Things I forgot to say in my last post.

[everydayjoy]

As expected, in the cold light of day (ie. anytime OTHER THAN MIDNIGHT) I am suitably embarrassed by my Hunger Games reaction post from last night. Nevertheless, I'm back with more thoughts:

[Spoilers (click to open)]

• CAESAR FLICKERMAN. How did he not make it into my first post? Seriously! Blue hair and terrifying teeth are the new cool, I have to tell you. I laughed whenever he was on screen. So fantastic.
• The cave scene with the Peeta-this-ointment-will-save-your-leg and oh-no-Katniss-let-me-also-very-slowly-put-some-on-your-forehead was the only bit where I was really like, GO AWAY GOOEY TEEN MOVIE FRANCHISE BRING BACK OUR CHARACTERS. Maybe it was just too drawn out and that's what made me squirmy?
• in the midnight screening, everyone laughed at poor Gale whenever he was shown seeing snippets of the arena while waiting back in the district. He had his oh-man-I'm-so-sorry-for-Katniss-but-does-she-really-have-to-make-out-with-that-blonde-dude face on, and Ruth will attest to the fact that the audience cracked up. So cruel!
• the relationship dynamics between Katniss and her mother were really well played. This doesn't get a lot of action time in the books -- it's shown more through internal monologue. I thought it was excellently done in the movie.
• did anyone else cringe at the random capitalisation in the opening text? Something like: Twenty three Tributes must enter the Hunger Games and Fight to the Death... or whatever the text was. Ugh! The fonts were also a bit ugly. But this shall not stop me from liking the film immensely. Oh no it shall not!

I realise that all I've really written is my response to the movie adaptation -- what I thought, how it made me feel. Other people have written far better thoughts on the themes and ideas presented by these stories. People like John Green, who seems to say everything better than most people anyway. I refer you there.

EDIT: oh my. Hank Green, brother of aforementioned John Green, said in this video exactly what I tried to say somewhere in my last post, only he made a lot more sense: I feel like these days, in order for a movie with any violent content to get a PG13 rating, you have to trivialise the violence, take all of the emotion and suffering out of death -- and is that what we want to protect our kids from? ... So I guess we're not trying to protect kids from violence; we're trying to protect them from... emotion? Is that the new system? EXACTLY. I think that's what I felt was missing when the intensity of that grief and that emotion -- and the violence which it all directly resulted from -- were played down. Thanks, Hank, for saying it better.