Movie Review – Hunger Games

Title: Hunger Games

Based on the book by Suzanne Collins

Director: Gary Ross

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Action/adventure/Dystopian/sci-fi

 

Storyline Synopsis (courtesy of  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/ )

In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Written by Suzanne Collins  

 

My Review (courtesy of me)

So, I think just about everyone has read this book, has heard about it or at least knows what it’s about.  As I said in my reviews of the three books in the series, I put off reading this series for as long as I could. I think I somehow knew that it would be emotional for me. The reason that I read these books was because the movie was announced and I knew I would want to see the movie (me likey movies) and I wanted to have read the book before I watched.

It’s my general opinion that most movies don’t do justice to books. That doesn’t mean the movies aren’t good because it is extremely difficult to pack such detail and story into a two hour movie. So, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie because I really loved the book and I wanted it to be good. I wanted it to do justice to such a moving story.

So what did I think?

I actually liked the movie a lot. I thought the setting was wonderful, the colors were gorgeous and  a lot of it was like I imagined. I loved the actors that they cast in the roles. Such a star studded cast – you can’t go wrong with that. Lenny Kravitz was awesome. So was Donald Sutherland and the man who played the head game maker was fabulous too (How about that beard!).

My favorite character was Peeta. I fell in love with him in the books and on screen he was just as wonderful. I have heard many times that eyes are the windows to a person’s soul and let me tell you that Peeta’s eyes are a perfect example. That boy can act. Whenever he wanted us to feel something, we did (or at least me). There were quite a few times that he stole the scene for me.

I liked Gale as well… I can’t really say much about him other than I want to see more of him in future books to really get a feel for his role.

Katniss was a good character. I got to be honest and say when I first saw her as Katniss (before I saw the movie) I wasn’t sure about her. Yes, she fits the description but she didn’t look “starved” enough for me. I am in NO way saying that I think this actress should have starved herself to look like she never eats because that would be unhealthy, but she looked too healthy for me. LOL. I pictured Katniss as very thin, angular but strong and tough. This Katniss almost looked too innocent. BUT, her acting was wonderful. She played the role beautifully and I think that her and Peeta have definite chemistry.

There were a few things about this movie I didn’t like. The main thing that bothered me was the pin. You know, the Mockingjay pin. Katniss comes to have this pin in a different way than in the book. In the book she is given the pin by a friend. This friend isn’t in the movie at all and I understand the cutting of characters not necessary to the movie, but what the way Katniss gets the pin I did not like. At all.

Katniss gets the pin and gives it to her sister as a “good luck token” she hands it to Primm and says… as long as you have this nothing bad will happen, it will protect you… then five minutes later Primm gets picked for the games. So then Primm gives Katniss the pin as a “good luck” token while she competes in the games. This annoyed me. I was like “UH HELL-O” clearly that pin isn’t lucky if Primm got picked! It’s jinxed! Bad Mojo! Throw it out. I wouldn’t want the stinking thing.  It just made me mad that the pin – which in many ways comes to be a symbol of hope to many people in the books in essence is kind of jinxed at the beginning of the movie. That’s not very hopeful.

The other thing that bothered me was that (and remember this is only my opinion) I thought the movie might be – in some places – hard to understand if you hadn’t read the books. My husband saw this movie with me and he hadn’t read the books. I told him the basic plot but that was it. There were several times during the movie he looked at me for explanation. Like when the cannons blasted signaling the death of competitors and Katniss was counting. He had no clue that those bangs signaled death and how many people died. Yes, that was explained several minutes later but by then the significance of that earlier moment was lost. He also didn’t understand when Gale said his name was in the bowl forty one times (I may have that # wrong). I had to explain about adding in your name extra for supplies. There were a lot of small instances that would have passed him by if  I hadn’t been sitting there to explain.

Overall, I really liked this movie. I thought it was a good representation of the book. The characters were great, the acting was great and the setting was beautiful. I am looking forward to the next installment. I will be awaiting that release like I awaited this one.

This is a must see.

So there you have it. My opinion.