This picture. THIS.
My thoughts at the climax of The Hunger Games movie:
1. Alexander Ludwig *a-hem*
2. Could I please get one of those tribute hairstyles that last two weeks through HELL? My ballet bun doesn't even stay up through an hour of ballet class.
No, but seriously. I just got back from this movie. Consensus: true to the book, reasonably paced, exciting, entertaining, and not nearly as freakish or disturbing as the book.
So lets get started:
Stuff I liked:
Casting-We pretty much knew all the actors before the movie was released, so I won't go into too much detail. Everybody took a while to get used to it, but the actors were spot on and I couldn't imagine anybody else. Especially Josh, ISABELLE, and ALEXANDER.
Acting-Everyone was REALLY good. Especially the Careers. They totally give off that "WE WILL ROCK YOU" effect. I can't believe Jennifer Lawrence stayed so stone-faced and incredibly Katniss-stoic during the whole movie...considering in all the interviews, she's like this...
My favorite scene was definitely the training center. We got to see Foxface be all pro with her leaves, Cato and the Careers living it up, Rue being a troll....
I feel like they paid special care to make it extremely satisfying for people who read the books. Like they'll pan onto a certain tribute, and you can practically feel the others around you going "ZOMW THATS CLOVE YOU THROW THOSE KNIVES GURL".
During HER death scene, I cried like a broken water fountain, so that's good. It was really heart-wrenching and beautiful. Katniss sang like..two lines of the song though >.>
ALL the action scenes were really heart pumping and suspenseful without being too freakish or violent.I liked the shaky camcorder :)
And the Girl on Fire scene sent chills down my spine, it was so excellent! Of all the scenes I would choose to watch again, it would be that and the training center.
All the little details, from the tribute's score announcements to the interviews, were perfect, and set up and timed perfectly.
Stuff I didn't like:
There really isn't much, so I'll be nitpicky.
This is going to sound really weird, but I felt like they included some parts of the book they could have left out. There was some scenes that felt a bit rushed, and when you're trying to time everything right, Katniss staring at her mother's dress and washing her feet kinda make an awkward pause.
It's inevitable, trying to condense two weeks into two hours, but the arena felt a bit rushed in some parts. I mean, would it KILL them to spend a little more time in a certain scene, instead of spending like a whole minute in Snow's ROSE GARDEN? No one, no one watches the Hunger Games to see a rose garden, let me tell you.
Some scenes that I felt missed out: Cave scene/Peeta character development, feast scene, and nightlock scene.
I mean, especially the nightlock scene. That scene was so eerie in the book, it made me shiver all over. Here, people who hadn't read the book would be like "CANNON Peeta berries WHAT nightlock dead person cato berries?"
The feast scene might actually have been good. I just like Isabelle Fuhrman, I guess. And she dies by getting smushed against the Cornucopia in the movie, putting an end to all the rock jokes floating around the internet. :(
Showing all the behind the scenes stuff was really interesting, and added a whole new level, but it took a lot of suspense away from the events. And Seneca Crane was an interesting character, but do they really need to spend so much time on him Peeta seems like a walking statue?
Violent/Freaky?
The books were really freaky and disturbing for me, but the movie, thank goodness, is just like regular movie violence. Cuts, some blood, burns. They didn't focus so much on that as they could have, and I'm thankful.
The mutts were just regular killer dogs, not zombie-grafted scary wolf dogs.
Thoughts:
I loved these guys, but in the scene where they chase Katniss into the tree, they totally overdo the peppiness. They're all like "WHOO" and it was cool at first but after a while I was like... >.>
The hallucination scene reminded me of badly edited Youtube videos.
Peeta didn't lose his leg! There go all the leg jokes on tumblr...
I hope you guys get to go see it! It's pretty intense, but cool-intense, and nothing too bad.
The acting WAS amazing! I'm glad they didn't make the gory scenes in the book too violent in the movie, too though.
ReplyDeleteI really like these gifs. :)
I just absolutely ADORE Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence. If I could just be there best friend my life would be complete.
ReplyDeleteI love the books and went to the midnight premier of the movie. I loved the movie but there were a few things I felt like they could have done better. I felt like they didn't make the part when everyone in D12 gives her the farewell instead of clapping nearly important enough. It was way too quick. I'm also not sure about the riot in D11, considering 8 is the first to revolt, but we'll just have to see how that plays out I guess.
Great post!
--Katie
The Fiction Diaries
I agree 100% about the speed of the two weeks in the arena. Right before the initial bloodbath, I looked at my watch and saw that we were already in the theater for over an hour! The movie is only an hour and fifteen or so minutes, and I thought that there was NO way that they could get all two weeks into less than an hour. That's what bothered me the most. That and how Katniss got the pin. She got it from Madge, NOT the Hob. My dad, cousin, aunt and I talked extensively about that one specific scene after the movie.
ReplyDelete