The Hunger Games Movie!

So, having literally just got back from the Hunger Games Movie advance showing that I bullied The Bookish Ex into taking me to see, I have to say, I’m thoroughly impressed.

I was ridiculously excited about going to see the movie, hence going on preview evening.  I was really curious to see how they’d manage to adapt a book which had so much going on, and a lot of levels of depth, into something that would work as a movie, and how well it would translate for people who hadn’t read the book. 

It was also interesting for me, because I’ve only recently read the books myself (and fallen ridiculously in love with them), whereas The Bookish Ex hasn’t read them at all, so between us we were able to get both perspectives pretty easily. 

Firstly, I was impressed at the cast.  I think they were done pretty damn well.  A lot of people have criticized the casting of Peeta and Gale, but I didn’t actually mind the actors they used.  I thought Katniss especially was done perfectly, and I loved the costume design on the people from the Capitol – especially Effie Trinkett. 

Secondly, I was impressed with how much of the detail from the books they managed to cram into a film which wasn’t (or didn’t feel, at least) butt-numbingly long.  Of course, I knew the characters beforehand having read the books, but The Bookish Ex was able to come out enthusiastically asking me about various characters, and really seemed to have a good sense of what they were like and how they fitted into the story.  He also wanted to know ten-dozen things about the world, which sort of suggests there wasn’t the detail in that respect, but he assures me that he will be borrowing my copy of the books to find out more, and that the film was understandable and coherent without having read the books. 

Basically, we both enjoyed ourselves, and I was pleased to find that the movie didn’t actually deviate much from the plot in the books. 

I really, really enjoyed this film, and as I’ve said, it encouraged The Bookish Ex to read the books (and he normally point blank refuses anything YA, or that he thinks might be girly), so I’m hoping it’ll introduce a whole bunch of other new (and maybe unlikely) readers!