The Hunger Games (Movie Review)

I saw this movie twice this weekend.  The first on opening day (Friday, March 23rd) having finished the series only the night before.  When I started to write a review last night I was rather disappointed from what I'd seen (the books were so vivid that the movie couldn't compare) but the more I thought about it, my obsessive habits popped back up.  The story that consumed the last 2 weeks of my life (you'll notice the lack of blogging) needed a second view now that I knew how the film would compare with my envisioning of the story.  And it's a damn good thing I did because I loved it.  The story was relatively true to the book and earned its seat as the third-highest earning film on opening weekend at just around $155 mil following only Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows pt II ($169.2 mil) and The Dark Knight ($158.4 mil).  (Source: Entertainment Weekly)

Upon both viewings I felt casting was solid.  Jennifer Lawrence was truly the perfect Katniss Everdeen (the main character) which I would have seen as a tough fit.  While I felt her little sister Prim could have been a bit cuter & peppier and fellow Gamer, Peeta should definitely been taller (he is described as being much larger than Katniss, however I think she's bigger than him in the movie...what?).  Donald Sutherland looked more like Santa than a conniving leader as President Snow (I was picturing more of a heavily done-up John Slattery type).  Familiar faces Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman), Lenny Kravitz (Cinna), Woody Harrelson (Haymitch), and Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket) brought in solid performances.  Some of the costumes could have been better, particularly Cinna's supposedly brilliant designs for Katniss' clothing that became giant CGI flops and more attention to detail on citizens of The Capitol who were described as extreme, hair-dying, skin-dying (as in greens & purples) surgically-altered, tattoo-wearing and altogether strange-looking people. They looked like they'd all signed up to wear various outfits Lady Gaga rejected for The Grammys.

I was grateful the film was able to depict the violence as described in the book without goring us to death, especially since it was happening to terrified young adults/children.  Overall I'd give the film a B+/A-.  I'm still convinced Inception was the best film ever made and that if Christopher Nolan had done this film it would have been even better.  But Lionsgate did a good job of keeping to the gripping storyline and I have to say I'm quite looking forward to the second installment, Catching Fire.