Hyperponderating

Fangirls are annoying. They make so much noise! 

And like Twilight of all things. Ugh. 

Just in general the atmosphere of premere is so strange to me. There is an extra energy that goes through the crowd that makes everything bigger and more exciting. 

It also sometimes makes it difficult to really immerse oneself into the movie, what with the squealing and all. 

There are many times when movies made from books turn out terribly.

The Hungers Games did not cave to this standard. 

I found the movie to be a delightful rendition of the book. I will admit to being completely surprised. I almost always hate movies made from books because they never live up to the standard set by the book. However I found the movie to display things in a very compelling way. 

Things I liked about the movie:

The costuming was brillant. The disparity between the clothing in the Districts and the Capitol was staggering and perfectly illustrated what those communities were like, just by what clothes they wore, their hair, and their makeup.  This, combined with the sets, made it feel very real and so compelling. 

The casting, in my mind, was perfect. I believed all of the actors in their roles, and they played the characters that I knew from the books. Playing a character that is featured in a novel can be very difficult, but I think that this cast did it very well. 

The transition from the book to the movie was smooth. Yes, there were some details changed for the sake of the movie (more later), but overall I thought that the screen writers made smart decisions. The first thing I noticed was that they added scenes in the movie to display important information about how the Hunger Games worked, Katniss’ history with her father and Peeta, and the reactions of characters outside of the arena. While this deviated from the book, I think it was a smart decision. It allowed important information that readers learned through Katniss’ internal dialogue to be displayed on screen so that watchers could follow the important information without having read the book. 

The violent subject matter of the book was another aspect I thought was well done. I was worried about how this would work on screen. The books have very violent themes, and a young audience. What the director chose to do was to make all of the action scenes very blurry and jerky so that watchers knew that a fight was happening without it being clearly, and graphically, displayed in front of them. 

Finally the music was wonderful. I had heard some of the songs before going and it was the part of the movie I was most excited for. I was a little sad that they were not as obvious as I had thought, however after some consideration I decided that was a good thing. The music did nothing but pull the audience into the story and keep the focus right there where the characters were. 

Things that the movie did not do as well:

Follow all of the things in the book. There were parts that were changed. For example how Katniss got the Mockingjay pin. Or the the fact that Peeta didn’t loose his leg at the end of the movie. I still am not sure how I feel about all of the changes. I think I will have to reread the books before I can come to a conclusion on that subject. 

Set up for the next movie with actual scenes. In the end of the book, the sequel is set up differently. The movie ends very quickly after Katniss and Peeta leave the area. The basics are covered, but some important conversations between Katniss and Peeta did not happen.

The impact of the movie was not as big. The book left me thinking about it for weeks after I finished it. I had a huge emotional response to it. This was not the same in the movie. This could be for a number of reasons: I was tired, I already knew the end, I was distracted by the visual beauty of the movie, movies never impact me as much as books, etc. But I think part of it also was that the hopelessness that ran through the book wasn’t there. There were funny moments in the movie that did not come out in the book. The emotions of the characters were less of a punch in the face in the movie. And you did not have Katniss’ internal monologue of doom over the top of the whole movie.  This made the movie fabulous, but not as intense. 

Conclusion: 

The Hunger Games was a fabulous movie. It has all of the elements that are needed to make a compelling movie. The movie was different from the book, but the deviations were mostly necessary to allow the story to transition to a movie setting. The themes of economic disparity between the Capitol and everywhere else, the brutality of everything, and the utter unfairness of the whole situation were not as strong in the movie. I think that the book deals with these issues in a more direct way, but the movie is a great starting place to discuss the differences. 

I can’t wait for the next one to come out!