Movie Hash

This is the first of two reviews for Hunger Games my partner in crime on Movie Hash, Nick Rask, will be writing a far more positive review later on we both saw the movie together and came out with very different opinions.  There are some spoilers below so DON’T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET!  Once you have seen the film let us know which one of us you agree with in the comment section below.  Without any further ado my thoughts on Hunger Games:

Let me start my review by saying that I didn’t hate Hunger Games.  So any negativity that I spout within the review keep in mind that I would give this movie two out of four stars.  I feel like they had the skeleton of a good movie and than just couldn’t cash in to make this movie what it should have been.  When it comes to this movie I have three major complaints but before I get to that lets talk about the positives in the film.  First up is the performance of Jennifer Lawrence she did a great job at capturing the balance of being scared yet still being the tough girl who hunts to keep her family alive as Katniss Everdeen.  Second, I thought that they nailed the look of the people from the Capitol.  Elizabeth Banks plays the chaperone of the tributes from district 12 as Elfie Trinket is unrecognizable and does a great job of stealing a few scenes while not having a major character.  The last major positive is that for all of you who like me were worried about how a PG-13 movie was going to show the horrors of the Games do not fear I am fairly sure a bribe was given (I kid… maybe), but they managed to stay fairly true to the violence portrayed in the book against all the tributes.

Now time for the negatives that killed this movie for me.  First up is the way that they rush through the beginning of the book to get into the Games.  They leave out entirely major parts such as the fact that Katniss and Peeta as part of their strategy do all of training together and as a reader you are unsure if their alliance will stand up in the arena.  They also rush through Katniss being prepared for the entrance of the champions, which in turn cheapens the character of her head stylist Cinna played (poorly) by Lenny Kravitz.  Cinna was a major character in the books earning Katniss’ trust but all of this is rushed through making their relationship feel fake.  Lastly, they don’t show Katniss being coached for her pre-games interview.  This one is a bit more personal as I loved that moment in the book between Haymitch and Katniss which they could have done in a quick two minute montage, who doesn’t have two minutes for a montage?  Speaking of Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) the mentor to district 12 having won a Hunger Games himself as a child, his character gets butchered.  As they often do in movies they decided it was too hard to have a character who does the right thing, but in an insensitive and often rude sort of way.  So they decide to just make Haymitch nice, really nice.  He is mean and drunk for one scene than Peeta talks to him off camera and magically he is nice and full of sunshine all the time.  This is not even close to the Haymitch from the novel and quite honestly makes him a fairly flat character.  

Another major problem with the film is that almost half of the novel is the thoughts of Katniss.  It was what made the book as good as you felt like you knew Katniss completely by the end of the book.  I expected the movie to have some sort of internal monologue to honor about half of the book.  I was sorely disappointed as they cut about half of the book by never giving you an insight into the mind of Katniss directly instead electing to have Caesar Flickerman the TV host of the Games be your guide to the new world being introduced.  Does this make any sense to anyone?  Hollywood needs someone like me to just be a common sense advisor to every film.  

“Alright so what we want to do is take out the soul of the book and put it in the hands of someone you never really are going to care about.  This is a good idea right, right?  Kyle why are you banging your head into the table?”  

My final complaint is that while rushing throughout the movie to go from one action scene to another they insert scenes that never happened or were even eluded to in the novel.  President Snow plays almost no role within the book but in the movie they have multiple scenes of him with Seneca Crane (the head designer of the arena) talking about how he didn’t want Katniss to win.  This never ever happens in the book so for me it is inexcusable to rush through a story only to add in little parts that don’t help the story at all.

Watching the Hunger Games I felt rushed as if they just wanted to get me through the movie and out of the theatre as quickly as possible.  Someone needs to tell Hollywood that teens will sit through a long movie based on one of their favorite books, just look at the success and praise heaped upon Lord of the Rings.  For that reason I would have to say that this movie is one that I would not watch again and would not recommend seeing in theaters.

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