The Hunger Games

It has been several days since I went to see the movie "The Hunger Games" and I almost hesitate to write about how I feel about the movie because I think I need to see it again. It has raised many different emotions in me...some good and some not so good.

You see, I read the books. Had I not read the books, my reaction would have likely been one of excitement and awe. However, as anyone who reads knows, the books are always better than the movie.

I was hopeful of this one, though, because all the reviews sung it's praises. This movie was supposed to be one of the best adaptations out there and all the reviews raved at how great it was!! I tried hard to stay in reality, but I found myself hoping for that impossible goal of watching a movie that could be just as good as the book. I was, of course, sorely disappointed.

Sadly, I am a literalist. If you tell me you are going to do something, I expect you to do it. If I read that the movie follows the book, I expect it to follow the book. So, when I watch the movie expecting certain events and/or characters and I do not get them, I get confused and agitated...especially if I am sitting next to my daughter who obsessively read and re-read the books sighing next to me as her hopes slowly fall.

That said, I have to admit to watching this movie at a midnight showing, in a theater filled with screaming girls, after sitting outside the theater for hours....I was tired and my eye balls felt like golf balls. So, that may have contributed for my disappointment. For this, I have decided that both Sierra and I need to put some space in between this viewing and going to see it again with the husband and the boy...but we SHOULD see it again. We went expecting the book and didn't get it....now we need to go expecting the movie and see what happens.

That said,I will say that I am pleased at how well it did over the weekend and is going. I am no fan of Harry Potter or Twilight and have hopes that The Hunger Games may squash some of the fervor. I think that Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss, did a great job in this role...she conveyed a good amount of brooding and toughness. A couple of the key elements of the book were well played...like the relationship with Rue.

There were some things we were really looking forward to seeing, like the tribute parade, some more of the training, and some more development with the relationship of Peeta and Katniss. Some of this was seen, but seemed rushed and underdeveloped.

I cannot comment on how the movie was, though. It is hard to say good or bad when I am not objective. I constantly think of the book. So...

If you want to know my opinion....read the books (even if the third book isn't that great). Maybe on a second viewing, Sierra and I will find that we were to harsh and it's really great. Now, the reviews are pretty clear that the movie is winning over critics everywhere. How many of them read the books, who knows? Again, I would like to see it again with the movie in my brain and not the books.

Oddly enough, though, I hope beyond hope that they DO radically change the third book. There are some serious flaws in the story that need to be corrected and if they change just about everything in that book, I think many of us will celebrate the fact that a book was NOT a good adaptation!!