Directed by Gary Ross
Based on the book by Suzanne Collins
Staring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth
The book was an international
hit, selling over 36 million copies in countries all over the world. Fans
flooded movie theater plazas and lobbies on March 23rd, to be the
first to see the start of the Hunger Games’ Trilogy movie adaptation. In less
than 24 hours after the premier, the Hunger Games was declared as the new Harry
Potter and Katniss Everdeen as the new Bella Swan; I just had to see it for
myself.
As a fan and trilogy reader, I
was psyched to see the movie. My friends who had read the book and saw the
movie had gushed about how amazing it was through Facebook and MSN. The trailer
captured key emotions from the book that shocked the reader and pulled them
into the story, as the trailer should. I soon realised though, people who weren’t
familiar with the books and hadn’t read the series weren’t attached to the
trailer at all. Hunger Games fans studied the movie production’s every move,
knowing exactly how the cast was being formed and how the story was laid out.
Even the fans who didn’t up until the premier, knew from the brilliant casting
and movie promotion what was going on. Strangers to the story were struck with
confusion on the events being shown in the trailer; this lead to a lacking of attraction
to the film for non-readers.
Finally, when I found the time to
see the movie on a less-busier date, a week after it premiered, I prepared
myself for an adventure of a life time; a two hour marathon of excitement; an
action-packed, on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie experience. What did I receive? A
waste of preparation.
The movie starts with a summary
of how the actual Hunger Games work in the area of Panem, a waste of time for
the readers but a great start for the newcomers. Katniss and her sister, Prim, follow
that introduction immediately exposing the closeness of their family. This gave
me confidence in the movie, I awaited more emotion that would pull through and
hopefully it would be as interesting as the book. After the reaping and the
dramatic family separation, the movie just seemed stretched and so long. The
training, the Ceasar Flickerman interview, the scenes with Cinna, all seemed so
agonisingly long. I have read the book two times before I had seen the movie,
which I do believe changed the way I saw
it. I think it seemed so long because it was like I was reading it for a third
time, knowing all the details that were coming and how much longer until the
end.
When they got to the arena, I was
hoping for finally, more action, which again, I never got. The slow-motion
right at the beginning after the countdown didn’t add to the mood at all. You couldn’t feel the pain of the tributes being stabbed to death when all you saw was Cato carrying a bloody knife. You
couldn’t feel the fear of Katniss or Peeta as the ran from the bloodbath too gory to film. I do understand they needed to keep this movie PG which might have been
a mistake to the extreme fanatics who were expecting the gore Suzanne Collins
expressed in her book.
I have never found myself on Team
Peeta or Team Gale but the movie did change my opinion on both. It’s not that I’ve
grown to like either one better by the interpretations of the astonishing,
young actors, but that the director or the actors must have seen them differently than
I had imagined and put them out through his eyes. That is the problem with book
to movie adaptations, it’s adapted from the way the director felt the story and
anything can be changed. Though, for me, they weren’t changed in a good way.
Peeta seemed very weak, very unconfident. In the book he was fairly negative but
I don’t recall him being so negative you honestly felt he had no chance; the
book made him seem secretly and mysteriously powerful enough to even be second to
Katniss. The introduction for Gale is a bit misleading; the book makes
him feel like a loyal best friend to Katniss, but he comes out in the movie as
a bully who teases Katniss but then, confusingly, immediately supports her later
on.
I’m happy to say there are almost no
flaws in this movie. No flaws as in something that you see that makes you say, “Seriously?
Why would they do that?” Like in Jurassic Park, how you see the enormous, flying pterodactyls soaring in
the sky with nothing to keep them in yet they never leave the island's perimeter. The ending was a
little wacky though. The obvious inference is Seneca Crane is killed, but how
would you expect a rich man to eat the dry, unappetizing Nightlock berries left
with him if he is just locked up in a room with them? Also, taking into
consideration that he is the Gamemaker and is supposed to be the one who designed
the Games so he would have put the poisonous berries in the arena; wouldn't he
know those were the poisonous berries he created and wouldn't he be smart
enough not to eat them?
I'm not saying it was a terrible
movie, I am a fan, I have read the whole series, and as a fan, I was disappointed.
If you haven’t read the books, the movie might be great. I can’t tell you how
great it was from an outsider’s point of view. I’m not saying you shouldn’t see
it. It’s one of those movies that everyone just has to see so they can be on
that list with everyone who saw it. It’s like The Titanic, to some people it’s
all around amazing, to some it’s a terrible story line but still a great movie, and to
some a complete disaster.
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