Monday, August 20, 2012

May the odds be ever in your favor

Hey hey there!  I took today off from work to re-assess some things in life....the world's been spinning too fast and in some not so nice directions for me lately, which just means I need to take a step back, breath deeply, and work through it with some therapy.
Me therapy.
Which generally means a long run and yoga to get some thoughts running around in my head to figure out how to tackle my issues.
And then some time with my saner half to run my thoughts by him.
Much cheaper and more fun than drugs or a couch :-)
I think I got somewhere with a few issues I've been having, and I'm ready to act on them.  I'll keep ya posted as I go along!
In lighter news, I finally got with the act this weekend and watched "The Hunger Games" movie.  (Spoiler alert-skip to the end if you haven't read the books and want to, or haven't seen the movie and want to).
So....I read all 3 books about 6 months ago.  In one weekend.  I literally couldn't tear myself away from them.  Yes, I've read Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. but I think this is truly a series for both adults and kids alike, and I loved the fact that it had a strong female lead (unlike Twilight).  Big, big fan of the books.  And they were extremely well written....you could see yourself in Panem, facing the games.  The fear.  The hunger.  The love.  The struggle.  So, naturally, I had a picture in my head of what the characters looked like and how the acted.
I did not want to see the movie.
No matter how well it's done, I usually end up disappointed.  That's not how I pictured Katniss, but now I can't get the image out of my head.  And so on and so forth.  Harry Potter was done well...but aside from Hagrid and maybe Dumbledore (the original), I had pictured all the characters differently.  With Twilight, no one matched up to my thoughts (I though Bella was cast well, but the character pisses me off to no end, so we won't go there.  And Robert Pattinson....even though I love him to bits...no.  Just no.)
Let's not even get into sequels.  This is someone who boycotted the concept in high school because I felt it was a total sell out.  Seriously, Star Wars PREQUELS?  (Don't hurt me, Friday Night Gang, please. I still love you).
But...with all said, I was really impressed with this interpretation of the games.  The storyline was followed extremely well, collapsing a 400 page book into 2 hours and 20 minutes.  The feel was good.  The characters extremely well cast.  Jennifer Lawrence was really exactly how I pictured Katniss, and Woody Harrelson a perfect Haymitch.  And the eye candy...ahem...Gale....well, let;s just say I'll probably quit my bitching about sequels, because i cannot wait until "Catching Fire" to see more of this hottie.
Oh Mr. Hemsworth....can I add you to my five? :-P
The Games were also done really well.  I was a bit disappointed with the change in the gifting of the mockingjay pin....it made for a good sister bond that Prim and Katniss gave it to each other, but there's a reason that Madge gave it to Katniss in the books that comes out in book 2....so it will be interesting to see how they deal with that.  However, the arena was done extremely well, and while I've never seen a cornucopia conveyed as the producers did, the different challenges and trials the tributes faced during the games were managed well.  The movie also did a great job explaining things that couldn't be spoken by the characters in the book.  I was also intrigued that they chose district 11 to be the "minority" district...was there a reason for that?  Not one in the book, but it added something to the rebellion and the fact that the first uprising took place there (as opposed to district 8 in the novels).  The only thing I felt lacking was the chemistry between Katniss and Peeta...I thought the actor that played Peeta did well, but that you couldn't see Katniss's internal struggle as well as the book conveyed.  Movies obviously have limitations.
The dwellers of the Capitol were done with great imagination and zing, and I felt President Snow was spot on. 
The kicker-I read all 3 books and the hubs read none, and we were equally entertained.  Score.
All in all, I would say this was a decent adaptation.  No substitute for Suzanne Collin's work, but much better than most books to movies.  Can't wait to see what they do with Catching Fire!

Have you seen the movie?  Read the books?  Thoughts?

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