Movie of the Week: The Hunger Games
Mar. 28th, 2012 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyWell, what can I say? I enjoyed the first book and they've actually stayed very true to the story while adapting it for the screen. The casting was excellent, especially Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) who doesn't get much screen time in the first part of the trilogy but makes it all count. The real revelation was Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. He was not at all how I imagined Haymitch-in-the-book, but he actually made sense of the character and made him a lot more sympathetic while not exactly nice. In the book I could barely believe Haymitch had been a winner, but this Haymitch had an underlying streak of 'win', for sure
There were bits missed out, of course: the runaways in the wood at the beginning and the avox girl in the capital didn't appear - though 'avox girl' is down as a character in the imdb cast list. The training period was shortened, but still managed to be effective, and the interviews with Caesar were telescoped, but they still served the same story purpose. There wasn't enough time to do anything much with the character of Effie Trinkett and she was little more than a pantomime-dame of a character, but IIRC she doesn't really show any feelings in the first book anyway.
Special mention for Amandla Stenberg as Rue and for Lenny Kravitz as Cinna - complete with gold eyeliner. Cinna doesn't get much screen time but it's imporant that he be the human antidote to Effie and make that essential connection with Katniss. Oh, and I have to say: kudos to Seneca's (Wes Bentley) beard. That should definitely set a new fashion.
A film worth seeing if you enjoyed the book and even if you haven't read the book judging by my cinebuddy, H's reaction. She came into this cold and enjoyed it very much.
There were bits missed out, of course: the runaways in the wood at the beginning and the avox girl in the capital didn't appear - though 'avox girl' is down as a character in the imdb cast list. The training period was shortened, but still managed to be effective, and the interviews with Caesar were telescoped, but they still served the same story purpose. There wasn't enough time to do anything much with the character of Effie Trinkett and she was little more than a pantomime-dame of a character, but IIRC she doesn't really show any feelings in the first book anyway.
Special mention for Amandla Stenberg as Rue and for Lenny Kravitz as Cinna - complete with gold eyeliner. Cinna doesn't get much screen time but it's imporant that he be the human antidote to Effie and make that essential connection with Katniss. Oh, and I have to say: kudos to Seneca's (Wes Bentley) beard. That should definitely set a new fashion.
A film worth seeing if you enjoyed the book and even if you haven't read the book judging by my cinebuddy, H's reaction. She came into this cold and enjoyed it very much.
