The Hunger Games..... Movie Review?

Having read the book, The Hunger Games, of course I wanted to see the movie. I always do when books become movies. But, if you couldn't tell from the insinuated long pause from the line of periods and the question mark at the end, I'm a little hesitant to call this a review.

One reason for this is that I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent that has little to do with the movie itself.

I've heard a lot of different thoughts on how people thought Hunger Games was and it was good and bad. Surprisingly enough a lot of the bad came from people who have read the book. At first this didn't make sense but then I saw a comment that said something to the effect that they must have built up their expectations so much that they were bound to walk away disappointed.

EPIPHANY! It's no wonder that a lot of people leave a movie sad. They read the book, love it and certain parts about it, then are upset when it's not in the movie. I don't how many times I've seen a 'book movie' and tried to use the book as a reference. It doesn't work! It's easy to forget that books and movies are two different medias that each have their own set of rules. Books are made to show you things through the words so there will be more scenes in it in order to get the author's point across. In movies, you're already seeing these things played out before you. So some of the scenes that tell you how the character feels and why they feel that way in the book will no longer be needed or could just play a smaller part. If a movie followed a book word for word and scene for scene it would probably come out awkward.

Really, I got to enjoy the movie without fully remembering every detail of the book. I might have mentioned before that after I read a book I forget the details about a few weeks later. I can tell you what the book was about but I can't tell you what the main character's second cousin's little sister had for breakfast, for example. I was free from the 'They missed this line' and 'I wish that part made it in' mayhem in my head.

Now would be about the time that I would say something like this. 'The movie stuck close to the book. They didn't take a lot out and.....' While that all may be true, I've decided to focus more on the movie as a movie not a book's visual aid. So.....

ACTUAL OFFICIAL REVIEW: I thought The Hunger Games was pretty amazing. The actors were on point and quite believable. The thing I was most excited about probably was the costumes which didn't fail to deliver. Katniss' outfits were awesome! The only thing I might mention is that the camera work was a little wobbly in some parts as if the camera was actually there with the characters instead of something that doesn't exist to them. Does that make sense? I thought it was just because we were sitting so close to the screen at first but then I heard a couple people say the same thing. Anyways, to end on a good note, I like the discretion that they used with the music. It was pretty cool that they didn't feel the need to try to add more tension or excitement to every scene with music. Sometime the silence in a scene can build it up just as much if not more.

What did you think about the movie? Was it as good as you expected? Do you agree about judging books and movies differently?

Negative Reviews

I was just about to start on my very late blog post of a book review but I realized that it sounded kind of negative. I didn't hate the book but I wasn't as much in love with it as I thought it was going to be.

I don't know why but I really didn't like the thought of putting a negative sounding review up. Maybe it's because I know someday I'll inevitably have to face negative comments or reviews of my own. I guess if they ever make me feel bad then I'd like to be able to say that I've never made someone else feel that way.

Ummm, I realize that this may make me sound like a bit of a nutcase. Lol. I realize that constructive criticism is valuable and needed but it somehow seems weird when I can't actually give it to the person.

What do you think? Can a review have too much negativity? Too little?