At long last I watch the Hunger Games

So I finally got around to watching The Hunger Games. My verdict goes like this. like so few movies, it was really better than the book. I know people are going to say that there was a lot left out. But let me tell you this, it made the story have more flow than having all the distractions that were in the book

Case in point: the Mocking Jay pin. It was introduced differently and passed around a bit differently but it eliminated the need for another sympathetic character (mayor's daughter) Books can get away with too many characters easier than movies. (this goes back to Greek Tragedy- the less characters on stage the better for the story)

Another point: Collins (the author) gets distracted a lot during her book. We don't need to understand about pods (especially since through out all three books they are never really explained). The director Gary Ross, can tell us all we need to know by showing us- in the wild dog scene- the dogs pop out of the landscape giving them a holographic sense (think holodeck-STNG) which brings me to another thing the author seems to get hung up on, the faces on the dogs in the books are dead tributes (its a slight slip- but as I was reading it it was like careening off the plot - my Suspension of Disbelief was like "what the hell was that." I must have reread that scene 5 times trying to figure out what the point of that was.

One really good thing the movie did over the book was convey a sense of landscape and location (which was not successful in the book- which as a writer is very hard to achieve- I am only all to aware of this.) But the advantage of film is that the scene can be set quickly (seconds) with the kind of detail that would take pages. I think it would have helped Collins to have read some Stephen Donaldson (Thomas Covenant) and the a little Tolkien (LOTR) then looked at a map of the US and gone back to the writing table to rethink that whole bit again with the districts. I mean they come across in the book like quadrants on a board game not an actual place.

another thing the movie actually did better than the book was the tragedy and travesty of the killing of these kids. I mean the scene in which Rue dies is probably one of the best scenes in the book and the movie did not let the viewers down. But the movie in a matter of seconds show the brutality of what it must be like as well as the confusion, chaos of the killing in the plot. Ross takes another page from the Greeks in this (he might not know it but he did) most of the awful violence takes place off screen. The Greeks would do almost all their butchering/killing off stage. This makes the deaths worse and far more effective (for me anyway- I am not into gore anyway)

As far as movies go, this one gets 3.5 out of 5 for me. Or 8.5 out of 10. The one thing I didn't like is Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. I pictured Haymitch more of a Robert Urich/Joe Mantegna type of character. What I mean by this is that while I like Woody in some things- he's not ideal for everything. Also he tends to play the same five characters over and over again. he is definitely a character actor- which works great in Zombieland/Natural Born Killers/White Men can't jump and the like but this role doesn't do him justice. Haymitch is not a worthless drunk- no he's a miserable worthless drunk who is overwrought with the guilt of helping a ton of kids to their deaths. It funny but I see him more as the Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan) out of the Watchmen. Haymitch is bigger than what Woody managed to convey.

other than that the movie was good.

Now for the best/worst part.

If I was Gary Ross, I would say no to a sequel UNLESS I could rewrite the storyline of the last 2 books. I would pull a Paul Verhoeven and stop reading after 4 chapters in Catching Fire and 2 chapters in Mocking Jay and make another movie. Or a Kevin Costner and completely rewrite the ending (The Postman- Thor forbid you have to read the last half of that book- it's about as bad as what Collins does to her good idea). 

So what am I going on about? The fact that Collins turns her books into a "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" meets a fairly redundant video "arcade" game that has a lot of crazy action and pages and pages of 'no point" just so Collins can pretty much kill off everyone who is redeeming like Primrose/Cinna/Madge/Finnick and so on. The books end with a lot of melodrama that is reminiscent of something called OVERKILL.

Again why is this a problem for me? because of all of them only Cinna's demise has some meaning/furthers Katniss's character development- moves the plot forward. Okay, I might concede that Primrose's death kind of works- all it really does is give Collins a way to avoid coming up with a better way to resolve Katniss and Gale's relationship (which was doomed in the first book but takes the next two to evolve into something and die in a completely ridiculous sappy disaster. 

Collins why for the love of Mike, did you turn the last book into a video game like Contra?

no answer.

If you don't understand- here's another mystery, how does a mediocre writer (see her other books if you don't get that reference) go from Twilight to best seller? Because the reading public's intelligence and aptitude to recognize good writing has been in the proverbial toilet for years and years.

To name a few disasters that are considered good books and were made into equally disastrous movies.

Spiderwick Chronicles (the books wander around in a labyrinthian maze that had me doing more rereading of the ones I had just read than getting on with the point. I gave up on the movie about 12 minutes in.

Twilight, 4 and a half chapters and I knew I was going to hate everything about the "new" vampires (another rant altogether) No I WILL NOT SEE THE MOVIE! Snow White and the Huntsman is as close as I want to get to KS as I need to be. Maybe if someone bitch-slaps that girl into more than 3 facial expressions than i will see another of her movies. Not even the lure of seeing her naked could get me to endure her again (On the Road)

A Series of unfortunate events (JIM CARREY was actually the best and worst part of that movie) Tim Curry (made all but two of the audiobooks endurable) but by book 6. Not even wickedly pronounced word puzzles could get me out of my stupor.

The Host- another Meyer disaster that is somehow considered really good - so good that some fool has made a movie out of it- however since its another pod people movie I suspect it will be in the dilapidated cardboard box that holds the other dumb alien movies in the back of Evil Eye Video.

Percy Jackson- do I have to spell this one out. Rick Riordan had a nice concept and his other books are better. BUT why do these guys ruin perfectly good myths in order to "modernize" them?

Beastly- book was pretty good until the end- then it went ultra-gushy. Movie was 10 times better.

NPH has a golden touch here

So there it is in a really BIG NUTSHELL.

Movies according to Mike