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Saw The Hunger Games yesterday
Mar. 24th, 2012 07:46 pmIt wasn't a half-bad movie, though it was awfully long.
Because I've read the books, a lot of what I'm going to say has to do with the differences between the books and the movie. After thinking it over, I think for the most part the reason behind most of the differences is because, watching the movie, there is no voiceover. The books, as you know, are filled with Katniss making cynically snarky little commentary on every aspect of her life.
This serves two purposes. First of all, her attitude helps lighten the fact that it's all a bunch of child-killing (even if most of those kids are annoying teenagers) and secondly, it provides lots and lots of nifty exposition in easy-to-manage chunks! (Of course, some people can't stand all the whining, which is a perfectly valid viewpoint. Me, I think as a teenage girl in a dystopia she's entitled to a little whining, but I can understand if you don't want to read it.)
Dropping it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that there are a lot of scenes in the book that simply won't make sense because we don't have the context. And if the context can't be provided in another way, it makes sense to drop those scenes altogether. The rest of the cut scenes probably had more to do with the movie's length than anything else. As it is, it was a very long movie.
There are a lot of different lists of changes between book and movie online. The most comprehensive is probably the one at the wiki, but they don't give any commentary and, frankly, even by the standards of group projects it's pretty badly designed. The book and movie lists aren't aligned neatly, so that by a few entries down they don't match up at ALL; they are, as noted, in no particular order, so it's hard to find out if a particular change is mentioned; and as a result of the first two reasons several scenes are mentioned twice. Sheesh.
But anyway, my entry is probably a little redundant, but that's all right because I want to type it anyway. I'll only focus on what caught my attention, instead of trying to be totally comprehensive.
( Read more... )
There also were some additions to the movie, and on the whole I liked them.
( Read more... )
On the whole, I think the movie wasn't that bad. I do prefer the book, but I usually prefer the book, so that's no surprise.
A few more, non-spoilery thoughts about watching the movie in a theater:
1. There was an ad for IE prior to the movie. God, Microsoft must find that humiliating to have to advertise their product!
2. I was stuck sitting in a group of gigglers who apparently have no patience for love triangles. Fair enough, but giggling every time there was a Gale reaction shot was a bit much.
3. I was also sitting directly in front of some commenters. Now, I'm all for snarky commentary during a movie, but it has to be interesting. If all you're doing is saying things like "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no" you can do us a favor and shut up, shut up, shut up. And as for the person who decided Rue's death was THE time to start rummaging through her popcorn bag? I don't even know what to SAY to that.
4. Apparently they're coming out with Titanic in 3D in April, presumably to coincide with the anniversary of the crash. Do we really need this?
5. Also, do we really need a new Spiderman origin-story film? REALLY?
Because I've read the books, a lot of what I'm going to say has to do with the differences between the books and the movie. After thinking it over, I think for the most part the reason behind most of the differences is because, watching the movie, there is no voiceover. The books, as you know, are filled with Katniss making cynically snarky little commentary on every aspect of her life.
This serves two purposes. First of all, her attitude helps lighten the fact that it's all a bunch of child-killing (even if most of those kids are annoying teenagers) and secondly, it provides lots and lots of nifty exposition in easy-to-manage chunks! (Of course, some people can't stand all the whining, which is a perfectly valid viewpoint. Me, I think as a teenage girl in a dystopia she's entitled to a little whining, but I can understand if you don't want to read it.)
Dropping it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that there are a lot of scenes in the book that simply won't make sense because we don't have the context. And if the context can't be provided in another way, it makes sense to drop those scenes altogether. The rest of the cut scenes probably had more to do with the movie's length than anything else. As it is, it was a very long movie.
There are a lot of different lists of changes between book and movie online. The most comprehensive is probably the one at the wiki, but they don't give any commentary and, frankly, even by the standards of group projects it's pretty badly designed. The book and movie lists aren't aligned neatly, so that by a few entries down they don't match up at ALL; they are, as noted, in no particular order, so it's hard to find out if a particular change is mentioned; and as a result of the first two reasons several scenes are mentioned twice. Sheesh.
But anyway, my entry is probably a little redundant, but that's all right because I want to type it anyway. I'll only focus on what caught my attention, instead of trying to be totally comprehensive.
( Read more... )
There also were some additions to the movie, and on the whole I liked them.
( Read more... )
On the whole, I think the movie wasn't that bad. I do prefer the book, but I usually prefer the book, so that's no surprise.
A few more, non-spoilery thoughts about watching the movie in a theater:
1. There was an ad for IE prior to the movie. God, Microsoft must find that humiliating to have to advertise their product!
2. I was stuck sitting in a group of gigglers who apparently have no patience for love triangles. Fair enough, but giggling every time there was a Gale reaction shot was a bit much.
3. I was also sitting directly in front of some commenters. Now, I'm all for snarky commentary during a movie, but it has to be interesting. If all you're doing is saying things like "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no" you can do us a favor and shut up, shut up, shut up. And as for the person who decided Rue's death was THE time to start rummaging through her popcorn bag? I don't even know what to SAY to that.
4. Apparently they're coming out with Titanic in 3D in April, presumably to coincide with the anniversary of the crash. Do we really need this?
5. Also, do we really need a new Spiderman origin-story film? REALLY?
