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!
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