The Hunger Games

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Hunger Games is based on a book series about a dystopian future where a civil war led to the government cordoning off areas of the United States, now called Panem, into districts. To remind the citizens to not rise up against the government, each district has to supply one girl and one boy (ages 12-18) each year, known as the Reaping, to compete in The Hunger Games. It is a fight to the death where only one of the 24 kids will survive with prizes awarded to the district of the winner. The entire event is televised.

Amy and I have read the entire trilogy so we knew this would have to be a Snazzle Review for us. We do compare the movie to the book and also talk plot points so, like usual, if you want to avoid spoilers, you might want to skip the review, but if you read to the end there is a twist that no one will expect coming.

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Amy: Before we get started, I think I’m going to reread the book.
Coni: Just to remember how it was different or to get ready for the next movie?
Amy: Just to remember more of the details.
Coni: What did you think about the casting?
Amy: I thought good over all. I am not 100% sure about Elizabeth Banks as Effie. Also, I don’t really “picture” people when I read their descriptions in books, so I don’t have the reaction that some people do, saying “Oh I pictured her totally different.”
Coni: When I started reading the book, the movie was already cast, so I just went to IMDB to see who was playing each character so they were already in my head.
Amy: Good use of technology!
Amy: I liked Woody a lot as Hammich.
Coni: The only one I don’t remember was Seneca Crane so I imagined him as older and frumpier in the book.
Amy: I also really liked Lenny Kravitz and I thought that they nicely brought in some foreshadowing of how important Cinna’s work is down the road.
Coni: I thought Lenny Kravitz was a great Cinna. I found that I liked him a lot in a small part he had in the movie Precious so I thought he’d work well in this role.
Coni: I liked Elizabeth Banks as Effie, but then I knew it was her for a while. I did love her line about “That’s Mahogany!”
Amy: That part was hilarious!
Coni: There’s internet memes about it, I guess and a FaceBook page!
Amy: That’s awesome.

Amy: I felt the sets were very good. The fancy stuff for the Capitol was really neat.
Coni: I was sad that they cut out the part with the Axon or whatever they were called. The people with no tongues, but I see why they didn’t really have time to put that in.
Amy: Avox. Yeah, there was a lot cut out but I felt they did well with what they kept in.
Coni: If they kept that in, it would have given a bit more of Katniss and Gale at the beginning of the movie. I felt the beginning was a bit rushed. I thought they could have set up her and Gale a bit more as how they got to know each other, but they could be doing that in the second movie.
Amy: Yes, the beginning was not what I was expecting.
Coni:  I also thought they didn’t do much with her mother.
Amy: I agree. I felt like that was a big piece of Kat’s motivation about saving Prim.
Coni: I wonder if there was more stuff filmed with the mother but it just got cut.
Amy: Possibly.
Coni: But then by the time the game actually started, the movie had been going on for a while.
Amy: It was a lot to fit into a movie. I also felt like the political set up was missing a bit. I thought they did well with showing the violence of the arena, but not making it gross.
Coni: Yes, I think they had to fit some political stuff into the movie where they had district 11 rioting that was in later books. I thought they could have explained the hand symbol they used. A friend that I saw it with was asking what was up with the girl scout symbol that was for District 11.
Amy: Yes, I think they put in some stuff but not with the background info that made it so significant in the book.
Coni: I’m going to jump around a bit here. Even though the ending in the book was a great cliffhanger, I can see why they changed it slightly for the movie. I am guessing they’ll go into the second movie with Katniss thinking that Peeta was just doing the love story for the games, her not believing it is real and breaking his heart in the process.
Amy: Yeah.
Coni: He’ll be poor Peeta in that movie.

he Hunger Games

*** Stacy joined our conversation at this point***
Coni: Hi Stacy!
Stacy: Hi!
Amy: We’re talking about Hunger Games movie!
Coni: Chime in if you would like.
Stacy: Okay.
Coni: I did find the direction in this movie hard to follow. It would have been nice if  it was the Bourne movies director who is good at following crazy action but the audience is still able to see what’s going on. Maybe he’ll direct the second one, since the first director doesn’t want to do the second movie.
Amy: There was a lot of fuzzy and spinning camera work.
Stacy: I struggled with the shaky camera stuff.
Coni: I felt that I would have been lost if I hadn’t read the book and known what was going on.
Amy: While it’s hard to say how I’d view it if I hadn’t read the book, I tend to agree that I’m glad I read the book first.
Stacy: I feel that way about Game of Thrones too. Do people understand it if they haven’t read the book?
Coni: I watched first season of Game of Thrones and then read the book after. I followed most of what was happening. After I finished reading, I watched it all again.
Amy: For GoT I think that they’ve made the show so you understand a basic plot if you’ve not read the book, but if you read the book you know way more subtle stuff that’s going on.
Coni: Even with the differences, I did like the movie. I thought they found a great Katniss, didn’t go overboard on the romance stuff, but really wished the shaky camera could have been under control.
Stacy: I didn’t like Peeta though. Not really sure why.
Coni: You have to figure out why you didn’t like Peeta.

Amy: I’m trying to think what else about the movie. I liked the little happy noise the silver parachute gifts made.
Coni: Those were good parachutes noises but I kept wanting to say “Be quiet parachutes!”
Amy: I guess overall I was glad I’d read the book so I felt like I knew the explanation of things more. I’m realizing that the tone of the books and movies are not happy.
Coni: Were you thinking they were happy before?
Amy: Um I guess not. I guess I’ve just been seeing stuff on the internet about how it’s a love triangle.
Coni: I think the love triangle people are trying to hard to make this the new Twilight.
Amy: Possibly. I see Peeta actually liking Katniss as just being sad.
Coni: Katniss doesn’t seem to like anyone as much as they like her. Gale liked her but he never did anything so he’s a dork. He probably only wants to go after her when he realizes someone else does or he just assumed that she wasn’t into romantic love so he never tried anything. Then he gets pissed when he thinks she is falling for Peeta.
Amy: Yes, that does seem his style. It seems that Katniss is just concerned with survival for her and Prim and the love stuff is all from the other side.
Stacy: In the movie, Gale seemed more into Katniss pre-games than in the book.
Coni: Yeah, they probably threw that into the movie of it’d be like “Why is he even here?”
Amy: I agree with Stacy.
Coni: Did he kiss Katniss in the first book or the second one?
Amy: Second I think.
Stacy: I think so too.
Coni: They told them that Gale was a cousin in the first book right? They didn’t mention that in the movie did they?
Amy: That’s correct. That is how he got to say goodbye.
Coni: Did they mention it in the movie?
Amy: I don’t think so.

Coni: OMG. I keep forgetting to tell you Amy, on a completely random note. I had a dream the other night where I wandered away from my computer and while I was gone, you started to use it. You were looking up all sorts of porn on it. I came back and said, “Amy! Why are you looking at porn? Why on my computer? And why did you leave it up?” Hahaha!
Stacy: LOL
Amy: WAT!
Stacy: OMG- why did you leave it up LOLLOL
Coni: Serious!
Amy: Why? Why?
Coni: So many questions…
Amy: OMG. I am out of control in your dreams. Did I have any sort of explanation?
Coni: No, I only remember that part of the dream.
Amy: Well I guess if I was going to look at porn I wouldn’t want to do it on my computer, but leaving it up seems strange.

What a fabulous way to end a review! I just had to leave the dream chat in there since it is awesome.

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