The Hunger Games

I know that it has been forever since I saw it, but I always intended to blog about the experience, I'll just have to try and recall everything I thought. I saw it when it had just come out and was in a pretty vacant theater, to which we were the first to arrive and had the seating of our choice. Why an almost vacant theater when there were lines to the door on all the other showings? They decided to throw in an extra showing since they had so many people showing up, and since the extra showing was not advertised, only those of us who happened to be at the theater at that time actually found out about it. This is a very convenient way to see a box office hit for the first time. (I did end up seeing The Hunger Games twice in theater and did not have nearly as good of a seat the second time.)

Just to get my major complaint out from the get go, I should have taken a Dramamine before going to see it. The cinematography made me sick. It took some time to adjust to it and I think I might have had to take a few minutes to get my 'land legs' back after the show was over. I have heard multiple explanations as to why the movie was filmed like it was and whether they are right or not, I certainly hope that future installments are done differently.

Now, before going any further in this critique, I have to establish that I really don't buy into comparing movies to their book counterparts. Most books aren't written as movie scripts and don't translate perfectly into movies (we have to learn to accept that); the simple length factor gets in the way of that. Movies are also money makers in different ways than books and usually attempt to appeal to a broader audience. Also, when we sit down to a book, we are making a long-term commitment, a different mentality than when we sit down to a movie. Anyway, I'm sure I could go off on this more, but I will leave it at that for now.

Having now diverged I think that my description of The Hunger Games would be that it is the one movie that I have seen that has best captured the feel of a page-turner. I was quite literally on the edge of my seat the entire time, often catching myself holding my breath. The funny thing is, I knew what was going to happen. I had read the book. Yet, I still felt this intensity that was well captured by the film. It was also one of those movies where you did not feel the time go by and you really did walk out of the theater surprised that so much time had passed.

That's about all I have for you on this one. I really need to work on writing more regularly so that I preserve all of my thoughts.