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?

End of the Year Writer Round Up

Another year has come to an end already. Man, seems pretty fast looking back on it, doesn't it? What all happened in the writer world this year. Let's see.

The Harry Potter movies officially came to an end. That breaks my heart. Lol. I went to a midnight premier of it and had a blast. Another book/movie was The Help which was also really good.

The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon series) has finally come to an end. I'm still reading it and just got to a good part. Seems like we spent a long time waiting for the this last book but I'm sure it's worth it.

I went to NaNoWriMo's Night of Writing Dangerously which was FANTASTIC. I have big plans for fundraising next year. It's going to be a ton of fun so be looking out for that. I've also finished

In blog related stuff, we just finished a year's worth of Poetry Slams! Awesome. Scribbles and Shorts had it's first birthday and it's first give-away.



Let's see how I did on last year resolutions.

Write more shorts- Hmmm, well, if you count the little things I did for writer's group then maybe? I might be stretching it a little thought.

Finish editing/write a query letter for NaNo 09 novel- Ok, editing yes, query letter no. I'm no where near ready for a query yet. Lol. I'm working on it though.

Do a little poetry- Yes!

So I think I did pretty good. Here's to doing better in the new year!


Overall, writer wise and personally, I'd say that this was a pretty good year. How was yours?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Movie/Book Review)

A couple weeks ago my mother and I went to see The Help after reading the book. Mom loved the book enough to suggest we go see the movie. To be honest, I passed over the book until I heard it was a movie. I figured if it was a big enough deal to make a movie then it might be a good read and I was right.



The Help (Book):

I really liked it! Sometimes with longer books you worry about most of it being filler, but with The Help I can say that none of it felt like it was unimportant to the story. Although, the way some of the dialogue was written did take some getting used to. I think that was only because that's not how I speak personally. Usually when I read I don't think about it because I kinda know what's coming next. But the way some of the characters spoke kind of took me in and out of the moment a little.

For example, they might say 'gone ahead without me' instead of 'go on ahead without me.' Once I got over that though it was great because it let me know what the character really sounded like.

The Help (Movie)

Overall, GREAT movie. The actors were great and for a two hour movie it seemed to go by pretty quick. That's a good thing because usually if I'm not interested in a long movie I start checking the time and getting distracted. Lol. It might actually be unfortunate that I read the book before watching the movie. They tied some of the scenes together in a way that didn't change the story any but was definitely noticeable if you got the book first.

Overall, both were great. I'm even considering asking for the movie for Christmas. Lol. Have you seen it yet or read the book? What did you think?

Eat, Pray, Love: One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia – Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert went through a tough time when she and her husband got divorced. She felt as though she needed something more in her life and she set out to look for it. This true story follows Gilbert’s travels from the best places to eat to a medicine man’s home while meeting a handful of the most interesting people.

I thought that this was a fantastic book. It’s an emotional roller coaster just reading it and I can’t imagine actually living the events. What made it even better for me is that I love to travel and traveling alone is something I’ve heard that everyone should do. I was a little leery about that idea, I still am to be honest, but if I were to ever work up the nerve to go that far alone I can only hope that I meet as many funny, witty, and insightful people along the way.

I do have to say that, although it grabbed my attention at the beginning, near the middle it started to slack for me but then it picked back up near the end. But overall it was a great read.

Eat, Pray, Love was also recently made into a movie titled the same as the book. I haven’t gotten the chance to see it yet but I just might have to check it out.