How Hunger Games Won Me...over

I, like you, cringe every time I hear that someone if going to make a movie out of a popular book. Let's face it, not everyone can be Peter Jackson. With Hunger Games I was even more apprehensive then usual.  I liked the first book a lot but… a movie? Lucky for us this movie was done oh-so-right, in fact, I’m going to venture to say I liked it just as much as I liked the book. I’m guessing most people already know the plot so this will just be my thoughts about how the movie excelled and a few things that could have made it better. Feel free to add your insights.

First, the movie won big the minute it cast Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. Man, that girl can act. I don’t know if it was good direction or just natural skill, but there were a few scenes where I literally said "wow" in my head. For instance, (1) when the reaping is taking place and Gale and Katniss were mouthing back and forth, (2) when the first kills are announced and Katniss is counting to herself, or (3) when she finally gets medication for her burn. These were all scenes that made Katniss a real person to me. Of course, the rest of casting surprised me too. Woody Harrelson was a great Haymitch, Elizabeth Banks was just how I pictured Effie, and Lenny Kravitz was… well, he was acceptable as Cinna.

Second, the feel of the movie made me nostalgic in a way I had no right to feel. The cinematography was great, the scenery was spot on, and the special effects were seamless. But can I just say the camera work was beyond amazing. The parts that wowed me the most were the first person shots. Seeing things for a person in the movies perspective is usually cheesy to me. But that wasn’t the case here. It worked perfectly to see Katniss’s perspective when she walks up the stairs after volunteering, and it kept things PG-13 to see her view at the start of the killings. My favorite though was Rue’s death. Man, that was powerful! I wasn’t expecting to feel peaceful in this movie but that was one of the most beautiful shots I’ve ever seen.

Third, I love that they didn’t just come out and show you the back stories about her father dying and Peeta giving her the bread. Instead, they were original and showed it in quick fading glimpses that require a thought process to put it together. This way people who haven’t read the books can work out what happened, and people who have don’t need to lose time being reminded of things they already know. I applaud that!

Fourth, since Hunger Games is written in first person there is a lot going on the reader is denied. So, it was really great for people who have read the books to see Haymitch working behind the scenes, or the gamers creating the scenarios, or Gale back home getting jealous while watching. Plus, it allowed a creative way to introduce people to things like Tracker-Jackers without being cheesy.

However, I did feel that sometimes they wasted screen time with the game makers. That is one of the few things I would have changed. The short glimpses are great, but we don’t need to see a long scene about the mutts getting made. That’s another thing! The mutts were supposed to resemble the people who had died already. Next time spend less time on the guys in weird white outfits and more on the creepy mutations! Thanks!

No movie can follow the book perfectly, but they went off with two things that drove me nuts! First of all when Rue dies, District Ten sends Katniss a loaf of bread out of respect, but in the movie they riot instead. I know, not a big deal since they do that in the second book, but that was such a tender part of the book and foreshadows the districts uniting. Oh well, not a big deal

I was more annoyed by something even smaller. In the book, when they announce both tributes from a district can win Katniss YELLS out Peeta’s name. In the movie she just whispers it and runs off. Why is that a big deal to me? Because it's so dramatic! Rule number one when people are trying to find and kill you is don’t yell!! But Katniss was so overwhelmed by the information that she and Peeta could get out together she can’t control her emotions. It's epic! But sadly missed.

Finally, I appreciate trying to give Donald Sutherland screen time sufficient to his star power, but to me the meetings between Seneca Crane and him were totally unneeded. Plus, I hated the whole speech about giving people hope by letting one person win… No, no, the reason they let one person win is because it's propaganda! Keep the mindless masses of Capital focused on the games and President Snow can do whatever he wants. One of the things I respected most about the The Hunger Games books was the importance of media and propaganda and that message was thrown away with the ridiculous “hope schpeel.”

Overall, it got things right way WAY more than it needed improving. I regret not putting this on my top ten list at the start of the year. But it will be on the top ten at the end of the year. Go see it!



For fans of the book here is my long opinion of the books. Don’t bother reading if you didn’t like the movie or don’t know how it all ends.

I’m really not one to join in the hype. I hated Harry Potter when it first came out and I hated myself more when I actually read the first book and loved it. So, as a college student, when Alisa first told me about this new series that everyone was raving about called The Hunger Games, I was skeptical, but I try not to criticize until I actually know what I’m talking about. Trying to get a hold of the book made it even worse. A three month wait at a college library for a young adult novel… really? After six months of being unable to get my hands on the book with mild effort I bought the thing for $6 at Wal-Mart and prayed it would be worth my money. Lucky for me I was actually entertained by it. Greatest book ever? Not at all, but that Suzanne Collins sure knows how to get a reader invested fast.  I got the second book at the library (no waiting list at all… weird) and was only half as entertained as I was by the first. By the time I finished the third I wanted to burn the dumb thing and donate the ashes for kitty litter.

Here’s my beef with the books:

First, it seems odd to me that Collins' message seems largely to be about societies obsession with violence and she points this out--by creating a book to entertain readers--all about violence.  Let's be honest, you didn’t read those books to receive deep philosophical insights. You wanted a good, entertaining fluff piece. You kept turning the pages because you had to know who was going to die next and how. Anyone else see how her message gets lost? Don’t try to warn us about violence obsession by giving people violence that people are obsessed with.

Second: WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED TO KATNISS THROUGH THE BOOKS? In the first book, she’s the type of girl that I’m guessing most girls want to be like: brave, tenacious, intelligent, independent, and, most of all, emotionally strong even if she is a little hard around the edges. It seems quite clear that her life has made her that way. Losing your father, having your mom turn into a vegetable in essence and having to provide for her and your starving baby sister makes you grow up pretty fast.  But she does it! She was a STRONG character because of tragedy. Then she goes to the Hunger Games and handles it like a pro… no seriously, like she owned those games.

Yet THEN somewhere between the middle of the second book and the end of the third she has transformed into a whimpering little girl, in essence, incapable of sustaining her own life… WHAT!?! Why? Because she had to go to the Hunger Games twice? Or because she saw so much suffering in the games and as a result of the revolution? Or because she almost dies so many times? No, after all she goes through her slip into psycho depression is much simpler.

Most of the third book it's because (drum role please) she’s worried about her boyfriend! No wait, she’s not even sure she loves this guy, but the fact that he’s suffering at the hands of the Capital is apparently way harder for her then watching her own sister starve to death slowly and painfully.  Then when he’s brainwashed to want to kill her it’s just more than she can bear… even though twice she’s been in a situation where 23 other people depended on her death so that they could live (oh, and the fake boyfriend was there both times).

Most of you are probably angrily yelling that it’s the death of Prim that finally sets her overboard, but this just brings up a whole bunch more stuff to mock:
 

A. Wasn’t Katniss’ group the super advanced, vanguard team that was supposed to go in first because they needed to catch Snow before he ran away and the main army was taking to long… Yet, when they finally get to the center of the Capital… the main army is already there, in fact, little girls (like her sister) were able to get their first. WHAT!?! This super advanced Capital, capable of suppressing 13 districts, of creating high tech killing arenas that launch fire balls at people, and of creating super  mutations like tracker jackers to do their killing for them… can’t stop a bunch of little girls from reaching their front steps!!! What the freak just happened?
 

B. Why the heck was Prim really there? If it was to draw more Capital people out like Gale's plan suggested why was that needed since they'd already taken the city? If it was to make Katniss go crazy, how could Coin possibly know that would work and how could she not realize you don’t piss off a crazy chick with mad bow and arrow skills?
 

C. That’s what you get for failing to teach your sister to avoid running into the middle of a war zone.

D.  I don’t buy it. Death has been this girls whole life; if she wasn’t expecting that either her sister or mom could die in the war she was a bigger idiot then I thought. Mostly, it just isn’t her character. Death of a family member made her the strong person she was in the first book, but then we’re told that the death of a family member is the one thing she couldn’t take. Load of crap if you ask me.

Third, and finally, the second point brings me to my biggest concern. What is going on with what our society chooses to entertain itself with! I don’t understand how SO many people LOVED reading about a girl that becomes so emotionally weak that she acts like a catatonic. What happened to the heroes that had struggles and tragedies but overcame them to be stronger people? Katniss was that hero in the first book, but that character died on the last page of that book. 

Now instead, we enjoy reading about depression, we enjoy reading about pain that can’t be fixed, we enjoy reading about wallowing in self-pity. Is that what drama is today? What I think is really going on is a rejection of hope. That’s what Mocking Jay was to me, the first of many books that will advocate despair and reject hope as non-realistic and sappy. Well, I for one still believe in happy endings, so I’ll stick with book one and leave book three to everyone that wants a good pity party.