The Hunger Games

[kostgard]

Nov 24, 2013 23:26:24 GMT -4 @borokat said:

ITA. I like that Peeta is the artistic, creative one while Katniss is the badass hunter, but I don't know if that has really translated onscreen.

Completely agree. I realize the movie is already two and a half hours long, but there are some tiny things that they could have thrown in there to develop his character a bit more. They mention that Peeta made the cookies that Snow was eating, but in the books they were beautiful as well as delicious. They covered Katniss's PTSD, but I wish that they had also shown that Peeta was coping with his PTSD by painting. He sort of instinctively created an art therapy program for himself. There could have been a quick moment where his paintings are mentioned and Katniss mentions that she hates them (because she doesn't want to relive any of that). They could have mentioned that Peeta baked the bread that he brings to Maymitch.

I always liked that the traditional gender roles are mostly reversed - Katniss is the fighter, protector, hunter. Peeta is the nurturer and the caretaker. There were hints (the fact that he and Katniss aren't really speaking but he's baking her cookies, the fact that he's bringing Haymitch bread and the snarky comment from Katniss that he's too easy on Haymitch), but they really could have done more to develop that a bit more.

[bklynred]

I thought the first book was the best, so this movie was great to me. I do wish they had been a little more thorough about Finnick's character as noted above. I binge-read the books almost two years back, so some finer details are hazy, but the relationship between Mags & Finnick seemed strange out of context. Ditto his love for Annie. Basically Finnick's arc in general. If you're new to the franchise I don't think you'd miss it though.

I wanted a post-movie tease too!

[kostgard]

I think Finnick's connection with Annie is supposed to be vague at this point. His message to a "special someone" during his interview was supposed to set the crowd all atwitter because he had banged so many people that he could have been addressing anyone number of people and presumably many people in the audience assumed he was talking to them. It was only revealed later that he was in love with crazy Annie, but the movie muddled this quite a bit.

And I think Johanna had a line in the book about how Mags was basically family to him, and that got muddled too. But I thought the movie did an okay job of showing that they were close. But it would have been better if they told us that Mags volunteered not just to save crazy Annie from the arena, but that she did it for Finnick too since they went ahead and kinda spilled the beans on his relationship with Annie anyway.

[forever1267]

Obnoxious 5 y/o banging on arm rests notwithstanding, this was much, much better directed than the first one, with mostly coherent action scenes, and an expanding cast of people who can actually act (Jeffrey Wright! Philip Seymour Hoffman! Amanda Plummer!) and the very funny Jena Malone. And some very very hot Shirtless! Victors who were unfortunately nameless and dead. I suspect Lawrence will be getting a Golden Globe nomination for this.

[Deleted]

Haymitch's hair was much improved too, they must've increased the wig budget. And the monkey mutts actually looked somewhat real unlike the stupid dogs in the first one.

[bklynred]

Yeah, I read that even the actors weren't terribly pleased with the dog CGI. The concept of the dogs being the recreated deceased was a stretch...I dunno, I figured with their budget, even what they used should've been more realistic.

[prada]

I really liked the movie but my issue is that to me JLaw and JH are the anti chemistry. I just can't even buy their "love" because I see them as awkward friends. JLaw has a lot of chemistry with LH and the guy who plays Finnick. Aside from that, I really loved it.

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2013 21:38:06 GMT -4 prada said:

I really liked the movie but my issue is that to me JLaw and JH are the anti chemistry. I just can't even buy their "love" because I see them as awkward friends. JLaw has a lot of chemistry with LH and the guy who plays Finnick. Aside from that, I really loved it.

The funny thing is that this is the same impression I always got from the books, too. Katniss wasn't ever really sure about her feelings for Peeta (or Gale for that matter) except that she wanted to save him. That seemed to be the major draw. Gale always seemed more like a brother she liked a bit more than appropriate. When Finnick appeared in the second book, I found it interesting that she had instantly more chemistry with him.

[prada]

I agree about the books too. I felt that she felt responsible for Peeta and like she HAD to have feelings for him because he was such a sweet guy. I also did feel more chemistry between her and Gale. And yeah, I could've gone for a Finnick/Katniss pairing.

[Deleted]

Watched it last night now and really liked it of course. My only criticism is that there were too many capital scenes for my taste before they went back into the Games. I felt distracted by Effie and Caesar this time around.

Also, while they included Peeta's painting of Rue, I don't think it came across how brave he was and how he had intended to distract the game makers from Katniss with this. While BookPeeta WAS the artistic baker and not exactly the fighting type, he was definately smart about those kind of things. Anyway, I do like the reversed dynamic though, so it's ok ;-)
JLaw was everything. That closing shot was awesome. The scene were all was explained to her fell a bit flat as did the moment when Gale told her about District 12 but her face in the end saved it.
I need the next film, like, yesterday.