The Hunger Games Midnight Show - Not What I Had Hoped

The girls and I bought tickets weeks ago so we could see the opening night, midnight showing of "The Hunger Games" last week. We went a few hours early and sat in line so we could get a good seat. The theater in town is small and I don't do well close up to the front so I was thrilled to get a seat in the back. The girls of course sat with their friends. Princess number three sat with me.

I felt so old. There was only one other older couple in line and I made the comment about feeling a bit out of place and being the oldest in line. The man pulled out his drivers licence and showed me. I had him beat by a year. So, I was the oldest at our midnight showing and did try to take a nap in the afternoon before going knowing I had a busy next day and weekend coming up but the nap thing didn't work well so I was really tired by the time the movie was over.

I kept my camera out to get a picture of the title of the screen for my blog and was a bit surprised by the small lettering on the front. I was hoping for a bigger than life opening I guess. From the opening title page through the entire movie, I found myself being disappointed. I don't often go the the movie theater as I have a nice comfortable reclining couch and large screen HDTV at home (thanks to Panasonic - view here for that post) so for me to spend $30 for us to go to the movie left me with some big expectation and lets you know I thought it would be worth the money.

For the first 20 minutes, I kept thinking to myself, "Will they ever stop jumping around with the camera?" the shots and views were so choppy and jumbled. I almost felt like I should get motion sick. They never did stop jumping around. It reminded me of the "Bourne" movies especially the second. It jumped around so much I actually did get motion sick.

I also felt that they didn't give any depth to the characters. If I hadn't read the books, I would have been really lost as to what was going on in the story. I kept finding myself sad that they did such a great job with the actors and costumes only to have it ruined by the filming and editing. I thought for the most part that the actors were true to their characters but did have a hard time with Haymitch as Woody Heraldson. He did win me over by the end but I think what was hard was the lack of background or character depth as I said before. I was so glad I read the books or I would have REALLY hated the movie.

Princess number one and her husband went to the movie. We didn't tell them anything before hand and when we talked after they went to the Saturday morning show, I asked, "How did you like it?" and she replied, "No character depth." I asked if she had looked at any reviews before hand. She said she hadn't. I asked her what her husband thought and she said he felt the same way.

That is three people who red the books that had the same feelings. It wasn't only me.

The dream "memories" were all choppy as well. I was really disappointed over all with the whole movie. I guess in my head I thought that they were going to make it up there with "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The special effects left me wanting. I felt it looked like they had a high school student do them. I wish they would have not jumped around so much.

There was actually one shot in the whole movie that I was finally happy with. It was when the main character was crying in the forest over the death of Rue. They gave a straight on shot. Not jumping around from angle to angle and I felt like I was actually able to see some emotion from one of the characters because the way they shot it, it was so short in the shot that you didn't see any interaction or emotion with the characters. I almost felt that they filmed each person in the shot all by themselves with no other actors around. They all seemed disconnected.

We walked out and a woman walked out from the other theater saying, "I hated it, I hated it." The youngest two Princesses thought it had good and bad but weren't "thrilled" with it. Princess number three said, "It's a movie." didn't love or hate it but she is a HUGE "Lord of the Rings" fan and "Star Wars" so I think if it were made by a masters hand, she would have LOVED it. As it is, I wouldn't buy the video. I almost wish, someone would remake it and make it into the masterpiece it could have been.

I had to wonder how the author felt about the movie. Did it make her feel like it was all it could be? I had someone else express the same thought when we were discussing it. Once again, it wasn't only me.

In the end, I had to love that I got to spend an evening with the girls. As we were walking to our car, guess what I found? Yes, a coin. A nickle to be exact. I laughed as I picked it up. It was a shiny new one. I thought, "In God I Trust!" as we got into the car to drive home. In the end, that is where it's at after all!