Opinion: The Hunger Games

Every feather of my pin is visible - details like these are hard to come by.

Congratulations to the makers of the Hunger Games movie, because I have to say it was well worth my money. Everything about it was outstanding - the actors fit their characters, the sets used were more than believable, the music was well-placed, the storyline followed the books rather well, and the acting was superb. By my movie standards, I award it 8/10 stars. If you have not read at least the first book or watched the movie, please do not proceed any further with this review as it contains major spoilers.

Alright, now to the juicy stuff. Let's start with the things I didn't like. First and foremost, what irritated me beyond belief - and my friend who watched it with me - was the movement of the camera. During what must have been at least one third of the movie, the camera man seemed to crash through the woods ahead of Katniss, while keeping the camera propped on his shoulder, vaguely focused on her. As she was running away from a forest fire, I observed the lone piece of cold popcorn on the floor beside my shoe because I was getting a headache from watching the camera man leap over fallen trees and dodge burning branches. Another aspect of camera handling that could have been a lot better was the way they switched scenes extremely fast - first Katniss is crouching in the bushes, then we see the tips of her fingers grabbing the silver end of an arrow, a zoom in on her eye, on her lips, then she releases the arrow, which is followed by the camera for a split moment - this all happens in about 1.3 seconds. If my popcorn didn't threaten to make a reappearance due to poor camera operating, the movie would have gotten a higher rating from me.
Moving on to the next negative point. I felt like not enough attention was paid to the Districts during the course of the Games, even though the revolts that were mentioned in the book are crucial to have an understanding of the storyline and the problems Katniss arose by challenging the Capitol - the fact that the Districts are now rebelling, which is the main issue of the next two books. Also, we were not given much background information on life within the District (electric fences, Peacekeepers, the market, food shortages, Prim's goat, etc). One subplot was left out - the Avox girl. However, it was not a major loss as it was used in the book only to underline the Capitol's power, which we saw plenty of during the Games (the scenes in the control room, something that was not in the books).
Well, I feel like I've explained why I took away 2 stars quite sufficiently. The time has come to justify the 8 stars the movie did pull out of me. As I've stated before, the things that were well-worthy of a pat on the back were: the actors, the props, the soundtrack, the relation to the book and the acting itself. Let's start with the first one, the actors picked for their roles. All of them were wisely chosen to play the characters, except Cinna, whom I've always imagined to be a caucasian man with short brown hair. Boy, was I surprised.. Josh Hutcherson fit my image of Peeta perfectly, the stocky blond bakery boy. Gale was too tall and mature for what I had in mind. Team Peeta, whoo! Haymitch was just exceptional, he's my favorite. Best scene of the movie was when he gave Katniss a thumbs up after she shot the apple - the crazed look in his eyes and the crooked grin were flawless. Still, he will never outdo my favorite drunkard of them all - Captain Jack Sparrow  ^_^
I'm still debating whether the giant chrome building of the chariot scene was real or computer-enhanced. I'm almost fully sure that the forest used was not a set, it was far too believable. I would have loved to be one of the prop artists for the Capitol citizens - it must have been fun designing the uniquely cut facial hair, bold eyelash accessories, bizarre dresses and cringe-worthy hairstyles.
My friend pointed out that the soundtrack was great and I have to agree with her. *hums Rue's lullaby*
The movie followed the book quite closely, which was nice to see, as opposed to going to the movie theatre expecting to see the book in motion and coming out with a completely different picture. The end of Peeta's interview was identical to the corresponding part in the book, I was impressed!
For the time provided, all the major points of the story were worked into the film and nothing important was left out, so that was a well-deserved star.
My habit of chewing my nails returned somewhere throughout the movie, as I was so nervous to see what happens next (even though I already knew). The whole room jumped when the god-forsaken dog hybrid leaped out of the bushes in the dead silence of the night. Just for that, the movie should have gotten a rating of PG-13.
Finally we come to the acting. It was exceptional is all I have to say. To the point where fat tears were about to roll down my (equally fat) cheeks. The beautiful moment I am talking about is Rue's death. It was not that I felt incredibly sad myself, but it was morai-naki for me, which only proves that the acting of Jennifer Lawrence was outstanding. Morai-naki is a Japanese expression that refers to the way a person is moved to tears by seeing others cry even though they may not have a personal reason to feel sad. This was one of the, if not the most, moving cinematic experience I've had. A recent one happened when I finished Harry Potter 7 this summer, I felt overjoyed and saddened at the same time - happy that everything ended well and sad that I would never see Harry again. A while before that, I cried at Marley & Me - but not because of the acting, but because I felt genuinely blue. And the earliest one was again at Harry Potter, when I was too scared to uncurl myself and watch the werewolf scene in the 3rd movie. A glimpse of the bony grey beast haunted me for years.
Back to the Hunger Games. When Katniss was just about to step into the tube which would take her to the arena, she was shaking and I was too. Her fright caused me to put myself in her shoes, which was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I was in the movie - in 10 seconds, I would have to give up everything and everyone I ever loved and die at the hands of a fellow teenager. Incredible feeling, really.
To sum it up, it was great. Thrilling and moving at the same time. Looking forward to the sequel!

PS: I was breaking my head trying to remember Effie's name for the first half of the film. Which caused me to notice that they never mentioned hers, Seneca Crane's, or President Snow's.