I saw it!
The Hunger Games, that is. Excellent adaptation, overall. Definitely a few things to be all "Nyer" about, but, honestly? You can't make a movie without those. Thinky Thoughts, in no particular order:
--I loved the use of media in the movie. Opening on Seneca Crane being interviewed with his smarmy statements about how the Hunger Games weren't so much about punishment now as "something that brings us together" with the cut to Prim's screaming nightmare about being chosen really set out, in stark relief, the difference between the Capitol and the Districts. The propaganda film they show before the reaping was frighteningly realistic, presenting the Games as a "pageant of honor" rather than the slaughterhouse it is. Then you get stuff like Katniss watching TV in her room with more Seneca Crane smarm about the last Games and "the moment when a tribute becomes a victor"--i.e., one kid bashing out another kid's brains--and Caesar's enthusiastic agreement contrasting with Katniss's disgust. It all hammers in that this society has gone septic.
--Jennifer Lawrence. Amazing. I never caught her acting. She conveys so much with her face. Her Katniss is stoic and tough, but you still see all her fear and her grief and her love under that. I actually felt on edge for her when she was about to go on stage for her interview when she was so terribly nervous. And she completely sold me on a moment that could've felt horribly contrived, when she confronts Peeta after his interview. Her delivery of the line "He made me look weak!" was spot-on perfection. Because that's what Katniss fears most of all, that she'll be weak or she'll be perceived that way. And then, when she was in the launch room with Cinna, so scared and trying to hold it together--that chin wibble just about made me cry. I could go on and on about moments in the movie when she completely banished any thought that this might not be real. She was the perfect choice for the role.
--The other tributes! I so wish we'd been able to see more of them, even just a little bit. You could see how much work the young actors put into their parts. Isabelle Fuhrman had actually written up a backstory for Clove. You could read a little of it by the way she almost cuddled her knives and how ferocious she was when she caught Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence said Fuhrman beat her up in that scene), and I wanted more. I wanted more of Thresh, too. His interview would've been hilarious on par with that scene in Firefly when Jayne stonewalls an interrogator. And the other tributes, like Foxface and the other Careers. How much genuine attraction did Glimmer have to Cato, and how much was she playing him, and vise-versa?
--Speaking of: Cato and his little speech at the end. That was a "wow" moment for me, because it really opened up Panem beyond just District 12 and the Capitol. Even Cato, leader of the Career pack, recognizes, in the end, how much of a cog in the machine he is. Someone else mentioned "a favored slave is still a slave," and that's true of District 2. They play along with the Capitol, offering up their children as Peacekeepers and also sacrificing some of them to whatever training regimen you have to go through to become a Career tribute. They do it because they like the benefits of being the Capitol's lapdogs, but, ultimately, they're just as enslaved as the rest of Panem. Maybe even more.
--Rue! They could not have found a better Rue than Amandla Stenberg. She was so darling, and she had that mischief in her eyes and intelligence you know a 12-year-old would have to have in order to make it as far as she did in the Games. Her little stunt with Cato's knife was exactly the kind of introduction she needed, so you could see this tiny girl was not helpless. She was strong and smart and kind, and it made her death all the more tragic. Her being the one to come up with the idea of dropping the tracker jackers on the Careers was the kind of change I can live with, because, again, it tells you about her and how clever she is. I also fully approved of the time compression they used, having Rue actually care for Katniss while she was out from tracker jacker stings. And, yes, I totally cried when she died.
--I've just gotta say: Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman. Perfect! I loved the color commentary with Caesar and Claudius.
--Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was another inspired casting choice. You can buy that he's a) drunk most of the time, b) still smarter than most of the people around him, c) pretty damn dangerous when he wants to be, and d) drunk most of the time. He walked a narrow line between being comical and showing just how he beat his Games all those years ago. I liked that he was the one to talk Seneca Crane into playing off the "star-crossed lovers" angle.
--While I'm praising actors, Elizabeth Banks made a perfect Effie. The moment she showed up in her obnoxious suit and McQueen shoes, people in the audience groaned. They hated her on sight--not Banks, but Effie--because most people know someone like Effie and dread dealing with her. Banks compared Effie to the society ladies in The Help, who don't understand all this Civil Rights nonsense because, well, they treat their maids just fine, don't you know? I think she's pretty much dead-on with that assessment. It's so easy to rationalize your privilege.
--Finally, for the actors, Donald Sutherland was magnificently terrifying as President Snow, Josh Hutcherson made for a far more interesting Peeta than he could've been, and Willow Shields absolutely broke my heart as Prim.
--Ross and Collins really did a great job of boiling down the script. For instance, the way Katniss steps in between her mother and Prim at the beginning lets you know immediately that there are Issues here. That and her words in the Mayor's house paint, in broad strokes, the history that led to Katniss acting more like a mother to Prim than an older sister.
--Finally, the scene that, to me, really drove home the horror of it all was one without words. Haymitch watches a little boy in the Capitol unwrap a toy sword he's been given as a present, and he chases and "kills" his little sister with it as his parents beam at them. This is what they've come to, in the Capitol, so distanced from the fact that real children die in the Hunger Games that they chuckle as their own children imitate the slaughter. No wonder the whole country was ripe for rebellion.
Those were a lot of Thoughts. Discuss!
--I loved the use of media in the movie. Opening on Seneca Crane being interviewed with his smarmy statements about how the Hunger Games weren't so much about punishment now as "something that brings us together" with the cut to Prim's screaming nightmare about being chosen really set out, in stark relief, the difference between the Capitol and the Districts. The propaganda film they show before the reaping was frighteningly realistic, presenting the Games as a "pageant of honor" rather than the slaughterhouse it is. Then you get stuff like Katniss watching TV in her room with more Seneca Crane smarm about the last Games and "the moment when a tribute becomes a victor"--i.e., one kid bashing out another kid's brains--and Caesar's enthusiastic agreement contrasting with Katniss's disgust. It all hammers in that this society has gone septic.
--Jennifer Lawrence. Amazing. I never caught her acting. She conveys so much with her face. Her Katniss is stoic and tough, but you still see all her fear and her grief and her love under that. I actually felt on edge for her when she was about to go on stage for her interview when she was so terribly nervous. And she completely sold me on a moment that could've felt horribly contrived, when she confronts Peeta after his interview. Her delivery of the line "He made me look weak!" was spot-on perfection. Because that's what Katniss fears most of all, that she'll be weak or she'll be perceived that way. And then, when she was in the launch room with Cinna, so scared and trying to hold it together--that chin wibble just about made me cry. I could go on and on about moments in the movie when she completely banished any thought that this might not be real. She was the perfect choice for the role.
--The other tributes! I so wish we'd been able to see more of them, even just a little bit. You could see how much work the young actors put into their parts. Isabelle Fuhrman had actually written up a backstory for Clove. You could read a little of it by the way she almost cuddled her knives and how ferocious she was when she caught Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence said Fuhrman beat her up in that scene), and I wanted more. I wanted more of Thresh, too. His interview would've been hilarious on par with that scene in Firefly when Jayne stonewalls an interrogator. And the other tributes, like Foxface and the other Careers. How much genuine attraction did Glimmer have to Cato, and how much was she playing him, and vise-versa?
--Speaking of: Cato and his little speech at the end. That was a "wow" moment for me, because it really opened up Panem beyond just District 12 and the Capitol. Even Cato, leader of the Career pack, recognizes, in the end, how much of a cog in the machine he is. Someone else mentioned "a favored slave is still a slave," and that's true of District 2. They play along with the Capitol, offering up their children as Peacekeepers and also sacrificing some of them to whatever training regimen you have to go through to become a Career tribute. They do it because they like the benefits of being the Capitol's lapdogs, but, ultimately, they're just as enslaved as the rest of Panem. Maybe even more.
--Rue! They could not have found a better Rue than Amandla Stenberg. She was so darling, and she had that mischief in her eyes and intelligence you know a 12-year-old would have to have in order to make it as far as she did in the Games. Her little stunt with Cato's knife was exactly the kind of introduction she needed, so you could see this tiny girl was not helpless. She was strong and smart and kind, and it made her death all the more tragic. Her being the one to come up with the idea of dropping the tracker jackers on the Careers was the kind of change I can live with, because, again, it tells you about her and how clever she is. I also fully approved of the time compression they used, having Rue actually care for Katniss while she was out from tracker jacker stings. And, yes, I totally cried when she died.
--I've just gotta say: Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman. Perfect! I loved the color commentary with Caesar and Claudius.
--Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was another inspired casting choice. You can buy that he's a) drunk most of the time, b) still smarter than most of the people around him, c) pretty damn dangerous when he wants to be, and d) drunk most of the time. He walked a narrow line between being comical and showing just how he beat his Games all those years ago. I liked that he was the one to talk Seneca Crane into playing off the "star-crossed lovers" angle.
--While I'm praising actors, Elizabeth Banks made a perfect Effie. The moment she showed up in her obnoxious suit and McQueen shoes, people in the audience groaned. They hated her on sight--not Banks, but Effie--because most people know someone like Effie and dread dealing with her. Banks compared Effie to the society ladies in The Help, who don't understand all this Civil Rights nonsense because, well, they treat their maids just fine, don't you know? I think she's pretty much dead-on with that assessment. It's so easy to rationalize your privilege.
--Finally, for the actors, Donald Sutherland was magnificently terrifying as President Snow, Josh Hutcherson made for a far more interesting Peeta than he could've been, and Willow Shields absolutely broke my heart as Prim.
--Ross and Collins really did a great job of boiling down the script. For instance, the way Katniss steps in between her mother and Prim at the beginning lets you know immediately that there are Issues here. That and her words in the Mayor's house paint, in broad strokes, the history that led to Katniss acting more like a mother to Prim than an older sister.
--Finally, the scene that, to me, really drove home the horror of it all was one without words. Haymitch watches a little boy in the Capitol unwrap a toy sword he's been given as a present, and he chases and "kills" his little sister with it as his parents beam at them. This is what they've come to, in the Capitol, so distanced from the fact that real children die in the Hunger Games that they chuckle as their own children imitate the slaughter. No wonder the whole country was ripe for rebellion.
Those were a lot of Thoughts. Discuss!