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Friday, April 13, 2012

The Hunger Games Movie, A Review

I was introduced to the book series, The Hunger Games, by my dear friend Megan. She bought me the first book for my birthday in February and I had read all 3 books in a week's time - they were GREAT! I was very excited to find out that the first movie was set to be released in March. I even pre-bought tickets for the premiere date. Unfortunately, the stomach plague that hit our house put me in the hospital the day of the premiere and we didn't end up getting to go until a week ago.

Overall I thought the movie was acceptable. There is ALWAYS a let-down when you have read the books first and then see the movie. There is no way they can include every minute detail (although I would happily sit through and pay for a movie that held all of the little insignificant parts of my favorite books).

I thought the casting was good, Katniss looked exactly as I pictured her. Initially I thought the actors playing Peeta and Gale should have been reversed, but I think they played their characters well. It helps that they read the books before portraying them (unlike a certain twilight movie I won't mention) so they knew the personalities. I thought even the secondary characters were cast perfectly, such as Prim, Rue, President Snow, Cinna, Haymitch, etc.

They changed some things that I thought did not need to be changed (i.e., how Katniss got the mockingjay pin). And I was very disappointed in how the political plot was hardly even mentioned in the movie. In fact, after talking it over with Jason (who hasn't read the books) he didn't see ANY political innuendos and stated it would have been much better had they explained it better. He also thought that Katniss had genuine feelings for Peeta at the end, which isn't exactly true.

The relationship between Peeta and Katniss was not developed very well, and in my opinion was not convincing at all when it came time for Katniss to play it up for the cameras. I know in the books it was a hard thing for her to do, but I thought it was supposed to at least be convincing for the capitol folks. Maybe it is just because I knew the truth, haha.

The most annoying thing about the movie as an entire piece of work, was that the camera moved so much I couldn't tell what was going on half the time. I hate that! When there are choreographed fight scenes, the audience should be able to see it!

Although this review sounds rather negative, I have seen worse books-to-movies (once again, a certain twilight move I won't mention, haha - in it's defense, the franchise has gotten better as it goes along). I do believe that reading a book and then seeing a movie automatically sets it up for disappointment, so I had that going against it from the beginning. But simply as a movie, I think I would have enjoyed it even if I hadn't known the back story. I am interested to see how the next two books will be done and will definitely see them when those movies come out.

Disclaimer: do NOT take your children to see this, it is very violent and not for young viewers.

I would love to hear other reviews! :D

2 comments:

  1. I think it is interesting that you say the movie is not for young viewers. I obviously agree that it is not for very little kids, but it was written for middle-high school students. Did you know that?

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    1. Yes, I know it is written for students. I was slightly appalled at the 6,7,8 year old crowd that was at the theater though. And frankly, I can think of few middle school students that could properly digest such violent scenes (especially in the book; the movie moved so quickly it was hard to see much). I think our culture is dulling the senses (in areas such as violence, sex, drugs, etc.) of each generation, aiming younger and younger every time. It is disappointing to see parents allow media to infiltrate their children's minds without the least bit of concern.

      With that said, I do believe different children are able to handle things at different ages, based on maturity level. However, I don't think Hunger Games is very appropriate for a younger-than-high-school audience.

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