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So I saw The Hunger Games
13 years ago
And it was actually very good!
What I liked:
- Aside from some awful shakey-cam stuff in the beginning, the film was well-shot, and very pleasing to the eye.
- The kids were all good actors and it was very easy to relate to. Katniss and Rue were especially awesome. I cried more than once. T3T
- The social commentary was weapons grade and laser-guided. Unlike other "innocent people forced to fight to the death" movies, it focused less on the standard "OMG the brutality of humanity" theme and more on the oppression of the poor, and it did so without being preachy. The social setup of the Capitol and the Districts, and the way the attitudes of the people were portrayed, were all very real feeling.
And, there's nothing that really stands out as unlikeable about it. The shakey-cam part was bad, but I understand WHY they did it (it fits the mood of the scene) but I was glad when it ended. Also, the running time is fucking beastly (two and a half hours) but thankfully there was no part where I felt that it was dragging, and it honestly didn't feel like two and half hours.
I wouldn't say that it's like a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it very much. Overall, I say go see it. Now I have to read the books so I know what happens. ~:(
What I liked:
- Aside from some awful shakey-cam stuff in the beginning, the film was well-shot, and very pleasing to the eye.
- The kids were all good actors and it was very easy to relate to. Katniss and Rue were especially awesome. I cried more than once. T3T
- The social commentary was weapons grade and laser-guided. Unlike other "innocent people forced to fight to the death" movies, it focused less on the standard "OMG the brutality of humanity" theme and more on the oppression of the poor, and it did so without being preachy. The social setup of the Capitol and the Districts, and the way the attitudes of the people were portrayed, were all very real feeling.
And, there's nothing that really stands out as unlikeable about it. The shakey-cam part was bad, but I understand WHY they did it (it fits the mood of the scene) but I was glad when it ended. Also, the running time is fucking beastly (two and a half hours) but thankfully there was no part where I felt that it was dragging, and it honestly didn't feel like two and half hours.
I wouldn't say that it's like a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it very much. Overall, I say go see it. Now I have to read the books so I know what happens. ~:(
Funny thing as an architecture student, the one thing I didnt like (or more like a 'laugh at myself' moment) was when they showed the interview studio's audience all I said was 'My god, that has to be acoustically horrible...'
I hear there's still a whole bunch of differences. Like, in the books, after Rue's death, her district sends Katniss a gift in the form of bread (hinted that it was for Rue, but they changed it to Katniss after seeing her act of kindness and respect), and I heard this doesn't happen in the movie.
From everything I've read, I believe my favorite characters would be Rue and Foxface. Foxface's death in particular rather pissed me off (particularly because everything I read about Peeta makes me sure I would not like him), while Rue's is without a doubt, tragic. Especially after they do such a good job at making her likeable.
As for the deaths, do you mean, do we see children getting knives and swords plunged into their flesh? No, it's not slasher movie. You see kids getting cut down from a distance, or a discretionary cut to a blood splatter when the sword falls. The deaths that are shown are bloodless ones (with a few notable exceptions).
Peeta isn't at fault for Foxface's death. He didn't do anything to harm her and didn't even know she was following him. And in the book it said she was on the brink of starvation anyway, so Peeta's mistake actually gave her a much gentler death than she had in store.
Yeah, I did kinda figure that's how it would go. Shame we can't see well in the Cornucopia, then. I was curious about it, especially the death of the quite young boy from District 4, since he was supposed to be one of the Careers. I read this about him: "In the movie, he was hiding in the Cornucopia, and when he sped out, Cato was there and slit his throat with a curved hook, but the camera is blurred. He is later seen with his neck snapped sideways and blood is dripping from his mouth."
I guess what angers me about Foxface is how... stupid her death was. I dunno, it just got to me, as did the fact that she was emaciated when her body was picked up. Apparently she really did not steal enough from the other tributes, and perhaps her bag from the Feast did not have enough food either. Whatever the case, she's freaking awesome. Does the movie show her in action in regards to the Feast and the mines scene?
To tell the truth, the Bloodbath was so quick and sudden it was hard to tell what was going on. But actually, yeah, #4's death was the only one that you really couldn't miss, and I think he got more screen time than most of the others. He was so little that I didn't actually know he was a career, and I imagine Cato took him out because he assumed he was too small to be useful.
And Foxface does get her due screentime. They show her more than most of the other tributes, though because of the nature of her strategy I don't think she even had one spoken line. I read that one of the scenes in the movie (where she bumps into Katniss in the dash from the Cornucopia) was actually added and wasn't in the book, so she got extra time, really. And her death may have seemed senseless, but I'm reading the book and so far they're REALLY hammering home how dangerous wild plants are (and there's a lot more opportunity to see how diverse Kat's survival training at home was and why), so it's no surprise someone died by one. And it's nice for her that she didn't have to fight even once in the whole thing.
Actually, I just read some info. For starters, the Careers are always the tributes from districts 1,2 and 4, but in the movie, those of district 4 are not added as Careers, hence their deaths in the Cornucopia and why the girl from District 4 doesn't join them like she does in the book. In the book, the only death shown in the cornucopia is the death of the boy from District 9, who tries wrestling a bag from Katniss and Clove throws a knife at his back.
The Cornucopia in the movie is basically a lot of "blink and you miss it", but apparently, most deaths you can tell if you look hard enough. Thresh manages to kill two tributes (a boy and a girl), the boy from District 10 also manages a kill, and the rest are done in by the Careers. However, from what I gather, there's already a blooper there! The boy from District 7 is seen getting his neck snapped by the boy from District 10, and yet he's also shown to be the boy who is killed by Clove as he attacks Katniss to wrestle a bag from her (this is supposed to be the boy from District 9 in the book). That's just odd.