The Hunger Games Review

Justin and I saw The Hunger Games on March 24, 2012. To say Justin and I loved this movie would be an understatement!!! Now, before I get into talking about the movie, in the fall I started hearing rumblings about this trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins with The Hunger Games being the first of the three. Many people know about my love for strong female characters. My cousin Kristen Madison's college roomate, Lindsay Walter recommended them to me. I am glad I listened to her. I found the book online, but will be ordering a hard copy of the book so I have it. I haven't begun to read the second book Catching Fire or the third book Mockingjay yet, but I will read them in conjunction with the film releases. I started reading it after John and Michelle Riley's wedding and it took me until January to read, because I am also juggling George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series as well (yet another series I absolutely love). When I was reading the book, I kept placing actors and actresses in the specific roles as I read them for Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Malark, Effie Trinkett, Haymitch, Ceasar Flickerman, Seneca, President Snow etc, and I have to say most of what I felt would work in the roles actually ended up being who I felt should be in the roles. Now, I was really excited to see this already, but when Justin was just excited without having read the book it was pretty awesome. I told Justin that Donald Sutherland is playing President Snow and Stanley Tucci is playing Ceasar Flickerman. I explained the characters to him and he says that seems right. We went to a 1:30 showing, and we left an hour ahead of time in order to make sure we got seats. Good thing we did. The theater was packed by 1:15. Now, if you know the book you know the plot, but if you don't I'll provide a little bit of information. North America has collapsed due to war, famine, drought etc and is replaced by Panem, which basically is the Capitol and 12 districts. In a ceremony known as The Reaping a boy and a girl between the ages of 12-18 are selected to participate in an annual event known as The Hunger Games. They are selected via lottery. Now, these 24 tributes are sent to The Capitol in which they will eliminate their competitors until there is only one person left standing. It's entertainment mixed with pure violence as its televised to the other districts. I say a mix of entertainment and pure violence as they create a show environement with the parade and the interview, however, this all ends when you're thrown into the game and must deal with betrayal, fear, weapons, and the realization that you're not going back to the district you came from. 16 year old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in order to protect her sister Primrose from competing whilst Peeta Malark, a boy that works at a bakery, is selected for the males. It's an intense journey as you follow these two on their quest to make District 12 proud. I felt that this was a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. Justin and I both agreed that we liked the shaky camera effect with the fighting. I felt it gave it a more intense feel to it. Justin made an excellent point and said they're kids murdering each other. You can't really show that if you plan to have all ages see this movie. They still showed enough that you can see how violent it was. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss, was excellent in the role. She is a good actress and really captured the emotion of Katniss and showed the strength of the character. I love the whole girl on fire gimmick they attach to her. The dress with the flames during the interview with Ceaser was awesome. I thought Josh Hutcherson held his own as well as Peeta. I've been watching his career since Bridge to Terebithia and he did a great job of interacting with Lawrence, who also has been great in the role of Mystique in X-Men: First Class, and has an Oscar nomination to her credit in Winter's Bone. Elizabeth Banks was incredible as Effie Trinkett and the make-up design was awesome. Glenn Hetrick, who is a judge on the only actual reality show I watch in Face/Off did most of the principal make-up for the movie and it came across great. Banks had so much fun in the role and you could just tell that by her portrayal of her lines in the scenes. When we are first introduced to Haymitch, I told Justin Woody Harrelson IS Haymitch. Harrelson was funny and serious at the same time which is what the role should call for. When you can see these visual images in your head as you read the book, and then it turns out to be the same as you imagined you like it even more. When I first read about The Capitol in the book, I pictured Oz (not from the movie adaptation, but from the book by L. Frank Baum). Justin made the connection as well and the design of The Capitol was just spectacular. Very impressive. The Hunger Games actually speaks to my love of professional wrestling in some ways as each district has a specific gimmick. The parade was well done with the outfits designed by Cinna, which Lenny Kravitz did perfectly fine in the role. I was very interested to see how Ceasar Flickerman turned out and Stanley Tucci was perfect. He really made the character a showman which is how he should be portrayed. The interview segments were well done. The interaction with President Snow and Seneca (portrayed by Wes Bentley-who some may know as Ricky Fitts in American Beauty-in this he's the game master) were great. I personally feel that Bentley has automatic villain eyes, and I like how this movie capitalized on that strength. The countdown to the games was awesome. As soon as that buzzer went off, the chaos ensued. I'd be one of the tributes who doesn't even make it off the platform as I'd fall off early haha. Now, as we follow the tributes, I can't help but noticing that Clove is played by Isabelle Fuhrman, which I absolutely loved. As I was reading the book, I kept saying: Esther from Orphan is perfect for this role. I loved that my casting choice is who actually portrayed Clove. I know many people hate her, but I feel that Clove is an awesome tribute. I love her mastery of knives. She's a young Beatrix Kiddo in the making (for all my Kill Bill fans out there). I hate Cato though. Alexander Ludwig did a great job here as well as he came across as somebody you just hate. District 2 is basically the antagonist district in my opinion, however, I still like Clove. I hate when she gets killed in the book. I hate when she gets killed in the movie. Obviously she isn't going to win though. The yellow jacket scene is amazing as it led to the hallucinations and the nest falling and stinging the tributes. This whole scenario gives us a closer insight into the character of little Rue as I call her. The emotional part of the movie lies with Rue. Now, I think its common knowledge that Rue is by far one of the favorite characters of the book as Katniss's shadow. Justin likes her silent approach and felt it was smart. I liked that Rue is filling the role of Prim in a way. Amandla Stenberg was really cute in the role. I have never heard so many people cry in a theater before. When Rue is laid to rest, everybody just loses it. Justin hadn't read the book, but I have to agree with him with a point he also made. He said: "Katniss had that medicine. She could have saved her." I see what he is saying. I felt that she should have too when I read it, but she obviously wants to win for her district, so I see why she wouldn't save her as well. Now the land mine scene was just as I imagined it. In the book it talks about Katniss watching the girl plan her steps, and she tries to count the steps as well. The movie captured the words on the pages for that scene fairly accurately which is really nice to see. More interesting scenarios exist with Seneca creating different obstacles for Katniss and Peeta, such as the wall of fire and the eventual genetically altered wolves. I remember reading in the book how they superimposed faces of fallen tributes into the wolves. One of my favorite scenes is the battle between Katniss and Clove and the shaky effect made it intense as two of my favorite characters go at it. I felt that the Cornucopia scene also came across pretty well. Some people didn't particularly like it, but Justin and I were very impressed. Justin actually told me when are we seeing this again? Justin and I are trying to plan another day this week to see it again. We'll try to see it in IMAX if we can. This movie made $25 million in midnight showings alone. The combined earnings for this weekend were $155 million which is awesome. It's well deserved. Justin bought two District 12 shirts, one for me and one for him. I have an illustration of what Katniss Everdeen would look like if they made illustrations in the book as my computer background. I give this movie a 5/5!!! I loved everything about it and felt it did the book justice overall in terms of capturing the story, delivering great character portrayals via great performances, and intense action. HAPPY HUNGER GAMES!!! MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!!!