Same for me, in a way. I wonder why I still do these movie reviews. They're not the main point of my blog, and not many people read them anyway. But, like Haymitch's alcohol, they're quite...satisfying.
Besides, who can not talk about this:
Spoilers ahead.
There is a red-and-black little notebook lying on my bed to the right. Nothing unusual, except the picture you see above is smack right on the cover. On the inside, every page is watermarked with the trademark Mockingjay logo.
It's a rather sad fact that when a movie gets so hyped, it is bound to get "hijacked" by certain people out there to scrape a dollar or two. But what's more sad is that the media, and consequently the general public, will start putting in these small little twists and comparisons to hype it up even more than before, so they can have something to talk about. In this case, the "Twilightifying" of the Hunger Games.*(Credit for this word goes to fellow friend and blogger Siangling Tan, who's just as annoyed at this as I am.)
But we'll get to that in a moment. The movie itself first.
*experienced readers/viewers skip this paragraph*
Katniss Everdeen is the 16-year-old protagonist. She lives in a region of District 12 known as the Seam, which is the poorest area of the district, which itself is one of the poorest, if not the poorest, district of Panem, what's left of the USA after the wars and rebellion. Every year, the Capitol, which is the seat of government for Panem, holds a big-scale reality show which involves picking two "tributes" from every district to compete in a fight-or-die competition known as the Hunger Games. Katniss's sister, Prim gets picked, but our heroine steps in and volunteers. Oh, and Peeta Mellark gets picked too. For more info, read the goddamn book.
I will first say that I am a big fan of the trilogy. The first book messed with my feelings here, there, and everywhere, and left me curled up reading it for hours on end, unable to stop. So needless to say I had really high hopes for the movie. If they screwed this one up, it would get personal.
Thankfully, they didn't.
Gary Ross seems to understand that The Hunger Games was about emotion. Dark, no-holds-barred emotion that can lead to rash decisions or start riots. So we see close-ups of expressions, clenching of teeth, and the horror in a tribute's eyes seconds before they are bashed, kicked, stabbed or shot to death. Yup, there's plenty of violence to be had here and the movie is all the better for it. The Hunger Games needed to be violent; it couldn't afford to be another generic PG-13 movie where violence is 'teased'. Ugh.
He also understood the importance of the characters, so we see talent from the likes of Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen) Woody Harrelson (Haymitch, their mentor) play their roles to near perfection, portraying their characters just like how I imagined they would be like, a terribly difficult task for any actor doing a book-adaption. Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket) also does a stellar job as the heavy-accented and over-the-top Effie Trinket - May the odds be ever in your favour! I was a little disappointed, however, that Peeta (acted by Josh Hutcherson) wasn't given more depth in this movie, though.....there is more sophistication to him than shown in the movie. The book was adapted quite faithfully, with only minor changes here and there, and were mostly quite well implemented, all keys to having an adoring and supportive fan base.
One thing I commend Ross for is that he didn't fall into the trap everyone else is falling into: "Twilightifying" it. The Hunger Games has never been mainly about the love triangle that crops up between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, yet many are treating it as the central idea and doing stupid things like the familiar "Team Peeta" and "Team Gale". Frankly, I am sick of it, and thankfully it seems Ross doesn't want that either. Hopefully after watching it, these love=triangle obsessed viewers and even some reviewers will see the light.
One problem with this movie adaption was that it felt quite...rushed. The Hunger Games is a medium-sized book with big-sized content, and as such I don't expect a filmmaker to be able to translate all of it out into the movie. However, as I've mentioned, The Hunger Games mostly derives its forceful nature from emotion, and the switching from first-person to third-person narrative in the movie took away quite a bit of that. There were not enough "quiet" moments; moments where Katniss who just crawl into her vulnerable, emotional shell and think. And that's sad, because it could have been a lot more better if it had this extra, complicated level of emotion that makes you feel, not just the general mood (which the movie excels at doing), but also an individual's thoughts and struggles.
The other nugget I have to pick with this movie is the movie set and editing. The Hunger Games isn't a very pretty movie. Places like the Capitol were quite well-designed, better than I had expected, but the arena fell short of expectations. I'm not sure of their budget, but they could have, should have done better. Camera work was also a little too shaky at times, which was okay because I knew the story, but I'm not sure about other newbies to the trilogy. Costume design was superb though; I loved how extravagant they made the Capitol residents seem.
So, in a nutshell: The Hunger Games is a good movie, a well-done effort. Not the best, but up there, and just maybe a slightly missed opportunity to reach true greatness. They have me on the hook for the sequels, and if they can up the ante on the emotional and design front, they'll have a winner.
Oh, and I had to do this:
May the odds be EVER in your favour!
May the odds be EVER in your favour!
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