The Hunger Games

I realized that my blog has become mostly an awards prediction site, so I am going to try to change that and post more reviews, especially outside of movies and television. SO, my next post will be about my love of The Hunger Games.

This was easily my most anticipated movie of March, the first half of the year, and possibly the whole year. I am a huge fan of the books and expected the movie to live up to that hype. Unfortunately, this film was unable to live up to the massive expectations I had set on it prior to it's release.

Don't get me wrong, this was a great film, and that is all that matters in the world of movie reviews. I am one of the few people who can look at a book and it's film adaptation as separate forms of entertainment and judge both of them equally.

The Hunger Games is an amazing movie. The book is even better, but the movie is still great. The movie follows the book fairly well, with only several differences that, if anything, improve the story.

katniss Everdeen is an amazingly well-written character, in my opinion. She is a female character who is strong and focuses on survival. (She is more like Lisbeth Salander than Bella Swan.) Katniss never needs a love interest, but one is forced on her by the expectations of the Panen viewers of the Games (and the general public). She is a very brave character, as shown in her volunteering to take her sister's place in the Games. Jennifer Lawrence is perfect for the role, even though there was a point when I doubted the Oscar nominees suitability for the role. She makes Katniss seem like a normal person who is scared, sad, and brave all at the same time.

Peeta Mellark, the male lead, is played strongly by Josh Hutcherson. He is never bad as Peeta, but he never becomes amazing, still a great fit for the role.

The supporting cast also does an outstanding job. Elizabeth Banks was a standout for her role as Effie Trincket (although they supposedly never say her name.) She really is the perfect Effie and delivers the classic line "That's mahogany!" I love that line. Woody Harrelson is also great as Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta's drunken mentor. It is a very kung fu-movie type role in which the mentor is a drunk who used to be a hotshot. Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley, Alexander Ludwig, and the rest of the tributes also do great jobs in their roles.

This film also looks amazing with perfect costumes, makeup, and great visuals. Even though a lot of people are complaining that this film would have been better with more violence and blood, I feel like that is very superficial and not true. That doesn't matter in any movie, unless they were to cut it out completely. The Copernicus scene was actually very violent.

I highly recommend this film, even more to people who have not read the book because a lot of high expectations will then be set, which will probably not be lived up to. When I talk to people about this film, I don't think they understand that I actually love this movie. My girlfriend even thought that after I saw it with her. I saw it twice for crying out loud.

Rating: A, 4.5/5, 9/10

P.S. The IMAX version was really great.