Friday, May 4, 2012

The Hunger Games


6/10 STARS


I'm back.
First off, I went out and read the entire Hunger Games series prior to viewing the film. The film was the reason as for why I did this. Often times I find books adapted into films lack sometimes a strong enough base for viewers to grasp onto and understand the motive of characters. So said, so I witnessed last night. Thank goodness I had read the books. My friend who viewed the film with me had no previous knowledge of the film nor had she read any of the books. She found the film a bit confusing.

The one thing I must emphasize about this film; this being my major crtique; is that lack of dialogue. NOT ENOUGH DIALOGUE in this 2 hr 22 mins film. In comparison to the novel I found the characters lines choppy as well as the editing.

Another issue I had with this film was the elimination of the character Madge, as well as downplaying the relationship between Katniss, Cinna and her stylist team. These were all characters for whom I found were of great importance in particular the stylists team throughout the  entire series.

The Mockingjay pin worn by Katniss, and the reason as to how she obtained it ties into the elimination of Madge as a character, and also in my opinion ruined the importance and partial significance of the pin itself.

I feel given the very descriptive novel, and seeing how it was written from Katniss' point of view, I was surprised to find that no voice-over narration was done by Katniss in the film.

The film score music was also lacking, and I feel had the orchestral music been stronger, the action scenes would have been better delivered.

In general I wasn't pleased with the film especially since it had over 2 hours to make a great impression. In comparison to the book, I feel like it didn't do it enough justice.

Hopefully Catching Fire (the 2nd book) will turn out to be a much better film.