For those of you who are not Hunger Games fans, I am truly sorry! But this will be my last post on the games for quite awhile. The hype around these films is nuts! Fandango believes that the ticket sales will be the largest ever this opening weekend for a movie that is a non-sequel. Based on the crowd last night at a local movie theater, I would have to agree with Fandango. I heard a lot of people discussing how they already had plans or even tickets to see the film again.
This is for sure going to be a longer post, so like always, feel free to skip around.
First up, my solid reaction. You guys know that I have now seen the film twice, and if you read my blog on Thursday night, seeing it from further seats in the theater was definitely a better experience. The film is great and as far as book to movie translations go, it was extremely obvious that the translation was very important to those crafting the film. They did a pretty solid job too, the biggest things that were omitted were:
The Avox. Yes, you saw them in the penthouse suite in The Capitol, however never were they addressed. The young Avox girl plays a huge role in shaping Katniss' perspective of The Capitol. I felt like that was not a good thing to leave out, but at the end of the day, it won't hurt any of the later movies.
What will hurt later films was them de-emphasizing the relationship between Peeta and Katniss. I think because of the time constraints on the film and the need to fit the entire plot line into the time limit, the relationship aspects were almost rolled to the side. The screenwriters and producers knew that most of this audience was going to have read this book before seeing the movie. I can agree that fact is most of the time true. However, fans were enthralled with the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale. The series is about so much more, but the grounding of those ideas takes place in the raw emotions and relationships between the characters. Peeta and Katniss are repeatedly told before the parade and before interviews with Caesar to hold hands, pretend like they are in love. That side was left out of the film. Also, where were the kisses in the cave? I was not a huge Peeta fan while reading the first book, but I, like most people, were looking forward to seeing the cave scene. I felt like that was a let down.
The other thing that I felt was directly taken out, was the part where Katniss loses her hearing because of the explosion of the food. She loses her hearing and has to hide in the brush for quite some time. Again, I know that this was cut for time constraints. However, it does play a big part when Katniss is taken out of the arena and realizes the power of The Capitol's medicines when she can miraculously hear again.
Some thoughts I had on the movie itself and relating it to other films. The first parallel that was actually brought to my attention to me by my sister, was Holes. I know you are probably thinking that is a stretch, however, it's really not. The relationship and alliance that is forged between Katniss and Rue is much like the alliance that Stanley Yelnats and Hector Zeroni forge. In both films, the duos are trying to solve a problem and in the end, truly fight for their lives. The second parallel was much more apparent in the film than it was in the book, I'm talking about The Truman Show. The control room was featured quite a bit in the film. It mirrored the idea behind The Truman Show in which we see that your life could be entirely controlled by people sitting behind a computer screen.
I would have liked to see less focus on President Snow. I know that he is an important character, but Katniss and Peeta are blind to his power until Catching Fire. I get that the screenwriters and producers felt that it was important to include some foreshadowing, but in my opinion it was too much. The book is told from Katniss' perspective, and in a way that was lost during some major parts of the film.
Now to get to my favorite part: the cast.
All in all, this cast was seriously on fire! They were in it to win it, and there was not one person who I thought was off. Jennifer Lawrence was indeed fabulous. There is no other word that I can think of that accurately describes her depiction of Katniss Everdeen. Her shining moment if you ask me, was when she waiting with Cinna to go into the games. Her eyes were amazing and everything down to the shaking of her body really made me feel as though she was truly heading towards her death. Hats off to you Lawrence, this is going to skyrocket your already great career.
The boys were great as well, both Hutcherson and Hemsworth. The two others that surprised me the most were the girls who play Rue and Prim. They are both so young, but they captured their characters' essence with a wiseness far beyond their years. The girls are played by Amandla Stenberg and Willow Shields respectively. My absolute favorite cast member was of course, Woody Harelson. He played the character with such ease. I know he will do the role justice in the future films as well.
Well, this extremely long post is wrapped up. I don't know about you guys, but I will definitely be looking forward to the release of Catching Fire. So yes, we are still hungry for more Hunger Games.
This is for sure going to be a longer post, so like always, feel free to skip around.
First up, my solid reaction. You guys know that I have now seen the film twice, and if you read my blog on Thursday night, seeing it from further seats in the theater was definitely a better experience. The film is great and as far as book to movie translations go, it was extremely obvious that the translation was very important to those crafting the film. They did a pretty solid job too, the biggest things that were omitted were:
The Avox. Yes, you saw them in the penthouse suite in The Capitol, however never were they addressed. The young Avox girl plays a huge role in shaping Katniss' perspective of The Capitol. I felt like that was not a good thing to leave out, but at the end of the day, it won't hurt any of the later movies.
What will hurt later films was them de-emphasizing the relationship between Peeta and Katniss. I think because of the time constraints on the film and the need to fit the entire plot line into the time limit, the relationship aspects were almost rolled to the side. The screenwriters and producers knew that most of this audience was going to have read this book before seeing the movie. I can agree that fact is most of the time true. However, fans were enthralled with the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale. The series is about so much more, but the grounding of those ideas takes place in the raw emotions and relationships between the characters. Peeta and Katniss are repeatedly told before the parade and before interviews with Caesar to hold hands, pretend like they are in love. That side was left out of the film. Also, where were the kisses in the cave? I was not a huge Peeta fan while reading the first book, but I, like most people, were looking forward to seeing the cave scene. I felt like that was a let down.
The other thing that I felt was directly taken out, was the part where Katniss loses her hearing because of the explosion of the food. She loses her hearing and has to hide in the brush for quite some time. Again, I know that this was cut for time constraints. However, it does play a big part when Katniss is taken out of the arena and realizes the power of The Capitol's medicines when she can miraculously hear again.
Some thoughts I had on the movie itself and relating it to other films. The first parallel that was actually brought to my attention to me by my sister, was Holes. I know you are probably thinking that is a stretch, however, it's really not. The relationship and alliance that is forged between Katniss and Rue is much like the alliance that Stanley Yelnats and Hector Zeroni forge. In both films, the duos are trying to solve a problem and in the end, truly fight for their lives. The second parallel was much more apparent in the film than it was in the book, I'm talking about The Truman Show. The control room was featured quite a bit in the film. It mirrored the idea behind The Truman Show in which we see that your life could be entirely controlled by people sitting behind a computer screen.
I would have liked to see less focus on President Snow. I know that he is an important character, but Katniss and Peeta are blind to his power until Catching Fire. I get that the screenwriters and producers felt that it was important to include some foreshadowing, but in my opinion it was too much. The book is told from Katniss' perspective, and in a way that was lost during some major parts of the film.
Now to get to my favorite part: the cast.
All in all, this cast was seriously on fire! They were in it to win it, and there was not one person who I thought was off. Jennifer Lawrence was indeed fabulous. There is no other word that I can think of that accurately describes her depiction of Katniss Everdeen. Her shining moment if you ask me, was when she waiting with Cinna to go into the games. Her eyes were amazing and everything down to the shaking of her body really made me feel as though she was truly heading towards her death. Hats off to you Lawrence, this is going to skyrocket your already great career.
The boys were great as well, both Hutcherson and Hemsworth. The two others that surprised me the most were the girls who play Rue and Prim. They are both so young, but they captured their characters' essence with a wiseness far beyond their years. The girls are played by Amandla Stenberg and Willow Shields respectively. My absolute favorite cast member was of course, Woody Harelson. He played the character with such ease. I know he will do the role justice in the future films as well.
Well, this extremely long post is wrapped up. I don't know about you guys, but I will definitely be looking forward to the release of Catching Fire. So yes, we are still hungry for more Hunger Games.
No comments:
Post a Comment