My jumbled mash of Hunger Games feels
SPOILERS
I saw it at midnight. It was awesome, except for the assholes who snuck their own liquor in and were completely wasted by the end of the film, despite sitting next to 12 and 13-year-olds. "Awww, they killed that nigga!" shouted while Cato was being torn apart by mutts was pretty freaking crass. -_-
Anyway, my thoughts on the actual movie!
- The meta aspects of our audience watching a screen of an audience watching the screen were pretty chilling at points, especially when people cheered at Clove's death and I couldn't help cheering too. What does that make me? I also loved Crane's interviews with Caesar Flickerman for that delicious juxtaposition.
- I was thrilled for this movie as soon as a) I read the book and b) realized Jennifer Lawrence would play Katniss. I adored her in X-Men: First Class. She brought a sense of loneliness to Mystique that gave the character much more depth than the first three X-Men movies. She completely delivered in this movie and proved that she can carry the thing on her shoulders. Add on to that her general gorgeousness and adorable IRL dorkiness... man, new girl crush, for serious.
- I loved Clove. I never noticed her much in the book but she was very chilling, and very *young,* in the movie.
- I loved how fucked up Cato clearly was, and how at the end we get to the see that despite being a Career, despite being able to snap a boy's neck with his bare hands -- he's still a child, too. That's the thing that sometimes wasn't focused on so cruelly in the movie, that these are CHILDREN killing each other... Cato's end was a time they gave it the amount of focus it needed.
- I adored Rue. I cried, of course, and Katniss's singing during that scene was just heartbreaking. The riots in 11 were fantastic -- I think it was an excellent choice to weave them in there. I saluted along with the people of 11, as did many of the people around me in the theater.
- Caesar Flickerman SO PERFECT. And Cinna was so reassuring, and so confident in his plan for Katniss while still being strong for her in a way that so many of the people in her life won't or can't be.
- I do wish Haymitch had been drunker, and grimmer. I missed the scene of him falling off the stage...
- Elizabeth Banks. PERFECTION. The tittery laugh, the amazing costumes, the shallowness -- and yet, hints of something more, an awareness of the darkness she revels in. Just that one line -- "You won't think it's so funny if the Gamemakers take it out on them in the arena" -- and you get a sense of that shrewdness Katniss knew was there. There was a real shadow in her eyes in that moment, a real sense of fear and worry for her charges. Possibly because as someone involved in the Games, she knows that dying isn't the worst thing that can happen to a tribute.
- I loved Peeta. Josh Hutcherson handled him with an earnestness that was touching and pretty much made him the Samwise of the movie. Peeta and Caesar's discussion about the rose-smells! Ha!
- The tracker jackers were just like I'd imagined. Loved the commentary providing needed exposition to people who hadn't read the books.
- Seneca Crane/nightlock? Freaking awesome. I loved the Gamemaker's room and the callousness of their boredom, their 'this is just my job" behavior. President Snow is delightfully scary.
- I loved the shaky cam. It completely conveyed the disjointedness in such a world -- living in a place where your life is up for lottery, where the haves gleefully murder the have-nots by slow starvation or by entertainment. And in the arena it was the perfect fit for the confusion of running for your life.
- The Reaping was one of the scariest scenes I've ever seen. The bizarreness of Effie's bright colors, the cheeriness, the thick nausea and fear in the crowd and especially on Peeta's and Katniss' faces.
- The fire clothing!!!
TOO MANY FEELS FOR ONE COMMENT
Quibbles:
- ...they weren't HUNGRY ENOUGH. Katniss and Peeta leave the arena emaciated, and are constantly hunting food to survive. There's just the occasional hunting scene in the movie whereas in the books, the threat of going without water and food is ever present, ever as much a a danger as any of the other children.
- I wish they'd had more of Thresh.
- The murders were not as brutal in the movie as in my head. There wasn't quite the sense that these are somebody's children, somebody's babies, fearing and killing and dying alone. I understand they had to keep it PG-13, but I think a few more lingering shots of, say, staring eyes or bloody fingers or something could have made it more effective.