The Good:
-The visuals - they were outstanding. From District 12’s grays and browns to give that people living on and from the Earth to the spectacle of Panem to the arena of the actual Hunger Games, they were great to look at.
@I agree the visuals in this movie were really good. It does a very good job IMO of taking the mential visuals I had and putting them in the movie.
-The Adult characters - Each of them were awesome. Elizabeth Banks brought a smile to my face every time she was on screen. Donald Sutherland’s President Snow was the perfect mix of an @$(#*&! version of Santa Claus. Lenny Kravitz’s Cinna was great and Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch was my favorite character of the entire thing.
@ Banks look was what I had imagined but I did find her annoying as I did in the book. Sutherland was fantastic as Snow and matched with his book character amazingly well. Kravitz was also awesome as Cinna and I could see why they picked him to play Conna. Harrelson's portayl of Haymitch was the best of the adult characters hands down. It made me like a character I didn't care for all that much in the books.
-Peeta - I thought Josh Hutcherson did great, from seeing him doing everything to keep himself alive to even emoting his feelings that were hidden for Katniss I thought he did great.
-Katniss - I thought Jennifer Lawrence did a good job and I love the idea of a female protagonist that is strong and brave in her own right that doesn’t need a man in order to get through the day. I thought role modeling a strong female that was fighting to survive to go home and take of her sister was refreshing to see on-screen.
@Agreed on the kids. Both again did a really superb job matching up with the books.
The Bad
-Katniss - Now she was a great character in her basic breakdown but as a character on screen I felt she was a little flat. Her whole angle was that she couldn’t make people like her and she was right, I didn’t really care for her. It’s not Lawrence’s fault who mixed a sense of glamour with a sense of familiarity and was compelling to see on screen but overall I didn’t really care if she won or lost, I really was more interested in what was going on around her than what was going on with her.
@She has that angle in the book. She's rough around the edges because of how her life is. She knows it and accepts it really during the entire course of the series. Having read the books I knew that she would win but if I hadn't I would care because I wanted to see her get back home.
-Gale - Realistically he was an unneeded character. I’m sure because it’s a series that he’ll come into something later on but as a watcher of the film I found myself forgetting about him and found myself not caring he was still in here.
@He doesn't play a big role in the book either in the first one anyways. He will in the other two and you need to introduce him now and explain some of why Katniss feels for him.
-Horrible editing - Now the book felt as if it were written to reward those who had read the books by putting something on screen for them to gush over.
@Editing seemed fine to me. Everything seemed to flow pretty well. Maybe its because I've read the books?
• Haymitch was a drunk, didn’t want to help Peeta or Katniss. Yet in the film all of a sudden within two scenes he is not drinking and cares for them. Why the sudden change? Was it because District 12 finally had hope? Was it because he saw himself in them? None of it is explained and depends on the audience to make that leap the thing is that there are too many reasons why he could be drinking and even more why he suddenly stopped.
@He doesn't just suddenly stop drinking they just don't have him wasted in every scene. I do think he shows a bit more care for the kids in the movie vs the book but that was a good change IMO.
• Gale’s name was in there 42 times. Why? Katniss in passing says not to take any food because they stick your name in more but did he take 42 more times? Do they add more every year? How many times was Peeta in there to be picked over him?
@You're allowed to put your name in more than once and it gets your family more food. I forget the term but it is mentioned in the movie I believe. Also its a drawing so its all luck and why its shocking that Prim was chosen.
• Cinna’s pinning the Mockingjay pin to her and then hushing her. Why does that matter? A moment that I’m assuming was supposed to be touching but fell more as a “huh” moment.
@The mockingjay means something to Katniss because of the tie to her sister and Cinna is making sure she has it for emotional strength. At least in the movie its a little different in the book, but also the Mockingjay has signfigance to the rebellion that's to come.
• Why were Districts 1 and 2 supped up trained? Were they representing the capital? Were they just good?
@Basically 1 & 2 train for this because its their life's goal to be the winner. Also they help the capital in becoming guards and the "law" that walks around in the districts. It will be explained as we go through the series.
• Why did the groups from an alliance when it’s a fight to the death? Why did or how did Peeta join? What did everyone get out of it knowing they were going to have to kill each other in the end? If they were all good wouldn’t they want them out first and then easily pick off the weak?
@They form an alliance because its easier to take out a mass of the other players. From there then they can kill each other after its just 4-5 of them. Gives you a better % chance to win. That should be fairly easy to figure out without reading the book. Peeta joined to keep himself alive and try to keep Katniss alive.
• If the kids were trying to get sponsors so they got advantages over the others why were there only two drops? I thought Katniss was the “belle of the ball”? Shouldn’t she had a ton of stuff theoretically? Why was she the only one getting a drop?
@You don't see but a couple during the books either. As a matter of fact I think its just the ones you see in the movie.
• What the hell was Kato talking about at the end? What seemed like a moral realization about the games and who he was, was simply stumbled through and half the dialogue was lost through the actor trying to grit his teeth through it.
@Kato has the same kind of moment in the book. He realizes that he's just a pawn in a game.
-The End - It was rushed and poorly done in my honest opinion. They spent so much time in the backstory of Katniss that the flashes continued throughout, they spent so much time in dealing with the actual arena fights and Katniss hiding and getting down to the Final Four that it felt like all of a sudden, boom one dies by mutant dog, bam a showdown with Kato who dies by dog and endgame. It was anti-climatic.
@Gotta disagree. It doesn't play out all that differently in the book. It matches up fairly well and if you don't like the way it played out in the movie I doubt you'll like the books.
-It left waaay too much for the audiences too assume - From Haymitch staring at the kids playing with weapons and getting angry (why was that? Was he angry at the fact that dozens of kids died from his district for sport? Was it his caring for Katniss and/or Peeta?) to why certain characters were involved to why the President cared who won to how the districts were divided to why people lived in the capital and escaped this to the big ones
@No, I don't think it does. Its pretty straightforward IMO. He's mad at the capital for what they do to these kids and what they did to him. More will be explained as we get into the other two movies. Its pretty simple why the President didn't want Katniss winning. If you give hope to a district like 12 ____ could hit the fan for the Captial. Keep the people down so they don't try to revolt again.
• Why did Katniss cry? When Rue died it was a sad moment (one ruined by the tweens in my theater laughing at their friend who was crying) she then grabs flowers, sets her body to rest and then in the next scene is bawling. Is it over Rue? Is it because she made her first physical kill? (the Tracker Jackers doesn’t really count as it wasn’t her intention and they never said she knew it could be lethal) then it lasts for a minute or so and then she is off again. It felt strange and while Lawrence made you feel like she was genuinely sad, it felt out of place.
@She cried because Rue reminded her of Prim. The age and how they acted. She becomes fairly close to Rue pretty quickly in the book, but not as much in the movie ( I do wish they had expanded upon that point more). She puts flowers around Rue to show the beauty of Rue and kind of flip off the Captial to let them know she's not just their toy. Wasn't out of place at all and would have been a HUGE mistake to not place it in the film.
• If the Peeta/Katniss love angle was working how come we didn’t know? The only people we see watching were the control employees. The crowds were never shown or anything that was pushing the idea that it was working. The cameras were on them but there wasn’t any indication that it was working except Haymitch going to get another sponsor to send soup and his little message.
@They don't really tell you its working a ton in the book either. They do starting in book two letting you know the people are really into this whole love angle but its more not as much in 1 because this one is about whats going on in the games.
-Katniss never felt in danger - Now it’s a bad thing about book adaptations that you know continue that the main character isn’t going to bite it, but a good film makes you forget that. In the Harry Potter films I was actually scared for Harry, I was worried that the films (I only read one book, number 6) would take an independent turn and kill off Harry or move in a different way. I was actually scared for the main characters, wondering if Hermoine or Ron were in danger and here I didn’t think something was ever going to happen to her, ever. Even in the climax where she is being choked out like a losing UFC fighter I said to myself “She’ll be fine.” Now Peeta I worried about but even when Katniss was running through the fireball fire forest of doom I said, “nothing is happening here.”
@I felt the danger for the character in the movie as I did in the book. Now, maybe not as much as I might have since I had read the books but I would have been able to guess they're not killing off the main character. Now, as we go further along I think there will be more moments where people can feel this fear more.
-What happens next?- There wasn’t even a nod that the story would continue, not even an idea to what the President would do about someone working his system. It left it kind of meh about the whole, so they had a game and the poor district underdogs beat out the high district favorites and they went home in better clothes and waved to their people. Alright.
@How could you not tell there wasn't going to be a second?Just watching President Snow at the end you could tell. Toss in the berries, the part of him telling the game maker that we can't have 12 winning, etc. It was pretty much plastered to ones face it was going to happen.
THE BIGGEST ONE:
-It did not make me want to read the books - I’m lazy. Admittingly. If there is a movie coming from a book, I’ll skip the book and wait for the film. I hadn’t read one Harry Potter until Book 6 and the only reason why was because after seeing 5 I had to know what happened next. I was hooked. I watched this and don’t really care what happens next. I’d rather read a book based on Haymitch winning his Hunger Games than further the adventures of Katniss and that’s just because I liked Woody Harrelson in the roles. I’d even be interested in reading what goes on in District 1 and 2 especially after they lose out than what goes on with Katniss.
@Different strokes for different folks. If I hadn't read the book before hand I would have wanted to after seeing it. Having read the books I walked out going that was a very solid adaptation of a fantastic book. After reading your responses I just don't think this series if for you. I think you're better off moving on to be honest.
to the second part
Spoiler:
