(An aside - so I know my posts till now have been very cavalier and mostly me just talking, which is what I want a lot of my blog to be. However, it is also important to me to get out some content that actually showcases my writing, so without further ado, my first thought out and revised piece.)
The Poster:
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| 155 million dollars later and the tagline has become prophetic |
The Summary:
We join our young heroine Katniss Everdeen (phenomenally
portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence) in her home district of District 12 as she
awakens to comfort her young sister, Primrose (Willow Shields), when she wakes
up screaming after having a nightmare in which she is picked for the dreaded
hunger games. This loving relationship is what propels Katniss through the
games after she winds up as one of the participants known as ‘tributes.’ The
hunger games are a spectator event in which a group of twenty-four children,
two from each district, must fight to the death. The leader of the districts,
President Snow (Donald Sutherland), holds these games annually in order to
ensure the cooperation of the residents of the twelve districts. The rest of
the film focuses on Katniss’ journey through the games and watching her
desperately try to cling to survival in order to return to take care of her
sister.
The Spoiler-free Assessment:
If you have read the book then there are two things you must
know. 1) The original screenplay is written by Suzanne Collins, the author of
the novel, as well as the final rewrite. So the script is hers. 2) This is by
far one of the best book-to-film adaptations I have ever seen. The switch
between mediums is honored by changing the manner in which a lot of the
information about the characters and the world from description based to visual
based. I will go into more detail in the spoiler-filled assessment below. For
those of you have not read the book, there is a reason the film made 155
million dollars opening weekend (the third largest opening ever and the largest
non-sequel): the film is fantastic, even if you have not read the book. All of
the performances capture the characters incredibly; Lawrence is wonderfully
devoted as Katniss and the supporting cast is just as dedicated to their roles.
Woody Harrelson is particularly good as Katniss’ alcoholic mentor Haymitch
Abernathy. The film’s editing works incredibly well with the cinematography to
both add to the intensity of the film and the terror felt by Katniss as well as
to take away from the most grotesque scenes in order to allow the film to get
its PG-13 reading and thus its wide audience. This does not mean the film doesn’t
suffer from a few problems. The cinematography relies so heavily on shaky handheld
camera work during the opening scenes that it began to be a little annoying,
though the film balances this out later during the excitement of the actual
games. The film suffers from some filmmaking clichés, such as the exciting roar
of the crowd drowning out all other sounds and comes off as corny occasionally,
though the film's director Gary Ross does tend to make up for those scenes by following the clichés
with sequences that contribute to the characterizations of Katniss and the
other tributes. Despite the occasional flaws, the film is fantastic and more
than worth whatever your local theater charges for admission. Go see it.
My rating: Four out of five.
The Trailer:
For the Fans:
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| This guy is too good |
Alright. Now for those of you have read the book or just
don’t care about spoilers here are some of the changes they made and greater
detail on the specific performances. I read the book. It’s a great book. Not
the best writing but highly entertaining. So here are the major differences.
The origin story of the mocking jay pin is changed. However I like the change.
In the film, Katniss finds the pin at one of the vendors at the market; she
gives it to Prim, who gives it back to her just before Katniss goes to the
Capitol. I like the change because I thought it provided a great addition to
her relationship with Prim, which mostly gets cut out of the film because of
how little time the film spends in District 12. Don’t worry though, Lawrence
and Shield’s performances as sisters are wonderful and showcase how close the
two are. Next change now. Throughout Katniss’ time at the games the film cuts
away to the control room where we see the gamemaster making decisions regarding
the game, to a commentary delivered by Caesar (who is played to perfection by
Stanley Tucci), and to the president discussing the purpose of the games (to
give a little hope to the masses so that they don’t rise up against him). These
cuts move away from the action but they give a lot more coverage to the purpose
and manipulations of the games, which helps to show the way the government
manipulates and controls its people.
And Lawrence gives such a solid
performance as Katniss that these cut aways do little to take away from her
portrayal of Katniss’ emotional state and our connection as an audience with
her. And now for the last change, which wasn’t a particularly big change, but
really irked me. When the hounds are released in the book, Collins took great
care to describe their eyes in order to imply that the hounds were made from
the dead tributes. The film does not do that at all. The result of this is a
much less monstrous depiction of the gamemakers and is actually pretty
detrimental to the characterization of the government I thought. That being
said, I stand by my earlier statement that this is one of the best book
adaptations I’ve ever seen and if you even SLIGHTLY enjoyed the book you should
go see the film. 
