So Chad and I went out on a date night last Friday… our neighbors graciously offered to trade babysitting with us and watch our kids, and we took them up on it! So we dropped the kids at their house after work, and headed to the theater.
We decided on Hunger Games, since we figured there would be more opportunities to watch Avengers in the future, and I really really want to read the book – but have been burned so many times by the book-to-movie translations that I wanted to see the movie first. This is actually why I still have not read The Help – and Chad refuses to watch it with me because someone told him it might make me cry. But that’s another story.
And there were two notable previews, worth mentioning if only so I don’t forget I want to see these movies:
- Spider-man: Totally not sure about the new guy they have playing Peter Parker. But? Emma Stone as MJ? Sign me up.
- Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter: I think this movie will be AWESOME. Chad disagrees. But I think I can convince him… I mean, Honest Abe has an axe – that turns into a vampire killing GUN. HOW COULD THAT NOT BE AWESOME?
So. Yeah. On to the actual movie, Hunger Games. I went into the movie kind of cold, because honestly? All I knew was:
- It’s a movie where kids have to compete to the death
- As such, people die
- Some people wear weird costumes
- Peeta was played by the kid that was in Bridge to Terabithia, and he’s not a little kid anymore. Yikes!
I expected action, and some gore, but amazingly they kept well within the PG-13 rating. Not having a whole lot of expectations, I would have been hard pressed to be disappointed.
That being said… I really liked the movie. A female heroine, who sacrifices herself for her sister and then totally wins the competition, potentially starting an entire revolution in the process? Don’t mind if I do. I thought the awkward teenage love story portions of the movie played out well, and I enjoyed the performances by all the actors (probably because I had no preconceived notions of what they should look like or how they should act). They left it open at the end for the sequels, and I liked the fact that not everything was neatly tied up – but they didn’t leave you hanging on a cliff, either (Twilight, I’m looking at you here). The action was good, but there were parts were the camera action threatened to make me sick, and it was difficult to follow through those scenes.
Rant: Seriously, if I had a time machine, I think I would go back and destroy Blair Witch Project before it ever made it to the theater – that style of action shot, that looks like people running around with handheld cameras, is my least favorite cinematography trick. Rant over.
Short version: Great movie. I am planning on reading the book tomorrow, no joke.Now the only questions is: should I read the whole series? Or wait on the movies? Hmmmm.