I loved The Hunger Game books with the same passion that I hated the 3 pages of the Twilight book that I read. Loved.
I counted down the days, with the rest of the teeny boppers, for the movie to be released.
Then, I managed to get invited to the screening. It goes along with my whole “ask for what you want” M.O. I asked. I wasn’t turned down. It’s all good.
I took my little lonesome to the movie. Plopped myself down in the exact center of the theater, which was very cushy, by the way. I eavesdropped on all the journalists talking about how much they hated the whole Twilight franchise. I didn’t want to interrupt their conversations so I just high-fived them in my head.
So anyways. I’m not going to go into the whole premise of the movie because most people on this planet have read AT LEAST the first book to the trilogy. Right? If not, there are many reviews written that have a whole synopsis of the movie that would be WAY better written than anything I could come up with.
I’ll just get right into my own little review for ya. Ready?
It was OK. I didn’t love it the way I loved the book. And, contrary to what the critics said, I liked John Carter WAY better.
Here’s why I didn’t love it…
I thought some of it was boring. If I had been allowed to bring my phone in, I would have probably played a little Draw Something. Or Tweeted.
Let’s discuss casting, shall we?
Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss. I realize that Katniss is supposed to be brooding so she was right on with that. BUT…I found her to be too flat. Katniss is a strong character in the book and I thought she was just a little too brooding and not enough strong. She’s awfully pretty though.
Peeta was played by Josh Hutcherson. He played it well. I’m just not a huge fan of his. But he played a strong weak character.
Liam Hemsworth as Gale. Yum. And he looked pretty close to exactly how I pictured him.
Woody Harrelson was an outstanding Haymitch. He plays a drunk quite excellently.
I loved that Donald Sutherland was Snow. He is the most perfect shady, bad guy. Plus, I love him.
Let’s talk about Cinna, OK? His part was way too small. He needed to be on screen way more than he was. Oh, did I mention that Lenny Kravitz played him? Well, he did. And he is so beautiful, I drooled. It doesn’t matter if he can act or not, I’m just happy to look at him.
SEE...HOT!!
Anyways, I had the same problem with the movie that I did with the book, as far as characters go. I never felt any real development. The whole Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle…it wasn’t there. Not for me, anyways. Reading The Hunger Games and watching the movie, which were pretty similar…a few “made for Hollywood” changes but nothing that affected the integrity of the book too badly…the action scenes. The parts I loved about the books were when the characters were in the actual Hunger Games, the rest of the book was just fluff to me. Same with the movie.
I figure that I’m just hyper-critical and everyone who sees this movie will love it and I’ll be scratching my head and wondering why. But that’s ok, I’m used to it. I mean, everyone is reading 50 Shades of Grey and I couldn’t stand it past the first few chapters…which is farther than I got in the first Twilight book.
The movie itself was way better done than some of the other book franchise movie adaptations.
All in all, from one layman movie critic to the rest of the world…
See the movie. Judge for yourself. Don’t be influenced by reviews.
Go. See The Hunger Games. In theaters March 23rd.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
I feel about the same as you, actually – my review of it will be up tomorrow.
(did you go to the critics screening on Monday? I went to the “general” one yesterday)
I thought it was good but left a lot out of the book. My favorite characters were actually the “bad guys” – Pres. Snow and the Gamesmaker guy. I’ve read the books but it was a year or so ago.
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I really loved the first book which makes me not want to see the movie. I hate falling for a book and getting disappointed by the film. I may just wait. Mainly for a whole bunch of reasons you said
However, LK could sway me…
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I really felt like the relationship with Katniess and Gale was underplayed. You barely even understood the connection if you hadn’t read the book.
Me. Haven’t read the first book in the series. If there is a good deal of violence, I won’t like it. But I think I’ll watch it, on DVD, one day. I can then fast forward and rewind the Lenny Kravitz scenes. You know, to assess his acting skills.
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Am I the only one in the world who hasn’t seen the movie? This weekend everyone was reading it in the airport. I guess I need to just go and read the darn book. Sad to hear the movie didn’t live up to the book, but that’s not surprising. Thanks for the review.
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I’m going tonight, and I’m completely stoked.
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I read the first 2 books a year or 2 ago. Yeah, I wasn’t in them enough to read the 3rd. I may see the movie one day, but it will be on dvd (or amazon), where if I don’t like it, I can turn it off & walk away. I won’t have to worry about having just spent $150,000 at the movie theater. (What? treats are expensive!) 😉
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I thought the movie was great but if you hadn’t read the book, would be pretty confusing. I am shocked to hear how many people read Peeta as weak. That was my biggest disappointment in the movie (that his character was too wimpy). I didn’t see him that way at ALL when I read it. I saw him as a boy who was willing to take a beating to feed a hungry girl, and continued to put her needs ahead of his own even sacrificing his life for her. In my mind he was strong and full of conviction perhaps lacking a few “street smarts”, but not weak. That was my biggest complaint. Otherwise, I was very entertained and really enjoyed the extra ‘outside the games’ parts that added to the experience we didn’t get in the book.
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Now this is interesting! You thought it was boring? I heard it was really pretty violent and gruesome. Would you take your 8 year old daughter to watch this?
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annie, no…i wouldn’t take my 8y/o son to see the hunger games, far too violent. although, it’s no more violent than many video games out there. it was actually some of the interactions and dialogue that bored me, not necessarily the scenes. but, like i mentioned in my review, i liked the actual hunger games parts. and character development, to me, was a HUGE issue. even in the books, i was more attached to the actions as opposed to the characters, if that makes any sense at all.
Maybe I’ll rent it on Netflix. I don’t know why but I’ve always had an aversion to reading or watching what everyone else is reading or watching. Call me a rebel. And movies are never as good as the book. Glad you asked and received, though.