I Watched The Hunger Games

First, I want to thank everyone who is following me.  I just hit 100 followers, so that’s awesome.  (If any of you are spambots, please don’t tell me!)
Second, I’m sorry this is late.  I took a really long, unexpected nap yesterday, so I managed to achieve very little.  So, apologies having been extended, here are my thoughts:
As before SO MANY SPOILERS!!!!
-I actually liked Katniss when I couldn’t hear her internal monologue, when I could see the emotions rather than just being told that she had them.  There were plenty of times where I said, “Oh, I know what she’s thinking there!” because I read the book.  What was interesting is that when I compared my thoughts with those of my boy-nugget (who has seen the movie, but not read the book) we often disagreed about what she was thinking.  The best example of this is the moment on the train on the way to the Capitol when Katniss sees Peeta and Haymitch talking in the dining car.  My reading of that moment was something along the lines of, “Peeta is getting advice and will have the advantage, I need to get in there.”  His read was more, “Ok, this is real and I need to follow Peeta’s example and start taking things seriously.”  His Katniss comes across as more naive and gentler than my Katniss, who is working the angles and looking for an advantage.
-Gale is way more likable in the movie.  Part of this is because they’ve cut Madge out of the movie, so we don’t see Gale get angry and bitter at a girl who has nothing to do with the system he’s raging against.  We also get shots of Gale reacting to the games, rather than just seeing what Katniss thinks he’s feeling.  So, he becomes a more sympathetic character.   It also helps that the scene of the Reaping with Prim is so much more powerful and you’ve got Gale stepping in to protect this little girl that you’re heart is breaking for.
I still don’t much care about the romantic subplot, but I get why Katniss cares about him more now.
-Peeta is ok, but I’m not strongly attached to him in the film any more than I was in the book.  He seems sweet?  That’s about all I’ve got.
-The fashion was a disappointment.  I still like Effie’s costumes, but everything else was… eh.  The 1930’s-1940’s feel of District 12 was nice.  I thought that was well done, and the Reaping gave me a very WWII vibe, which I’m assuming was intentional.
The Capitol costumes were much of a muchness.  There was lots of orange, pink, and turquioise, but that’s about all I got.  The pink dogs were an ok touch, but not as outre as I think they were supposed to be.  We’ve already got extreme pet grooming here, so dying a dog pink to match an outfit wasn’t that big of a deal.
Seneca and President Snow were somewhat distinct since they were wearing reds and purples.  They were also never framed next to a large group.  The facial hair helped make him specific.  I’m not sure how I feel about him actually being visible, since he never appears in the book.  He almost comes across as sympathetic, when compared to President Snow at least.  He thinks he’s putting on a show, he doesn’t really understand the rest of the political situation.
-Moving the riot in District 11 up to this film was an interesting choice.  I don’t like it that much because I love the bond that forms between Katniss and the District when they send her the bread.  It makes me sad that we lose that.  I also think the wedding in Catching Fire doesn’t work as well when we already know that Katniss can’t do anything to make President Snow happy.  The rebellion is too big before the first games are even over.  (Again, this is stuff that didn’t bother the boy-nugget because he doesn’t know anything about what happens in the books.)  I also don’t see why they would send them to District 11 on the victory tour (which I know they do because I’ve seen some of that scene in the trailer) if the District has already started rebelling.
-Making the pin a secret between Katniss and Cinna is interesting, I guess.  I still like the connection between Madge, her mother, Katniss’s mother, and Haymitch that we’ve lost now.
-The time in the arena is compressed, which is fine.  Rue’s death is so much worse since Katniss gets to think she’s made it in time.  It’s kinder in the book that she got there just too late.  That scene was, unsurprisingly, touching.   I actually started crying in the very beginning of the movie when Katniss sings the song to Prim because I knew what was coming.  Amanda Stenberg was fantastic.   I just want to hug her.
– The rock camoflauge is pretty terrible.  It’s impossible to take seriously, but I was braced for it, so I didn’t laugh.
– Peeta doesn’t lose his leg?  What?  Because… that’s a pretty big difference.  Then again, his artificial leg never really comes up in Catching Fire, so, ok I guess.
-BUT!  Peeta being basically healed when the games are over take some of the intensity out of that last confrontation between them.  He doesn’t have his failing health to hold over Katniss to try to get her to kill him.  He’s fine, so we don’t have Katniss’s breakdown in the hovercraft afterward, so that A) puts their romance on shakier ground for me (again, the boy-nugget didn’t feel that way.  He thought it was totally fair that everyone bought the love story as presented.)  B) I legitimately don’t know how Katniss feels about Peeta at the end of the movie.  I’m pretty sure she thinks he’s a perfectly acceptable person.  I’m sure she would now be sad if he died, but I don’t know that he matters to her.  I don’t see her automatically including him in any escape plans as things stand now.  I know, at the end of the book, that she cares.  She may not be in love with him, but she cares about him.  Even the blocking is more ambiguous.  The interview picture I have up here – they’re sitting in separate chairs, which are specifically designed so that they can’t get any closer to each other.  In the book they’re on a loveseat and Katniss curls up with her head on Peeta’s shoulder.  There is emotional and physical distance between them.
Even the moment on the train is diffused in the movie.  In the book Peeta actually realizes that Katniss isn’t in love with him and he’s torn apart, but he’s still willing to fake it in front of the cameras.  In the movie, you get Katniss saying she wants to forget and Peeta saying that he doesn’t.  That’s it.
Yes, my boy-nugget is probably right, I’m seeing a lack there because I know how it was written, but I think that I would still find it subdued.
-That being said, the emotion as a whole works so much better in the movie.  Suzanne Collins never really convinces me about any of the emotions outside of Rue’s death and the freakout in the hovercraft at the end.  Everything else feels dry and removed.  The movie makes me feel so much more.
Ultimately, I think I have to give the edge to the movie.  It’s actually better than the book.  (The only other movie I have said this about was Sense and Sensibility.)