The Hunger Games movie, my unsolicited review

I absolutely loved The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins and have recommended it to my friends and their teens any chance I’ve had. My mom got me hooked on young adult books by giving me a copy of The Hunger Games back in 2009. I was in love with the heroine, Katniss. She was not only a bad-ass, which you had to be in the games, but she was compassionate and had great values – a breath of fresh air & a really great role model for young ladies today.

Then, my mom sent me the advanced reader’s edition of Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger games and I loved it so much (I could kick myself in the teeth) I held a giveaway for both of the books which were signed by the author! I’m an idiot. Like super full blown, 100% idiot. I curse myself when I just reread that post, because I spent days, yes days, looking for those books because my kids wanted to read them before the movie came out. Seriously, I hate that my memory is so bad, but rejoice in the fact that I have this blog that I’ve been posting on since 2006 ~ it’s the Google of me! But, luckily I was able to download the book from Amazon within a couple of seconds to my Kindle – gosh, I love that technology!

Back to the review, while the director held true to the book’s storyline, and the casting director did a fabulous job at casting the characters (by the way, all you Peeta haters, what the heck?! I thought he did a great job & you best reread the books… Peeta really is a blonde) and the costumes were ah-mazing – and yes Katniss and Peeta were on fire when they entered the arena the first time!  But what I didn’t like – and it ruined the movie for me, was the way the movie was filmed – by a neurotic, meth addicted, über fan of The Blair Witch Project. I literally spent half of the movie with my eyes closed because I couldn’t catch my equilibrium.

I didn’t leave this movie and instead opt to watch it at home, like I did Saving Private Ryan or a couple of others that I can’t remember the names of, but stayed because of my love for the books. And, While I’m glad overall I went to see this movie, at the Saturday matinee price and not at the more expensive midnight showing like a lot of fans, I am really, really hoping that there will be other directors & cinematographers for the next two movies. I would really like to enjoy the total movie experience, which I didn’t with The Hunger Games.

I would only recommend The Hunger Games movie to folks that don’t have any type of vertigo or motion sickness… which I didn’t have until after I had my son, but that’s a different story for a different time — pregnancy, it’s a giver!

“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!”
-Effie Trinket

And, here’s a great link for The Hunger Games inspired cocktails… my favorite is Katniss Everdeen’s Ever After Cocktail.