I saw The Hunger Games this weekend, and I thought it was a really good! Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss was awesome and all the “adults” in the Capitol were such scene stealers — especially Lenny Kravitz (Cinna), Elizabeth Banks (Effie), Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch) — and a nice addition I thought. The book is all told from the perspective of Katniss, so you never really know what’s happening elsewhere, but in the movie they can show that stuff, which I liked.
But I guess what I did not think was the best was…Peeta. Which is a little upsetting because he is supposed to be like, the moral center of the story. I think Josh Hutcherson is a good actor, and I liked him a lot in The Kids Are All Right. But I didn’t love the way he played Peeta…I don’t know, I guess it just came across like Peeta was a generic nice guy, and not someone who was deeply in love with the heroine, or even someone worthy of her. The scenes of them in the cave were just not what I wanted them to be, is what I am trying to say — that part of the movie needed to sell the viewer on their love story, it didn’t come through. And of course I wish they had shown more of her relationship with Rue.
But those quibbles aside, I thought the shaky camera work was good and the arena scenes were so well done. They were horrifying in the casual way they dealt with the brutality and violence of kids murdering each other. The killing at the cornucopia, the mutts, the tracker jackers, everything. I liked how they made Cato’s role as the villain more enhanced — I even felt bad for him at the end. He and Clove were the standout tributes I think. Katniss is a badass character in the book, and it was pretty clear the movie was going to rest squarely on Jennifer Lawrence’s shoulders. That’s what was most important to me for the movie, and I thought she did an amazing job. By the end, you see how she is becoming the girl who will become a revolutionary in the next two films.
