I've been wanting to review this since the first time I saw it, so I figured with Lovelyish offering to post good reviews, I'd actually put that to action. Besides, I want to talk about it sooo badly and apparently yammering on about a book-to-movie adaptation to people who've neither read the book nor seen the movie makes one "socially awkward." Who knew.

*Spoiler alert.* I am reviewing this as someone who has both read the books multiple times and has already seen the movie multiple times. There are spoilers for both. 

Overall, I think the movie is pretty incredible. Gary Ross and everyone involved did an amazing job of taking the story from an entirely first person novel and adapting it into a film that both a die-hard fan and someone completely new to the story could appreciate. Many times, when a book is adapted the makers claim “creative license” and change it so much that they’re telling a different story. This was not the case with The Hunger Games, and I’m very glad for that.

It’s a shame casting directors don’t get more credit with the general public, because David Rubin is a genius. Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta) were perfect casting choices and are presented almost flawlessly. Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks are spot-on as Haymitch and Effie, delivering the right amount of comic relief at just the right moments. Donald Sutherland delivers subtle villian as President Snow, and American Beauty's Wes Bentley plays Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane. Crane was mostly absent from the book, but I very much enjoyed the film's vision for him. Even the tributes did perfect justice to their characters. I was particularly blown away by Isabella Fuhrman as Clove - I’m afraid to see Orphan now because she is terrifying as a supporting actress in this PG-13 movie. My only complaint in casting is Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. Next to all that talent, Kravitz sadly falls short. He seems awkward and insincere, the absolute antithesis of Cinna's character.

Visually speaking, the film is impressive. District 12 looks exactly as it should - due in large part to the fact that the “set” was actually an abandoned mining town in the mountains, I’m sure. In the Capital, although the buildings themselves don’t leave much of an impression, the clothing and interiors are absolutely perfect. They are both lush and outlandish without ever reaching festive or evoking positive emotions. The costuming was great as well, save for the fiery chariot scene that looked a little ridiculous in profile. The fight scenes between the tributes are tasteful yet still heartbreaking. The simplicity and brutality of the deaths is haunting - even though they are fighting for their lives, they still look like children fighting in a schoolyard, unpolished and terrified. Some of the effects allow the audience to slip into the senses of the characters - such as the cacophony of the crowd overpowering Ceasar Flickman’s first question, or the blinding visual adjustment as the tributes emerge from their tubes into the arena. The trackerjacker hallucination scene was absolutely brilliant. That, my friends, is just good filmmaking. 

That being said, I am a little disappointed on some plot points. The relationship between Gale and Katniss seems more romantic than it should be, while the romance between Peeta and Katniss never reaches the complexity that it did in the book. Granted, within the time constraints of a movie, some elements have to be compromised, but I think these are things that could have reasonably been handled better. My biggest complaint is that several moments simply weren’t as tense as they should have been. The abridged version of Katniss’s one on one session with the Gamemakers makes her rash behavior seem less that of an angry, desperate girl seeking the attention of those who hold her life in their hands and more that of a teenage wise-ass. The worst, and I think most misguided, change from the books was the omission of Peeta’s final leg injury. In the book, this potentially lethal wound provided that final level of tension that pushed the climax of the Games to its breaking point. Had it been included, the audience could have experienced Katniss’s panic when he takes off the tourniquet, understood her urgency to present the berries and bring the Games to an end. Without that tension, I felt that Katniss’s move with the berries was, clever or not, abrupt and unnecessary. Now, I know any time a book is adapted into a film, there is a chorus of fans shouting “but that’s not how it happened in the book!” at the most trivial of inconsistencies. I read up on this movie beforehand, and I know that Suzanne Collins herself had a huge role in writing the screenplay. I also know that she specifically said she wanted the movie to “feel” like the book, and in these particular cases, I don't quite think it hit the mark.

Despite it's shortcomings, I am incredibly impressed that this film managed to tell the same story without leaning on the book for details. Most of the dialogue is at least a little different from the quotes in the book, yet sticks to the essence of each character. Even though the book is all first person narrative and readers are privy to each and every one of Katniss’s emotions and perceptions of other people, the movie is not narrated and never has to tell us what anyone was thinking or feeling. Subtle details and great acting carries the story fully. Several characters benefit from a little creative license as well. Haymitch’s hatred for the Capital is evident in his dealings with citizens and sponsor. Cato’s character gets some real depth in his final scene, and the conversations between Snow and Crane create tension and push the plot forward. Watching as the Gamemakers “pull the strings” is fascinating and makes their presence in the story much stronger than it was in the book.

I think what I appreciate most is the subtleties of the film. In my writing classes, we talk a lot about showing versus telling. Although full of good detail and a brilliant story, the book does a lot of telling. Katniss is telling us her story, not allowing us to live in the moment with her. I think I worried that the film, since it is a media that relies fully on showing, would not be able to take all that telling and turn it into good show. I was dead wrong. The dialogue and images of the film tell us the story even better than Katniss herself. Although I can’t go so far as to say the movie is better than the book, it was definitely worth watching. Three times. During opening weekend.

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