Most of you who read my blog probably don't care much about the Hunger Games, but I feel the need to express my thoughts.
My husband and I went to see the Hunger Games movie this week. A friend from church kept Xavier and he had fun playing with some friends for a few hours. So nice not to have to pay for a babysitter AND a movie! Plus we got the matinee price. Hooray.
So, Scott hated it. He's never read the books. I have to say, if I hadn't read the books I think I might have hated it too. He wrote a blog post about it, so you can check that out here.
I did appreciate seeing how things matched up with the way I imagined while reading the book. I think in that way, they did a good job making the movie. It all played out as I thought it might. The costumes, scenery, and acting were good.
However. And maybe this is just how it goes when you've read the book first - maybe I need to stop reading books before I see the movie. Or just not see the movie. They left WAY too much stuff out. The movie was plenty long, but did not use the time wisely. Scott was left confused by many things that are clarified in the book. He also felt like the first hour of the movie was slow and boring. I feel like more character development at the beginning might have helped alleviate that problem.
The book is written in first person by the main character, Katniss. I figured she wouldn't be narrating everything, but I think they could have had her narrate a bit and made it work well. Especially to explain her perspectives on things and flesh out her character and history a little more. In some ways I did enjoy the fact that we were given perspectives from the game-makers or people behind the scenes, but most of the time it felt contrived. Like they were mentioning something just because someone besides Katniss needed to explain it.
They did not provide any explanation of the other districts or flesh out any of the characters in district 12. I'm sure it was done for the sake of time, but I think the time could have been used more effectively to add more life to the beginning of the movie. I enjoyed reading about how Katniss survived growing up in district 12 as much as anything else in the book. It gave depth to her character and the story as a whole to understand more about what their lives were like.
I felt that the camera shake was over-the-top in some places. I understood it during the games, but at the beginning of the movie it was quite distracting and unnecessary.
President Snow was not nearly disturbing enough. Katniss is repulsed by him in the books and in the movie he just seemed like a generic leader, maybe a bit misled because of their history, but nothing sinister. It would help the audience to feel more disdain for the government had he been more evil.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie adaptation, but I think it could have been better. It was especially lacking in detail if you hadn't read the book, so I feel like it failed to fully deliver the same story. All the major events were there, but it was lacking something... I am curious to see what they do with the next movies so I guess at least they succeeded enough to bring me back. However I'd be more inclined to buy the book than the movie.
My husband and I went to see the Hunger Games movie this week. A friend from church kept Xavier and he had fun playing with some friends for a few hours. So nice not to have to pay for a babysitter AND a movie! Plus we got the matinee price. Hooray.
So, Scott hated it. He's never read the books. I have to say, if I hadn't read the books I think I might have hated it too. He wrote a blog post about it, so you can check that out here.
I did appreciate seeing how things matched up with the way I imagined while reading the book. I think in that way, they did a good job making the movie. It all played out as I thought it might. The costumes, scenery, and acting were good.
However. And maybe this is just how it goes when you've read the book first - maybe I need to stop reading books before I see the movie. Or just not see the movie. They left WAY too much stuff out. The movie was plenty long, but did not use the time wisely. Scott was left confused by many things that are clarified in the book. He also felt like the first hour of the movie was slow and boring. I feel like more character development at the beginning might have helped alleviate that problem.
The book is written in first person by the main character, Katniss. I figured she wouldn't be narrating everything, but I think they could have had her narrate a bit and made it work well. Especially to explain her perspectives on things and flesh out her character and history a little more. In some ways I did enjoy the fact that we were given perspectives from the game-makers or people behind the scenes, but most of the time it felt contrived. Like they were mentioning something just because someone besides Katniss needed to explain it.
They did not provide any explanation of the other districts or flesh out any of the characters in district 12. I'm sure it was done for the sake of time, but I think the time could have been used more effectively to add more life to the beginning of the movie. I enjoyed reading about how Katniss survived growing up in district 12 as much as anything else in the book. It gave depth to her character and the story as a whole to understand more about what their lives were like.
I felt that the camera shake was over-the-top in some places. I understood it during the games, but at the beginning of the movie it was quite distracting and unnecessary.
President Snow was not nearly disturbing enough. Katniss is repulsed by him in the books and in the movie he just seemed like a generic leader, maybe a bit misled because of their history, but nothing sinister. It would help the audience to feel more disdain for the government had he been more evil.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie adaptation, but I think it could have been better. It was especially lacking in detail if you hadn't read the book, so I feel like it failed to fully deliver the same story. All the major events were there, but it was lacking something... I am curious to see what they do with the next movies so I guess at least they succeeded enough to bring me back. However I'd be more inclined to buy the book than the movie.
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