The Hunger Games (or All My Creys)

I actually don't remember the last time I looked forward to a movie as much as I looked forward to The Hunger Games. It was probably some silly comic book movie like X-Men 3 or Watchmen (the trailer was just so effin' awesome! what happened to the rest of the movie?!). Which is exactly why I don't like to get too excited for movies, because higher expectations means higher chance of disappointment. I also, after reading the trilogy last year, wasn't quite sure how they were going to make the violent, often times bleak Hunger Games into a PG-13 movie with mainstream audience appeal.

My reaction: I really liked the movie. It's not without it's flaws, but I would say it's a very successful adaptation, and in some ways I'd dare to say it's better than the book.

***Spoiler warning for the whole movie and book, plus a small, possibly spoilery reference to Mockingjay***

Casting Thoughts:
- Jennifer Lawrence, what can I say? The book is told from Katniss' perspective, and she is not an exceedingly emotional, talkative person, so whatever actress played her was going to have to do a lot of "speaking without using words". And oh my God, Jennifer nailed it! She wasn't playing Katniss, she WAS Katniss.
- "But, she's not scrawny enough! Or olive skinned enough!" You know what, I only have one thing to say to you:

- Josh Hutchinson really surprised me, mostly since he just had the same lego-headed look in all the trailers, and I didn't think that dyed blonde hair did much for him. But he sucked me in as soon as Peeta's name was called at the Reaping. HIS FACE! I felt every bit as nervous, nauseous, horrified as I would if it were my name called. Josh as Peeta was sweet, love-sick, maybe slightly pathetic and even funny at times. I honestly was never very gaga over Book!Peeta but Josh won me over.
- I liked with the way Gale's limited screen time was handled. (Yes, I love Gale, yes, even after Mockingjay, feel free to come at me, bro). He's in the movie for, I dunno, five minutes, but I thought they did a good job of planting the seeds of his rebellious attitude and establishing his strong connection with Katniss. Again, in the trailers, Liam Hemsworth pretty much only had one expression: broody. And, well, he was pretty broody for the few minutes he was in the movie but that's pretty much Gale. I actually like that they didn't play up the "luv triangle" stuff very much, and they so easily could have, Liam did a good job of not overplaying Gale's reactions.
- Really all the casting was pretty stellar. Everyone embodied their characters well. Caesar and Snow were probably the most different from how I imagined them, but since they were played by Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland respectively, I can't say I cared at all.

So many good scenes:
- THE REAPING. I actually feel like this was the most fully realized scene of the movie. Effie's crazy outfit in contrast to the muted earth tones, the ridiculous propaganda video, Katniss' strained and desperate cries to Prim, the silent defiance of the District 12 citizens as they refused to applaud or make any sort of pageant out of two teenagers being sent to almost certain death. I probably would have burst out crying if I wasn't in a packed theater.
- Katniss' scene with Cinna before starting the games: oh man. Again, JLaw kills it, I don't even know if she said more than three words in that scene but all you need to know was said by her trembling. Like the Reaping scene, I felt as terrified as if I would if it were me heading into the Arena. And I nearly burst out crying again. SO MANY FEELINGS.
- I haven't heard anyone talk about Katniss' tracker-jacket-induced flashback to her father dying and her mother going catatonic, but I thought it was a really great scene; the symbolism of the shattering house, Katniss' voice being quiet and far away sounding. It was brief, but a wonderful way to show that little bit of Katniss' back story.
- The movie had a chance to out-do the book by getting away from Katniss' perspective a bit and showing some action outside the arena, and I think all the "added" scenes were really good, in fact the riots in District 11 and Seneca's "execution" were two of the best scenes in the movie IMHO.

The Arena: a mixed bag:
- I'm not going to judge the Arena too harshly. No, it didn't have the same level of violence and gore as the book BUT I think we all knew it never could, not if they wanted that PG13 rating at least. People complain a lot about the shaky cam, and the sound cut outs, but I though it was good, I felt like I was in Katniss' point of view. Yeah, a lot was cut or truncated, but while things like Katniss' struggle to find food or water or the days her and Peeta were in the cave were compelling in the book, that's not something that would necessarily translate to screen well (honestly, I found myself skimming the cave scenes in the book, for such an action pack, tightly written book, those scenes draaaaaaaaagged.)
- I thought it was a nice touch when Katniss heard the camera in the tree knot zoom in on her. Book!Katniss constantly refers to "the cameras" in the arena but I had a hard time visualizing it.
- And I know some were disappointed with the cave scenes, not as long or "steamy" as they could have been, but when they flashed to District 12 and to Gale's reaction, the cave scenes were coming across as, well, bad reality show drama and I liked that; the Hunger Games are a post-apocalyptic "Survivor", after all.
- Many are disappointed the Mutts weren't the creepy werewolf things with the eyes of the dead Tributes as they were described in the book, and that was probably a money thing, since the movie did have a relatively small budget. I'm of the opinion that's it's better to omit it than to not do it well, and it was one of those effects that if rushed or done cheaply could have looked really bad. I wasn't wild about the Mutt scenes in book anyways, it was this weird sci-fi twist that felt out of place in a book that was, all things considered, was otherwise pretty realistic.
-Oh, and slightly off topic, but I had to laugh when Peeta implied he got his mad camouflage skills from decorating cakes.

I concede it wasn't all awesome:
- The flim's weakest point is the visual effects, for sure. The initial view of the Capitol looked really good, but with things like the Tribute parade and Caesar's show, it was supposed to feel like they're in a stadium of people, but it really felt like a small sound-stage with a CG-ed audience. I agree with comments that the Capitol wasn't lavish enough, it was clean and modern, but it didn't quite capture the wastefulness of the Capitol (and no lamb stew? WTF!). I'll also assume budget constraints prevented them from having lifting the dead tributes out of the arena, which is a shame (of course, it would have gotten me even more emotional over Rue's death and I was already a mess at that point).
- Several things were also not explained terribly well. I didn't notice these things much since I know the books, but could imagine a newcomer being confused. The tesserae system (determining how many time your name is entered for the Reaping) is not fully explained. Effie is never properly introduced, nor is she ever called by her name! Everything about the flashback to Peeta throwing Katniss bread is great except it's not clear at all that she's there starving (she looks more sad that anything). They didn't have to do much, just show her rummaging through from trash and clenching her stomach.
- Considering how well developed every other section of the movie was, everything post-Games was pretty rushed, no scenes of Katniss and Peeta in the infirmary, no post games interview with Caesar, very little of the trip back to District 12.
- However, I'm okay with the movie ending on a more "positive" note. Katniss can just as easily tell Peeta she was faking her feelings for him at the beginning of the next movie. The ending helps bring the movie closure and it stands on it's own rather than feel like "the first part of a trilogy".

Wow, this post exploded! So I guess long story short, The Hunger Games had some rough edges, it wasn't quite as gritty as it could have been, and definitely has room to improve in the visual department, but I felt it captured the emotional impact of the source material, and in the end is a pretty good movie whether you're a fan of the book or not.

The only disappointment is it's a whole year until Catching Fire!

Mockingjay

So I recently read The Hunger Games series, which is apparently the current Young Adult novel sensation. Spoilers for the whole series ahead, so, you’ve been warned.

The premise of The Hunger Games is that what was once North America is now Panem, a country made up of a Capitol and 12 districts. The people of the districts are more or less slaves to the Capitol, and every year, to exert their power, the Capitol takes a teenaged boy and girl from each district and pits these so-called tributes together in a televised to-the-death battle called the Hunger Games. The tribute from the poor, coal mining District 12 is Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take the place of her sister, Prim. Katniss heads to the Capitol with her fellow tribute, Peeta (oh trust me, the names get better, there’s a kid named Glimmer). Then the book gets its “Lord of the Flies” on, mixed with Katniss being all emotionally conflicted since Peeta reveals he’s been loving Katniss from afar since childhood.

Next comes Katniss Beyond Thunderdome Catching Fire. Katniss and Peeta somehow survived last Hunger Games and now have a life of relative ease as victors. However, rebellion is abrewin’ in the districts, since it turns out that making 24 kids fight to the death each year for entertainment is not a great PR move (thought it gets very good ratings in the dictator demographic), and after Katniss’s defiant actions in the Games, she is becoming a (reluctant) symbol of the rebellion. She’s also having a little boy trouble. First, there’s Peeta, whose upset with her for pretending to return his feelings when they were in the Games. Then there’s Gale, Katniss’s hunky hunting buddy who kisses Katniss one day, and now Katniss is totally torn and stuff! But she really can’t think about kissing when she’s got a rebellion to incite*.

*actual line from book

It’s also time for the 75th Hunger Games, and every 25 years they make it extra malicious, such as doubling the number of kids sent. So this year, the tributes are chosen from past victors, which means Katniss and Peeta are heading back to the Games. Oh, and there’s a passing reference to fluffy carnivorous squirrels.

“You killed my father with your 4runner, prepare to die!”

Finally, there’s Mockingjay. A handful of tributes have escaped from the Hunger Games, most of the districts are in full revolt, and Katniss is at the thought-to-be-destroyed District 13, the center of the Rebellion forces. . . . and well let’s take a moment and look at the cover. Bright blue color, free-flying bird, speaks of hope and optimism, right?

However, if you turn the cover upside down, you’ll now see the bird is actually plunging towards a pit of spikes and sadness. This is how you, the reader, will feel by the beginning of the last chapter.

That center spike will pierce his heart.

Now onto my rants, which mostly pertain to the last 4 chapters of the book.  

If you've read this far, you probably don't care, but I’ll say it again, serious spoilers for Mockingjay.

* Finnick getting the “Whedon Death Treatment” [definition: when a popular, likable character is killed for no other purpose that to rip out the hearts of the fans]. Why, was he too awesome? Too happy to have his Crazy Annie back? Speaking of, while it was infinitely sweet that the Heartthrob Finnick loved Annie, the "why" is never really explained (“she snuck up on me” doesn’t cut it). And it won’t be explained because now he’s dead. But just when you’ve recovered from Finnick --

* Prim goes up in smoke: WHYYYYYYY?!?! I had to reread the scene just because I couldn’t believe Prim would actually be killed off. On the one hand, it fit the “War is Hell, War has no winners” tone of the book, and gave Katniss all the reason she needed to kill Coin (couldn’t Prim just getting horribly burned have the same effect?). However, it’s really hard to not feel a bit cheated by it. Everything Katniss did was to protect Prim, and Prim is ripped away from her at the last minute. It’s not quite the “Whedon Death” Finnick got, but it feels like it was done just to be shocking and to put Katniss through more hell (also to be the wedge that drives Gale and Katniss apart, see next point).

* Gale surprisingly doesn’t die, but gets a rather unceremonious ejection from the story, which is almost worst. This really sticks in my craw for some reason. Here’s Katniss and Gale’s last conversation (paraphrased):

Gale: "I know all you’re going to think when you look at me is how I’m sort-of-but-not-really responsible for your sister’s death."
Katniss: "Yup."

And with that, their relationship is more or less over. Now, I understand that, rational or not, she’s now associates Gale with Prim dying and for that reason she can’t be with him. But does his tenuous tie to Prim’s death really completely negate their connection and everything else they’d been through together? I would understand if Katniss felt he was too consumed by the rebellion, and yes, he did get a bit ruthless as the book went on, and buy into Rebellion’s ideology too much for Katniss’s taste, but a) war does tend to bring out the dark side in people and b) he was always on her side and by her side.

I just don’t like that they (as far as I can tell) never really talk again. That after the dust of the rebellion settled and some time passed, neither one of them attempted to reach out to each other. If their relationship really couldn’t survive Prim’s death, that’s fine, I still feel they deserved a little more closure. Dammit, Mockingjay, don’t make me turn to fanfic!

* The last chapter feels like a lot of “telling” and very little “showing”. Sure, Katniss says things like “Slowly . . . I come back to life” but there’s nothing showing us she still isn’t acting like a shell of her former self. Then she says “Peeta and I grow back together”. Great, but since he spent most of the book trying to wring Katniss’s neck, a little elaboration on the how they grow back together would be nice.

* The Epilogue: um, okay? Katniss gets a somewhat happy ending, but she seems so resigned to it all. She has kids, not because she wants to, or feels the world is a safer place to bring children into now that the Hunger Games are over, but because Peeta convinces her. And even then her children don’t seem to bring any extra happiness to her life. Though the epilogue is short, there’s a sense that she’s distant from her children, not unlike her own relationship with her mother (anyone notice she doesn’t reveal her children's names, much like her mothers name is never revealed?). It doesn’t feel right because she was such a survivor and fighter, and by the end it feels like she’s simply existing. Maybe that’s the point, that after going through so much, the girl who was on fire ended up burning out.

Despite all this, I did like the book, and the series overall, and clearly I really grew attached to the characters or else all this wouldn’t bother me. After the last few years of Twilight-mania, it’s nice that a series which is well written, has a well developed protagonist and also has, you know, a plot is now so popular. Bring on the movies!