Hunger Games
So, I caved and went to see it (was planning on waiting a few weeks or so).
I'm not really sure what to think, to be honest. I LOVED the beginning, as Katniss trained and got prepared for the Games. And OMG Cinna was amazing!
But...I really think I should have seen the movie before I read the book. The things that stood out most in my mind were not as well done as I wanted them to be.
1) Haymitch was awesome, but in the books, he was even more of a drunk bastard, and I loved that about him.
2) Rue. I didn't like the movie version of her very well. I always pictured a weak looking girl who was incredibly smart at being able to help herself. In the movie, she was introduced too fast and she went from being stalker to friend too quickly. I wanted her to be more mysterious. I felt nothing when she died in the movie, but in the books I was sobbing like crazy.
3) As soon as the Hunger Games begin, it feels like we took a giant step away from Katniss' perspective. Some of the most tense parts of the book was the waiting every night to see who had died, and the cannon booms the moment someone passed (a few deaths happened and I heard no boom. It might have been there, but subtlety was not wanted).
4) Katniss gets something from her sponsor to drug Peeta so she could go to get medicine for him. In the book. Entirely missing from the movie. Though I'm not sure how it would have fit in, since I couldn't fathom why she wouldn't just up and leave him to get the medicine.
All those points are things that had stood out to me enough to remember them months later after I had finished the book (I forget details easily), and they were either missing, or very downplayed.
I also was disappointed in the close up shaky camera scenes during fights. Couldn't tell much of what was going on.
I did love the actress who played Katniss. She was lovely. Most of the cast was.
I just wish the movie had been stretched to three hours. That extra half hour would have made all the difference, to me at least. It did all go by really quickly, with no downtime at all, so it didn't feel two and a half hours.
All that said, I would still give it a 7/10 stars.
I'm not really sure what to think, to be honest. I LOVED the beginning, as Katniss trained and got prepared for the Games. And OMG Cinna was amazing!
But...I really think I should have seen the movie before I read the book. The things that stood out most in my mind were not as well done as I wanted them to be.
1) Haymitch was awesome, but in the books, he was even more of a drunk bastard, and I loved that about him.
2) Rue. I didn't like the movie version of her very well. I always pictured a weak looking girl who was incredibly smart at being able to help herself. In the movie, she was introduced too fast and she went from being stalker to friend too quickly. I wanted her to be more mysterious. I felt nothing when she died in the movie, but in the books I was sobbing like crazy.
3) As soon as the Hunger Games begin, it feels like we took a giant step away from Katniss' perspective. Some of the most tense parts of the book was the waiting every night to see who had died, and the cannon booms the moment someone passed (a few deaths happened and I heard no boom. It might have been there, but subtlety was not wanted).
4) Katniss gets something from her sponsor to drug Peeta so she could go to get medicine for him. In the book. Entirely missing from the movie. Though I'm not sure how it would have fit in, since I couldn't fathom why she wouldn't just up and leave him to get the medicine.
All those points are things that had stood out to me enough to remember them months later after I had finished the book (I forget details easily), and they were either missing, or very downplayed.
I also was disappointed in the close up shaky camera scenes during fights. Couldn't tell much of what was going on.
I did love the actress who played Katniss. She was lovely. Most of the cast was.
I just wish the movie had been stretched to three hours. That extra half hour would have made all the difference, to me at least. It did all go by really quickly, with no downtime at all, so it didn't feel two and a half hours.
All that said, I would still give it a 7/10 stars.