Hail, hail! The Games gang's all here!
My brain refuses to write a proper review of The Hunger Games, so I'm just going to do some assorted thoughts -- and I have a lot of 'em! Of course this has spoilers for the movie. I did include a few spoilers for the next two books, but they're vague, at the end, and clearly marked.
"That is mahogany!" Best line in the movie. Elizabeth Banks did a damn good job with Effie, but I always knew she would.
So. Let's see. How about a numbered list? Those are easier!
1. The midnight screening was lots of fun, though it tested my ability to stay up late. I was pleased to see such a diverse audience: most were in their 20s and 30s, and almost evenly divided between women and men. And, of course, the widespread appeal was born out by the HUGE box office numbers that were both surprising and not at all.
2. For the most part, I liked the transition from book to screen. Thank goodness that leaked script was indeed an early draft. They ditched the ridiculous subplot with Gale sneaking into the Capitol and his near-romance with the female Avox. The script version of the bread scene didn't make much sense, so I'm glad they just made it into brief flashbacks, even if those didn't make sense either. I generally agree with the criticism of the ending, though I suppose the reasoning behind that might've been Lionsgate hedging its bets in case the first movie flopped. While the onscreen ending is too bland, it does provide a bit more closure than keeping true to the books -- then again, they must've realized early on that the movie would be huge, so why not just go with all that delicious tension between Katniss and Peeta? Not to mention actually playing up Katniss's manipulation of the "romance" in the Arena itself. Onscreen, her feelings looked too genuine, when they should've been very subliminal so as to sneak up on her later.
3. I adored Peeta! Hutcherson was very close to my mental image of him. He's not supposed to be pretty or a studmuffin, but rather stocky and ordinary, good looking but not omghot. And I thought JH did quite well with the character. Can't quite explain why, except that he just felt "right" in the part.
4. Okay, yeah, they should've chopped off Peeta's leg at the end! Sure, that would've caused some logistical nightmares for filming the next two books, but just put him in pants the whole time! Even Collins seemed to forget about the amputation after HG. ;) The real problem is that it lessened the impact of the ending. Katniss and Peeta don't actually eat the berries before the Gamesmakers freak out, and they emerge from the Arena nearly unscathed. I don't mind that the cave scenes were truncated and that they didn't mention the blood poisoning, but it still felt too lightweight. Again, I can buy that some things were changed from the book because of expediency, but those changes diluted the story too much.
5. The PG-13 rating is another source of controversy, but I thought they did a great job of toeing the line. The violence really was awful, especially at the Cornucopia. I had no problems with the way the muttations were designed, as I found them ridiculous in the book. Keeping many of the deaths implied rather than explicit made it much more horrifying. And, of course, Seneca Crane staring at the bowl of nightlock at the end was awful, even if his death was totally deserved.
6. BTW, what's up with the cornucopia looking like Serenity?
7. And you mean to tell me they couldn't find a yellow cat to play Buttercup?
8. The movie looked gorgeous. I loved seeing Appalachia up there onscreen, especially the Smokies. I'd expected the Capitol to be more rococo than high-tech, but I guess that was meant to play up the futuristic aspect. The production designers used the palette to great effect, with the Capitol painted with blues and lime greens and magentas. On the flipside, I'm not quite sold on what they did with District 12. The Dorothea Lange allusions were too on-the-nose. While a community might regress to that point when faced with abject poverty, the artistic choice felt too simple. BTW, why were all the women in skirts while they tended to the kids and watched the men march off to the mines? I'd thought Panem was more gender-egalitarian than that.
9. There's one really perfect moment right after the Games begin. Katniss listens to all the cannons, one after another, then reaches for a butterfly. In fact, the Arena was quite well done overall. Aside from the Cornucopia, it was nearly as I'd pictured.
10. Much has been made of the lack of racial diversity and of the problems with Katniss's casting. I won't argue with that, as I can't pretend to have any insight into racial matters. And yeah, the Rue hysteria is just ridiculous. One thing I noticed, though, is that they did a pretty good job with diversity among the Tributes themselves: two of the boys were Asian-American (or should I say Asian-Panemian?), another boy was African-American, and according to IMDb, one of the girls was of Arab and Irish heritage. Pity we couldn't clearly see them onscreen, as that would've helped. Another interesting detail was the racial diversity within Districts 11 and 12 (the only ones we saw). Collins makes much of the two demographics in D12, but they're still presumably both white. However, in the movie, I noticed a few African-American townspeople, and the rioters in D11 appeared almost evenly split between African-American and Caucasian. Huh. I can buy the latter, but the D12 thing was odd. Would a small group of a separate race be able to maintain itself over generations with such a small gene pool? Suzanne Collins has said that multiracial people would've been quite common in Panem after all those years, but I'd assumed that each District would be more homogeneous simply due to that gene pool -- like, one District would be predominantly Latino, one Black, one Asian, and so on. (Okay, I fear my racial ignorance is showing, so I'll just stop here. Made me think, though!)
11. Speaking of the Tributes... daaaaamn, Jack Quaid (who played Marvel) looks SO MUCH like his parents that I was distracted every time he showed up and smirked.
12. The expanded point-of-view was quite beneficial in opening up the universe. I've seen fans complain that too much time was spent with the Gamesmakers, but that didn't bother me at all. Given that the books exist entirely within Katniss's POV, we needed more breadth to show everything that couldn't be conveyed via voiceover. There were definitely some drawbacks, such as making her seem more into Peeta than she is in the books, but I can forgive that. I really enjoyed seeing the high-tech ways the Gamesmakers manipulated events.
13. And for unlucky number thirteen: food porn! It's the Hunger Games. We needed more scenes of Katniss and Peeta chowing down on all that glorious FOOD.
Whew! Okay, spoilers for Catching Fire coming up:
Granted, I'm the eternal optimist, but I have high hopes for this one. I really liked the Victory Tour, and it'll be a great way to expand the universe in other directions. We get more Cinna, which is always a good thing. And, of course, FINNICK. (I'm apparently the only person alive who doesn't want Taylor Kitsch, mostly because I was unimpressed by his acting on much of FNL, and I don't think he could pull it off. He seems all wrong. Yeah, I know. Unpopular opinion. And I feel the same way about Kristen Bell as Johanna, though her acting is much better. Anyway.) It'll be much more challenging to film, given all the different places the plot goes, along with the weirdness of the clock Arena; I'm hoping they shoot that part in Hawaii. It's also not quite as violent, and nearly all the characters are adults -- which helps with the kids-killing-kids squeamishness. I look forward to seeing how they pull off all the political intrigue and burgeoning revolution; if anything, CF is both more epically cinematic and more fragmented than HG. Whatever the case, it should be good!
BTW, I just realized that when CF comes out at Thanksgiving next year, I will be nearly forty. GAH.
"That is mahogany!" Best line in the movie. Elizabeth Banks did a damn good job with Effie, but I always knew she would.
So. Let's see. How about a numbered list? Those are easier!
1. The midnight screening was lots of fun, though it tested my ability to stay up late. I was pleased to see such a diverse audience: most were in their 20s and 30s, and almost evenly divided between women and men. And, of course, the widespread appeal was born out by the HUGE box office numbers that were both surprising and not at all.
2. For the most part, I liked the transition from book to screen. Thank goodness that leaked script was indeed an early draft. They ditched the ridiculous subplot with Gale sneaking into the Capitol and his near-romance with the female Avox. The script version of the bread scene didn't make much sense, so I'm glad they just made it into brief flashbacks, even if those didn't make sense either. I generally agree with the criticism of the ending, though I suppose the reasoning behind that might've been Lionsgate hedging its bets in case the first movie flopped. While the onscreen ending is too bland, it does provide a bit more closure than keeping true to the books -- then again, they must've realized early on that the movie would be huge, so why not just go with all that delicious tension between Katniss and Peeta? Not to mention actually playing up Katniss's manipulation of the "romance" in the Arena itself. Onscreen, her feelings looked too genuine, when they should've been very subliminal so as to sneak up on her later.
3. I adored Peeta! Hutcherson was very close to my mental image of him. He's not supposed to be pretty or a studmuffin, but rather stocky and ordinary, good looking but not omghot. And I thought JH did quite well with the character. Can't quite explain why, except that he just felt "right" in the part.
4. Okay, yeah, they should've chopped off Peeta's leg at the end! Sure, that would've caused some logistical nightmares for filming the next two books, but just put him in pants the whole time! Even Collins seemed to forget about the amputation after HG. ;) The real problem is that it lessened the impact of the ending. Katniss and Peeta don't actually eat the berries before the Gamesmakers freak out, and they emerge from the Arena nearly unscathed. I don't mind that the cave scenes were truncated and that they didn't mention the blood poisoning, but it still felt too lightweight. Again, I can buy that some things were changed from the book because of expediency, but those changes diluted the story too much.
5. The PG-13 rating is another source of controversy, but I thought they did a great job of toeing the line. The violence really was awful, especially at the Cornucopia. I had no problems with the way the muttations were designed, as I found them ridiculous in the book. Keeping many of the deaths implied rather than explicit made it much more horrifying. And, of course, Seneca Crane staring at the bowl of nightlock at the end was awful, even if his death was totally deserved.
6. BTW, what's up with the cornucopia looking like Serenity?
7. And you mean to tell me they couldn't find a yellow cat to play Buttercup?
8. The movie looked gorgeous. I loved seeing Appalachia up there onscreen, especially the Smokies. I'd expected the Capitol to be more rococo than high-tech, but I guess that was meant to play up the futuristic aspect. The production designers used the palette to great effect, with the Capitol painted with blues and lime greens and magentas. On the flipside, I'm not quite sold on what they did with District 12. The Dorothea Lange allusions were too on-the-nose. While a community might regress to that point when faced with abject poverty, the artistic choice felt too simple. BTW, why were all the women in skirts while they tended to the kids and watched the men march off to the mines? I'd thought Panem was more gender-egalitarian than that.
9. There's one really perfect moment right after the Games begin. Katniss listens to all the cannons, one after another, then reaches for a butterfly. In fact, the Arena was quite well done overall. Aside from the Cornucopia, it was nearly as I'd pictured.
10. Much has been made of the lack of racial diversity and of the problems with Katniss's casting. I won't argue with that, as I can't pretend to have any insight into racial matters. And yeah, the Rue hysteria is just ridiculous. One thing I noticed, though, is that they did a pretty good job with diversity among the Tributes themselves: two of the boys were Asian-American (or should I say Asian-Panemian?), another boy was African-American, and according to IMDb, one of the girls was of Arab and Irish heritage. Pity we couldn't clearly see them onscreen, as that would've helped. Another interesting detail was the racial diversity within Districts 11 and 12 (the only ones we saw). Collins makes much of the two demographics in D12, but they're still presumably both white. However, in the movie, I noticed a few African-American townspeople, and the rioters in D11 appeared almost evenly split between African-American and Caucasian. Huh. I can buy the latter, but the D12 thing was odd. Would a small group of a separate race be able to maintain itself over generations with such a small gene pool? Suzanne Collins has said that multiracial people would've been quite common in Panem after all those years, but I'd assumed that each District would be more homogeneous simply due to that gene pool -- like, one District would be predominantly Latino, one Black, one Asian, and so on. (Okay, I fear my racial ignorance is showing, so I'll just stop here. Made me think, though!)
11. Speaking of the Tributes... daaaaamn, Jack Quaid (who played Marvel) looks SO MUCH like his parents that I was distracted every time he showed up and smirked.
12. The expanded point-of-view was quite beneficial in opening up the universe. I've seen fans complain that too much time was spent with the Gamesmakers, but that didn't bother me at all. Given that the books exist entirely within Katniss's POV, we needed more breadth to show everything that couldn't be conveyed via voiceover. There were definitely some drawbacks, such as making her seem more into Peeta than she is in the books, but I can forgive that. I really enjoyed seeing the high-tech ways the Gamesmakers manipulated events.
13. And for unlucky number thirteen: food porn! It's the Hunger Games. We needed more scenes of Katniss and Peeta chowing down on all that glorious FOOD.
Whew! Okay, spoilers for Catching Fire coming up:
Granted, I'm the eternal optimist, but I have high hopes for this one. I really liked the Victory Tour, and it'll be a great way to expand the universe in other directions. We get more Cinna, which is always a good thing. And, of course, FINNICK. (I'm apparently the only person alive who doesn't want Taylor Kitsch, mostly because I was unimpressed by his acting on much of FNL, and I don't think he could pull it off. He seems all wrong. Yeah, I know. Unpopular opinion. And I feel the same way about Kristen Bell as Johanna, though her acting is much better. Anyway.) It'll be much more challenging to film, given all the different places the plot goes, along with the weirdness of the clock Arena; I'm hoping they shoot that part in Hawaii. It's also not quite as violent, and nearly all the characters are adults -- which helps with the kids-killing-kids squeamishness. I look forward to seeing how they pull off all the political intrigue and burgeoning revolution; if anything, CF is both more epically cinematic and more fragmented than HG. Whatever the case, it should be good!
BTW, I just realized that when CF comes out at Thanksgiving next year, I will be nearly forty. GAH.