Doughy Sons of Bread Makers and Other Distopic Ponderings
I went to see Hunger Games last weekend! It was good. Not perfect, but I recommend it. I look forward to seeing how they develop the next couple of books.
In no particular order:
Peeta was... not as buff as I'd imagined. Plus, his face does nothing for me. It seemed to me that they felt a need to visually emphasize the sensitive side of his nature and let special effects fill in the gaps in strength. He left me feeling generally very meh about the character, where I found him kind of compelling in the books. Full disclosure, I was looking for hints of Lee in him when I read the books, and found them, so I may have been setting myself up for disappointment.
Character development in general was very rushed. I was sobbing when Rue died (tangentially, if you haven't gotten your daily dose of rage today, have a gander at this piece from Jezebel - she's lovely, but the folks she's writing about? I'd like to hand them over to President Roslin), but given that my husband is more prone to tears than I am and was relatively unmoved, I think I may have been superimposing memories of the character from the book and generalizing to "sweet little girl!" Because really -- I don't need much character development to sob when I watch a pre-teen get killed. Guh.
Thresh, I was impressed with. In the book, I'd gotten a much more simian image that left me feeling uncomfortable. He didn't have a huge part, but I thought the actor did a great job in those 60 seconds (was it that much?) of communicating a whole range of complexity that just didn't come through for me in the book. So kudos to him.
Overall, I think the few changes in the plot made a lot of sense (loved how they interwove Katniss's memories of getting the bread from Peeta, sad that they got rid of the mayor's daughter and that layer of significance to her pin but understand why they did, etc).
I have realized, as I've gotten farther from the viewing, just how much of the book happened inside Katniss's head and heart. There was a lot of shock going on, and I think the actress got that across well, but I feel like she didn't manage to get across how conflicted Katniss felt about Peeta. I'd have to re-read and then re-watch to really figure out if the depth of the story got across as clearly as the breadth.
Because I will definitely give it that. For all of my little nitpicks, the scope of the story was amazing. They got the key points in, the scope of the power of the central government was absolutely clear, and the whole thing was incredibly moving. It was a lot to take in all at once, and I really do want to see it again. To see what I wasn't able to process the first time around. It's as dense a story on screen as it is in text, and if they can carry this energy through the next two films, the whole set will be well worth owning.
In no particular order:
Peeta was... not as buff as I'd imagined. Plus, his face does nothing for me. It seemed to me that they felt a need to visually emphasize the sensitive side of his nature and let special effects fill in the gaps in strength. He left me feeling generally very meh about the character, where I found him kind of compelling in the books. Full disclosure, I was looking for hints of Lee in him when I read the books, and found them, so I may have been setting myself up for disappointment.
Character development in general was very rushed. I was sobbing when Rue died (tangentially, if you haven't gotten your daily dose of rage today, have a gander at this piece from Jezebel - she's lovely, but the folks she's writing about? I'd like to hand them over to President Roslin), but given that my husband is more prone to tears than I am and was relatively unmoved, I think I may have been superimposing memories of the character from the book and generalizing to "sweet little girl!" Because really -- I don't need much character development to sob when I watch a pre-teen get killed. Guh.
Thresh, I was impressed with. In the book, I'd gotten a much more simian image that left me feeling uncomfortable. He didn't have a huge part, but I thought the actor did a great job in those 60 seconds (was it that much?) of communicating a whole range of complexity that just didn't come through for me in the book. So kudos to him.
Overall, I think the few changes in the plot made a lot of sense (loved how they interwove Katniss's memories of getting the bread from Peeta, sad that they got rid of the mayor's daughter and that layer of significance to her pin but understand why they did, etc).
I have realized, as I've gotten farther from the viewing, just how much of the book happened inside Katniss's head and heart. There was a lot of shock going on, and I think the actress got that across well, but I feel like she didn't manage to get across how conflicted Katniss felt about Peeta. I'd have to re-read and then re-watch to really figure out if the depth of the story got across as clearly as the breadth.
Because I will definitely give it that. For all of my little nitpicks, the scope of the story was amazing. They got the key points in, the scope of the power of the central government was absolutely clear, and the whole thing was incredibly moving. It was a lot to take in all at once, and I really do want to see it again. To see what I wasn't able to process the first time around. It's as dense a story on screen as it is in text, and if they can carry this energy through the next two films, the whole set will be well worth owning.