"May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor"

Movie Review:  The Hunger Games

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The Before:
Why yes, I was at the midnight showing of The Hunger Games.  I did also take a nap at 9:00 at night and woke up an hour later. Got up and consumed some Cliff shot bloks, flavor fruit punch.  I may have needed a little extra energy, or I just wanted to eat some yummy gummies.  I headed off to the theater and arrived at about 10:30, found a relatively close parking spot, when I've gone to midnight showings in the past I've had to walk miles. Not this time, I don't know if it was because I was lot earlier than some, or because it was a typical work day for everyone else. I took a personal day, very important. 


Got in, no problem, the line was not long, nor was there a line at the snack bar.  But I had to prioritize and got in line instead of getting goodies.  After standing in line for about 10 min they let us in to the theater. I took  our usual seats about half way up on the end, because it makes it easy to get out and because Gary was working until about 11:30.  Thankfully I had my ipad and iphone, so I listened to my Colbie Caillat Pandora station while reading The Vow. Let me just say, I saw the movie and the book is WAY different than the movie. Gary got there about 11:30 so I was able to go get our free popcorn and free drink- Thank you Regal Movie theaters for having the member cards.  For 1$ more I could upgrade the size. I also picked Gary up a pizza. Apparently 
our theater now serves chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, burgers and fries....quite the expensive experience.  I got a medium popcorn without butter and a blue(raspberry) icee. 


We love previews and there were a bunch before the movie and the majority of them looked pretty good.  


The After: Thoughts

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Loved the character Rue and who portrayed her. When I first saw the cast list I wasn't sure if I liked who was playing the main characters.  Elizabeth Banks is great as Effie Trinket.  I would not like having to wear the amount of makeup that they people of the Capitol have to wear, I'd totally break out.  She was ditzy and silly and her costumes were great too.   I was also a little unsure of Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, but he also pulled it off well, going for that crazy drunk persona. Jennifer Lawrence was as great Katniss and while I don't like Peeta, as much as I like Gale, he fulfilled his part well.  I am team Gale....haha.  I hated Snow, Donald played his part well and I could almost smell the blood of his white roses- blech.  Again another character that I was impressed by was, Lenny Kravtiz, as Cinna; at first I didn't see it, but once I saw him in the role, he definitely earned it.   I would have liked to see more of the stylists, but maybe in the next movies.


There were some parts that were left out, as to be expected when a book goes to a movie.  They left out a few sub characters, like the mayor and his daughter and may have changed some of the scenes from the book.  They didn't really mention the Avox girl, even though I believe she was seen in a few scenes, but perhaps that isn't hugely relevant to the book/movie.  

The director did a tasteful job of capturing the killing scenes.  Obviously in the book they were quite brutal, but they can't really show children slaughtering each other, instead they would briefly flash over fighting scenes and flash clips of the dead tributes. 


Overall I give them movie an A, was it necessary to see it at midnight? No, but it was fun and of course there were people dressed up. Not as much as Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, but maybe that was just my theather.  I definitely recommend that you see it sooner than later.