The Hunger Games, the movie
Oh god you guys, I have a terrible confession. I actually enjoyed that more than the book.
Not by much, and my opinion may well change later. (My opinions do that.) But OH MY GOD. It was BRILLIANT.
I just liked that that they opened it up beyond Katniss’s POV, I reckon. Obviously I love Katniss, a lot, but this- you saw through Rue’s eyes as she was dying, and you saw through President Snow’s eyes as Katniss becomes a threat, and you saw the people of the Capitol being so horribly like us- it just sort of totally elevated it for me. Sometimes with the book you have to hold it at arm’s length a little, because Katniss isn’t always a reliable narrator, but this just totally immersed you in the world and did it SO WELL and ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH I CAN’T EVEN FIND THE WORDS IT WAS SO GOOD.
(And they cut out all the subplots that ended up going nowhere, like the Avox girl story. Which was 100% the correct choice.)
Yeah, I literally can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about it. I loved the chariot/Girl On Fire scene and the sense of Ancient Rome there – panem et circenses. I loved that they gave Seneca Crane a bigger role and served him up a poetic death, I loved that they managed to make Cato slightly sympathetic in his final scene, I LOVED that we saw the District 11 rebellion (that man who runs out first, was that meant to be Rue’s dad? I like to think it was), I loved it all. Seriously.
Some random notes:
-Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss is spot-on perfect casting, and she’s brilliant
-Amandla Stenberg as Rue is also spot-on perfect casting, as is Josh Hutcherson as Peeta
-In fact, they’re all brilliant. The only castings I don’t completely love are a) Liam Hemsworth as Gale, because I always imagined Gale as black (even after we got a physical description in the books and it was clear he probably wasn’t, I still had this really clear image of him in my head) and b) Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, because my ideal Haymitch will always be Jack Black.
-I loved how Katniss hugging Prim at the beginning and hugging Rue near the end are shot from almost exactly the same angles, letting you know that Katniss sees Rue as a sister without actually saying it.
-This movie made me ship Katniss/Cinna a little bit. Just a little bit.
On another note, THANK YOU filmmakers for refusing to pander to the strangely Twilight-obsessed media and downplaying the love triangle- even downplaying the actual love story! Cos Hunger Games isn’t a love story, it’s about one girl-turned-woman’s battle for survival, and I love that.