The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is one of those movies that when I heard the first rumors of Hollywood wanting to take the book series and make movie versions, I was excited and felt like the books would make for a fun and entertaining trilogy of movies. Once the rumors of the movie actually coming to fruition I wanted to make sure I saw The Hunger Games as soon as possible once it came out. For those who have not read the books, The Hunger Games takes place in the future where Panem (The old USA) as penance for their uprising against the Capitol every year the twelve districts are required to offer a male and female tribute to compete to the death, with only one victor. For seeing this movie I went for a completely new experience as we went for the D-Box seats, which while I enjoyed it, it was really fun to have a new motion of the seats added to the movie watching experience. While it did make the movie a little more intense and exciting it was not something that I will be dying to do for every action movie that comes out. It was well worth having the D-Box experience.

Jennifer Lawrence in the role of Katniss Everdeen not only works perfectly, but she is actually how I pictured Katniss while I was reading the books. Lawrence plays the role with the right amount of fear, terror of being in the games, nervousness and a defiant quiet strength at the same time. The success of this movie lies mostly on Lawrence since she is not only the main character, but the fact that there is really only one or two scenes in the movie where she is not in the scene, so if we do not like her portrayal of our heroine or if she can not act how Katniss needs to act then the movie will truly suffer. Lawrence is able to knock it out of the park and really makes the movie a success in my book. For me I think she make the role work so well because she does not over think or try too hard to make the emotions Katniss is going through come out, instead it comes off very naturally. Josh Hutcherson in the role of Peeta ended up working for me and I enjoyed his portrayal in the end. Even though it did take some additional time for me to warm-up to him in the role. Initially, I felt him to not be strong enough as I had pictured him, but as he showed his strength I cam to realize that had he been stronger from the onset we would not have cared about his character, as well as the other tributes would have viewed him as too much of a threat so it was vital that he did not appear too strong. By not appearing too strong it allowed him to protect Katniss in his own way within the game. The chemistry between Lawrence and was spot on from the beginning as they had a distinct awkwardness around each other as they were both dealing with being the tributes from district 12 and then as the Hunger Games moved on they worked well with one another and the star crossed lovers truly came across.

The supporting cast was cast perfectly as well. While there were a character here and there that did not meet the picture in my head, but I will admit that Donald Sutherland in the role of President Snow was the best they could do, but there is not an actor out there that could have come close to the way I pictured President Snow in my head. Woody Harrelson on the other hand as Haymitch  was one of only two actors that could take the role as the mentor that is virtually an alcoholic because of what he had to do  to survive his Hunger Games, and play the role on such an edge and with such an intensity and yet still be very likable to the audience While the image of Haymitch was not exactly as I had pictured him while reading the book, the mannerisms and attitude is spot on and Harrelson truly committed to the role and it really worked.  Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz and the tributes do great jobs to help support Lawrence and Hutcherson. Of the supporting cast though Stanley Tucci steals the show in the role of Caesar Flickerman. He is so successful because he does a great job committing to the role. Tucci is truly a chameleon of an actor as he s able to take any role and make it his own. Yet, with the role of Flickerman he is able to keep the character true to the book, but still have his own flair.

The story for The Hunger Games is magnificent as the writers were able to adapt the book into the movie flawlessly. The Hunger Games is one of the best movies based on a book because they have been able to stay so true to the book. While books changed into movies they have to obviously take parts from the book out because unfortunately it is impossible to get everything that is in a book into a movie without making a movie four hours long. The writers were able to successfully manage what to take out and what to leave in.  Also, when taking a book and making it into a movie it is tough to compete on film with the world our imagination is able to build while reading the book. I think the writers, set designers and costume designers did such a great job with not only being over the top especially with all of the costuming for the Capitol , but I think this is the closest to my own vision a movie has come to how I pictured a world of a book to come to being.

I always find dystopic books to be interesting to read (I have to thank my wife because she got me into the dystopic books), it was really interesting to see one of these dystopic books turned into a movie. The aspect of The Hunger Games that was fairly intriguing to me was the fact of seeing kids being forced into a gladiator style battle to the death was a little disturbing, but to me the more disturbing aspect is how the game makers do not always make it fair and could control the aspects of the arena to force a death if it has been too long and they need to keep the citizens of the Capitol entertained. I think dystopic books and these dystopic movies also serve as a warning to us to make sure we as a society never let the government take complete control. The action worked so well throughout the movie and it really helped with the pacing. The movie is 142 minutes long, but because they paced the story so well I did not find myself getting bored and wondering when the movie would get moving. The writers did a great job at making every scene that was in the movie to serve a purpose and so it did not feel like it was dragging or that it was rushing to keep the audience entertained.

The Hunger Games is a great dystopic book that is now a great dystopic movie. The performances by Lawrence and the rest of the cast worked together so well. The Hunger games is one of the best book to movies I have seen. I was completely surprised at the ability they had to bring this world of the future to being so close onscreen to what my imagination had painted while reading the book. I am giving The Hunger Games three and three fourth buckets of popcorn out of five. The Hunger Games is well worth the price of a ticket to see at the movie theater that way you can experience it on the big screen with an amazing sound system surrounding you. I am sure this is one that will end up in the movie collection when it comes to blu-ray.

-The Movie Man