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In a very "Very Long Engagement" sort of way, I told myself if both the shows listed on the Cinemark website were not sold out by the time I got to the mall after work, I'd get a ticket and go. Not only was show #2 not sold out, there was a Super! Seekrit! showing that wasn't on the website at all that started five minutes later, so I got a ticket to that one. That show wasn't even remotely full by the time the movie started, and almost completely devoid of screaming teenagers. WINWINWIN.
So the movie itself. TL;DR version: solid A-. I have one midgrade and several very minor complaints which I'll go into in a bit. That said... There are reasons why instead of retiring straight to bed with a warm snoring manbeast I'm up writing this. This is not a movie you leave going all "OMG YAY THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVAR." It's actually more along the lines of how I determine a "good" episode of Law and Order SVU, which is scoring highly on the scale of how many showers I feel I need to take afterward. I left the theater with this incredibly uncomfortable oogy feeling, which is exactly right and appropriate, if not exactly conducive to sleeping. I've pretty much resigned myself to either looping through tonight or getting about an hour's worth of semiconscious snuggle before work.
Things I had issue with:
I'm going to get my quibbles over with, because overall I loved the movie. That said, I fervently hope theres a director's cut or an extended edition lurking in a vault somewhere ready to leap itself onto some Blu-ray because this macro is entirely accurate:
dear lords the pacing. The books are written in three acts; the reaping, the training, and the Games themselves. The movie barrelled through acts I and II like that very pretty bullet train they all rode into the Capitol. Characters kinda flit on screen and pretty much go "Hi! I'm $charactername! I do this very important thing! oh wait, I'm a tribute, bye! *dies*" "Next Big Thing" and then suddenly it's been two and a half hours and you're all "wait, it's over?" Granted the movie doesn't need TOO much of a slowdown, but a few extra touches of exposition here and there and maybe an extra 15 minutes wouldn't hurt it any.
Minor quibbles:
Haymitch: much much much too clean.
Effie: not enough of her, she was fantastic.
District 11: while I imagine all the Halls of Justice look pretty much the same from district to district, they could have done a WEE bit more to make it look less like they reused the set from 12. At least show the fields and the orchards.
Rue: Not enough time with her, which may have been a blessing in disguise considering. I was bawling enough as it was, but I wonder if people who haven't read the book will be as attached to her character?
Back to District 11: Why's it always got to be the Negroes that start the rioting?
Endgame Muttations: anticlimactic, cheesily animated, and disappointing.
Things I really liked:
Ceasar Flickerman. Stanley Tucci nailed it. And what did they do to his teeth?? every time he smiled I recoiled.
The design of the Capitol. Though I will wonder why all dystopian future architecture in the movies is quite firmly stuck in 1940. I love Futura and Art Deco like they were my squishies, but I'd like to see something different looking one of these days.
Again, Effie. Not nearly enough of her.
Mmm, Lenny Kravitz. Nom nom nom drool.
BUTTERCUP. On screen for all of three seconds, but there he was. And appropriately ugly, if the wrong color.
The food. Also got a big kick out of how a "Food Stylist" was listed in the credits.
Surprisingly enough? the soundtrack. Even the - ugh - Taylor Swift song. I may end up actually buying it or something. I also like how a lot of pivotal scenes were left starkly bare of music. Not much refuge to be taken underneath a swelling score.
What I FUCKING LOVED:
The book is told in the first person, which you absolutely cannot do without a whole lot of cheesy voice over. Thankfully the movie didn't go this route, and while the focus remained on Katniss, it did pull back from our heroine a bit to get into other peoples heads from time to time. And, most refreshingly, it gave us an explicit look at what was going on in the production booth behind the scenes, which people controlling cameras, perception of time, and environment inside the Arena from a bank of touch sensitive tables and a huge holographic display. It also showed Haymitch glad-handing Capitol citizens to drum up sponsorships, and Caesar sliding effortlessly from talk show host to sports commentator. I was reminded uncomfortably of Bob Costas doing Olympic coverage more than once. And there were a few brief extra interactions between Seneca Crane and President Snow in his rose garden. Again... I feel like both Snow and Haymitch should have been... I don't know. Smellier. But never mind, the behind the scenes commentary and peeks brought it home for me, I think, and made me deeply uncomfortable that at that point I was part of the Games' audience, witnessing these kids killing each other/dying, and that I had volunteered to do so, like the Capitol citizens, by forking over my money to watch the movie. Hyper-meta, but the implications are definitely much with the oogy making.
Did they pull punches on the violence? A little, yeah. There's not much gore and a lot of the truly nasty deaths tend to happen out of frame or obscured by confusion and chaos. However, what we DO see is plenty horrific enough. There was an earlier clip of a previous Games winner shown bashing his last opponent's head in with a by then extremely bloody brick that made my stomach turn a couple cartwheels and ultimately bothered me more than the other deaths shown later, possibly because I was expecting those to happen.
I think I've come down enough from the disturbing to at least try to get a little bedtime in now. But it was definitely worth staying up for, even if it left me more full of gutpunch than squee.
And now... g'night.
So the movie itself. TL;DR version: solid A-. I have one midgrade and several very minor complaints which I'll go into in a bit. That said... There are reasons why instead of retiring straight to bed with a warm snoring manbeast I'm up writing this. This is not a movie you leave going all "OMG YAY THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVAR." It's actually more along the lines of how I determine a "good" episode of Law and Order SVU, which is scoring highly on the scale of how many showers I feel I need to take afterward. I left the theater with this incredibly uncomfortable oogy feeling, which is exactly right and appropriate, if not exactly conducive to sleeping. I've pretty much resigned myself to either looping through tonight or getting about an hour's worth of semiconscious snuggle before work.
Things I had issue with:
I'm going to get my quibbles over with, because overall I loved the movie. That said, I fervently hope theres a director's cut or an extended edition lurking in a vault somewhere ready to leap itself onto some Blu-ray because this macro is entirely accurate:
dear lords the pacing. The books are written in three acts; the reaping, the training, and the Games themselves. The movie barrelled through acts I and II like that very pretty bullet train they all rode into the Capitol. Characters kinda flit on screen and pretty much go "Hi! I'm $charactername! I do this very important thing! oh wait, I'm a tribute, bye! *dies*" "Next Big Thing" and then suddenly it's been two and a half hours and you're all "wait, it's over?" Granted the movie doesn't need TOO much of a slowdown, but a few extra touches of exposition here and there and maybe an extra 15 minutes wouldn't hurt it any.
Minor quibbles:
Haymitch: much much much too clean.
Effie: not enough of her, she was fantastic.
District 11: while I imagine all the Halls of Justice look pretty much the same from district to district, they could have done a WEE bit more to make it look less like they reused the set from 12. At least show the fields and the orchards.
Rue: Not enough time with her, which may have been a blessing in disguise considering. I was bawling enough as it was, but I wonder if people who haven't read the book will be as attached to her character?
Back to District 11: Why's it always got to be the Negroes that start the rioting?
Endgame Muttations: anticlimactic, cheesily animated, and disappointing.
Things I really liked:
Ceasar Flickerman. Stanley Tucci nailed it. And what did they do to his teeth?? every time he smiled I recoiled.
The design of the Capitol. Though I will wonder why all dystopian future architecture in the movies is quite firmly stuck in 1940. I love Futura and Art Deco like they were my squishies, but I'd like to see something different looking one of these days.
Again, Effie. Not nearly enough of her.
Mmm, Lenny Kravitz. Nom nom nom drool.
BUTTERCUP. On screen for all of three seconds, but there he was. And appropriately ugly, if the wrong color.
The food. Also got a big kick out of how a "Food Stylist" was listed in the credits.
Surprisingly enough? the soundtrack. Even the - ugh - Taylor Swift song. I may end up actually buying it or something. I also like how a lot of pivotal scenes were left starkly bare of music. Not much refuge to be taken underneath a swelling score.
What I FUCKING LOVED:
The book is told in the first person, which you absolutely cannot do without a whole lot of cheesy voice over. Thankfully the movie didn't go this route, and while the focus remained on Katniss, it did pull back from our heroine a bit to get into other peoples heads from time to time. And, most refreshingly, it gave us an explicit look at what was going on in the production booth behind the scenes, which people controlling cameras, perception of time, and environment inside the Arena from a bank of touch sensitive tables and a huge holographic display. It also showed Haymitch glad-handing Capitol citizens to drum up sponsorships, and Caesar sliding effortlessly from talk show host to sports commentator. I was reminded uncomfortably of Bob Costas doing Olympic coverage more than once. And there were a few brief extra interactions between Seneca Crane and President Snow in his rose garden. Again... I feel like both Snow and Haymitch should have been... I don't know. Smellier. But never mind, the behind the scenes commentary and peeks brought it home for me, I think, and made me deeply uncomfortable that at that point I was part of the Games' audience, witnessing these kids killing each other/dying, and that I had volunteered to do so, like the Capitol citizens, by forking over my money to watch the movie. Hyper-meta, but the implications are definitely much with the oogy making.
Did they pull punches on the violence? A little, yeah. There's not much gore and a lot of the truly nasty deaths tend to happen out of frame or obscured by confusion and chaos. However, what we DO see is plenty horrific enough. There was an earlier clip of a previous Games winner shown bashing his last opponent's head in with a by then extremely bloody brick that made my stomach turn a couple cartwheels and ultimately bothered me more than the other deaths shown later, possibly because I was expecting those to happen.
I think I've come down enough from the disturbing to at least try to get a little bedtime in now. But it was definitely worth staying up for, even if it left me more full of gutpunch than squee.
And now... g'night.
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 02:56 pm (UTC)From:Man, Rue. I know I'm going to sob uncontrollably every time she even comes on screen. I have a lot of feelings about Rue, like everyone probably. My first thought was that I was mad that a PoC death was once again being used as motivation for the paler main character, but man, ok, how often do we see a Black girl being shown as worth protecting? She is precious and dear to Katniss partly because she reminds her of Prim, sure, but also because of who she is on her own, and oh god, I'm crying again.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:07 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:09 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:14 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:16 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:25 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 03:27 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 05:37 pm (UTC)From:So much this. *passes you both kleenex, sniffles*