The Hunger Games book/movie thoughts

[jedi_of_urth]

Okay, now I’ve listened to The Hunger Games on audiobook and started Catching Fire (a bit over two disks in), and seen THG movie. So I might as well post about my thoughts.


I really like the audiobooks, the first person present narration really works in that form. There’s a...sing-song-iness to it that is really natural to listen to. The one time I tried to read it that threw me off but it doesn’t when listening to it. Or maybe it’s just that I have found myself drifting a little towards present tense stuff recently as far as fanfic goes so it just wasn’t ever going to be as jarring as it was a few months back.

I LOVE Katniss, she’s a great character. I really don’t have a lot to say on that, just that I do.

That said, I don’t love Katniss/Peeta. Even if I didn’t know they end up together I would still expect that they would, and I have no problem with that. It’s just...I don’t have JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY feelings for them. I’m not against the ship, in fact I like it for the way I see it: as two young people coming at the relationship from very different angles with a lot of complicated emotions involved. So not anti-ship by a long shot, just not really shipping it so far.

I thought a lot of that was missing in the movie, so the movie shipping didn’t do much for me. The book version of it still interests me though.

(It doesn’t help that in what I’ve seen so far in CF and in the movie I think I’m starting to ship Katniss/Haymitch and Katniss/Cinna. Not in a way where I expect the story to go there, not even think that it could go there and make sense, not even that I’d want it to try, just that I really like their dynamics. I feel like I should ship Katniss/Gale as their relationship is the type that’s usually like catnip to me but I think I’d need to actually see them together more often to feel drawn to it. Basically so far Katniss is my fandom bicycle...or would be if I had any drive to feel fannish about things.)

And now that I’ve spent so much time talking about shipping I’m going to try an backpedals because I really wish shipping wasn’t really a thing here. I know, ME of all people wanting less shipping involved in something, I’m such a compulsive shipper but I find the shipping here to be...draining. And part of me thinks that’s intentional since it’s really not something Katniss herself wants to deal with right now.

I definitely agree with the complaint that the shakey cam was excessive in the movie, although I think a lot of people object to its use as to obscure the blood and violence, but either by the time we got to the Arena I had gotten used to it or that really wasn’t my problem; I had more issue with it early on than I did in the fight scenes. But anyway, that’s a directional thing that I can hope they figure out how to do better for the next one.

I think my bigger problem with the adaptation was missing just how SCREWED UP things were in the arena. And even that’s two fold. You don’t really feel the loneliness, the fatigue, the harshness of the situation the same way, hell it’s the *Hunger* Games and it doesn’t feel like anyone was ever very hungry. And then they cut out a lot of the...awfulness, like Katniss having to drug Peeta or just how much Caito’s death was a mercy killing by the time it came, and I’m pretty sure Peeta wasn’t badly hurt enough to lose his leg, but that’s kind of a minor point after the others.

I’m...more or less enjoying the series so far. I don’t love it, but I’m interested enough to keep going. It’s kind of the way I feel about most of the non-Katniss characters: I’m interested, but I don’t really have ~feelings~ about them yet. I do hope that changes because, unlike say The Vampire Diaries, is only ha three books (less than two now) to turn my perspective around), TVD took close to two and half seasons for me to finally FEEL it, and even then I had more characters I cared about.

Comments

[pinksonia.livejournal.com]

I also came out of the movie much more interested in Katniss/Cinna than in either of the ships I was supposed to care about despite not really seeing it in the book. I would almost wonder if that was intentional on the film maker's part, but I don't think it was.

[jedi_of_urth]

I can't nail down if it was a movie thing or the fact that they're like BFF now in CF so I was already shipping it. Plus I have age kink issues so of COURSE I would wind up shipping Katniss with the older guys.

[wheatear.livejournal.com]

The film definitely gave me Katniss/Haymitch and Katniss/Cinna feelings, which is weird since I didn't get that vibe at all in the books. But their dynamic really worked.

And yeah, I thought the arena could have been more screwed up. It could have been more awful than it was.

I don't think THG gives characters other than Katniss a huge amount of depth, especially since everything is filtered through her POV, but it's definitely an enjoyable ride.

[jedi_of_urth]

The movie gave me Haymitch->Katniss vibes I still haven't felt in the book, in the book they mostly just have this weird mildly codependent, awkward understanding thing going on that, while it sets of shippy bells for me isn't really about any idea the characters have feelings for each other. And Katniss/Cinna just seem...really cute together in both book and movie, so I'm down with it.

I don't think THG gives characters other than Katniss a huge amount of depth, especially since everything is filtered through her POV

This is true, and it's not like Katniss has a TON of intuition about other peoples thoughts/feelings/attitudes so we're left with what she can pick up on. Which is too bad because as much as I love Katniss, even with (maybe because of) her lack of empathy, I'd like the chance to get to know the others better too.

[wheatear.livejournal.com]

I loved their relationship in the book, but it was definitely platonic.

Yeah, Katniss isn't the best at giving insight. One thing I did think worked well with the first person perspective was how she misunderstood other characters (mostly Peeta) because she's so damn suspicious.