, but are not limited to: i know this much is true, brave new world, to kill a mockingbird)
3. i was, and still am, team peeta. book version more so than movie. gale is freakin hot.
4. yesterday was the first time i have been to the movies by myself.
5. it was also the first time i have seen a movie in imax. wow. i wish i had seen batman: the dark knight in imax.
6. about 20 minutes into the movie i moved to the very back row of the theater (there were about 15 people there). i couldnt handle the shakyness closer up with such a big screen.
7. the filming technique was choppy & poor. many reviews seem to agree.
8. i dont think ive ever seen a movie that so fully/accurately captures a book, maintaining plot, sub plots, and characters, as hunger games does. sure there were minor differences (they had to change a few things due to katniss being the narrator in the book and making sure the descriptions were fulfilled) but overall i felt they did a great job. for a pg13 movie.
9. im not sure i would have enjoyed the movie if it was rated R.
10. the movie totally failed at presenting the tributes at the capital before the games. fail fail fail.
11. did i mention the filming was terrible?
12. during the scene when the tributes are taken to the games on the pedestals, the theater i was in kinda went blurry, like it was supposed to be in 3D or something. this lasted about 10 minutes, max. i felt that was a pretty important part in the book, but i couldnt really tell if the movie depicted it quite the same way (book: katniss gets distracted by peeta and misses her chance to run for the center). when we walked out of the theater we were handed a rain check for another imax movie due to the "technical difficulties". cool.
13. i felt like before i knew it peeta and katniss were in the cave and the movie was close to the end. although the movie was 2 plus hours long, i felt slightly unsatisfied.
14. overall i think gary ross did an excellent job of bringing the hunger games to the big screen, but i still recommend the book over the movie, as always. (i dont think i would have liked the movie if i had not read the book first). the movie just wasnt enough. and i hope that if people only see the movie and say they didnt like it, that they give the book a shot. it will maybe take you a day or two to read it.
15. despite my own mental picture of haymitch being more like hagrid (and thats probably only because i am also reading harry potter), woody harrelson was an excellent choice for his character. lenny kravitz too.
16. i thought gale's character sucked at acting.
17. im pretty sure jennifer lawrence will soon be in playboy.
18. i wouldnt let my 10 year old read this. ya know, if i had a 10 year old.
19. i felt like the true & total control of the capital over the games was much more pronounced in the movie than in the book.
20. when does "catching fire" come out?
whether you read the book, see the movie, or both....
may the odds be ever in your favor :)
I had to close my eyes in some scenes the filming bothered me so much. I agree that they did a really good job translating the book to a movie. I think I want to sit on my couch all weekend and reread the books. I was floored at the parents who brought such young kids to the theater. Not appropriate.
ReplyDeleteim reading catching fire again right now... and yes, the children reading it/seeing the movies are too young. i can only imagine the questions they have.
DeleteI agree with you on all points of this review! I can't remember the last time I thought the movie adaptation was done this well. Did they rush some things? Yes, but overall they did a great job and didn't go too off the storyline. I felt the changes they made were necessary to streamline the movies. The one character I really didn't like was the president, in my head he was younger and very sterile looking. Attractive but with an edge that made him come off too attractive and evil. The old dude just didn't do it for me. I also agree, Woody was a great choice for Haymitch but they didn't really portray his alcoholism enough so you understood how affected he was by his life as a winner. Actually, come to think of it, they never really even got in to it about him being a former tribute/winner.
ReplyDeletei think to completely/accurately portray everything, the movie would have needed to be like 4 hours. i was sad that they didnt go more into haymitch having been the winner of the games, although they mentioned it many times. you see him drinking and know he probably has a problem, and then when they say he had been at the games you can assume his life has been forever altered in a f'ed up way from his experiences.
Deleteand yes, i agree about the president... i do like how the movie ended with him walking away though. you know nothing good is coming...
The bad news is the next movie doesn't come out until November 2013.
ReplyDeleteI thought the screechy teenagers in the theatre ruined the experience for me. I liked the movie, I loved the book.
Wanted to like the movie MUCH more than I did. The style of the film just didn't work for me for some reason. Definitely agree that the tribute presentation at the capitol really missed the mark. Great book .... movie not so much.
ReplyDeleteSaw the movie having never read the book. It was a good story-line so I think I am going to follow the crowd (backwards) and get the books and read them at some point! Oh and the whole movie by yourself, it is the only way to go, since I usually decide 10 minutes before a movie starts to go see it :)
ReplyDeleteare you serious?? the whole time i was watching i was thinking "people neeeed to read this book, not just see the movie." im glad youre going to read it. now i just need to get sarah to read it haha. and i loved seeing it by myself!! haha
DeleteSo probably telling you that I started to doze at one point is probably a bad thing :) I have to find someone to lend them to me and I will get around to it...maybe before MDI! And good luck getting her to read them...maybe if you give her ice cream or baseball?
DeleteI pictured Haymitch looking like Hagrid too ! :)
ReplyDelete