Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Catching Fire

Being sick and on break last week, I didn't post.  I feel like a little kid making excuses every time I post here, sorry!  Today I have a movie review for you.  Here is my opinion on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

The actual love triangle dynamic, which is not accurate in the movies at all but much better in the new movie.


Beware: spoilers ahead!

I have read all three books in the Hunger Games series and have seen the first movie, which came out in March 2012.  The first movie was all right pretty close to the book but there were some differences that were pretty significant (Peeta didn't have his leg amputated, for instance).  But right now, I can honestly say that there is not one thing I didn't like about the Catching Fire movie.  You will hear no complaints about this movie from me. And the reason I'm reviewing this, though I could stop there, is because of why it was so good.  Director of the Percy Jackson movies, I'm looking at you.

First, it was 99% the same as the book.  Take note, directors who are not the perfect person known as Francis Lawrence. People want the movie to be an accurate representation of the book.  Aside from things they had to leave out in order for it to make sense with the first movie, and several things they added that made it better, like the reason for Gale's whipping (protecting someone being threatened by a Peacekeeper rather than poaching) and the little girl who told Katniss that she was going to volunteer for the next Hunger Games, just like Katniss had.  Bottom line: fans would rather have a longer movie (this one was about 2 and 1/2 hours) that is accurate than a short one that leaves too much out.

Also, Katniss had a personality.  In the first movie, she was fighting for her life most of the time. I get that. But she had so much more emotion (including some hilarious expressions during Johnanna Mason's famous elevator strip) in this movie.  Not to mention Jennifer Lawrence makes Katniss so believable. 

The other actors, old and new, were absolutely amazing.  Jena Malone (Johanna Mason), Sam Claflin (Finnick Odair),  Lynn Cohen (Mags), Amanda Plummer and Jeffrey Wright (Wiress and Beetee) were perfect.  Returning stars Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson (Peeta and Haymitch) also did a wonderful job portraying their characters for a second time.  

I feel like I'm reviewing for a newspaper, bear with me though. Sorry for the gushing over the actors...but at least I'm not using a thousand exclamation marks, heart emoticons, and "omg"s, right?

My final word of praise is just for the entire thing together.  Much of the script was straight out of the book, which I loved, the film crew did an excellent job of capturing everything, the actors were so talented and really showed their characters, and overall it was hands-down the best book-to-movie adaptation I have ever seen, and most people I've talked to have said the same.  Fingers crossed I'll be able to see it again, this time with my dad!

Thanks for reading, everyone.  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll try to remember to post again next week!

-Blue

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