spent my first night in my new apartment. Nothing is unpacked. When I woke up hungry for breakfast, I remembered I had a packet of oatmeal and an apple. All I had to dig out of the boxes was a tea kettle, which was an easy find. But because I’m an idiot, I forgot I also need a bowl to put the oatmeal in. After some more digging, I found a piece of tupperware that would do. Then I remembered I also need a fork to eat it with. I already poured the hot water into the oatmeal. There was no turning back now. So I bit into my apple. I ate it until I carved out a spoonish shape into the apple so I could scoop up the oatmeal and eat it from my apple. And because the oatmeal was cinnamon and spice flavored, they went together perfectly. I’m the most brilliant idiot there is.

In a dream last night I was left two letters, at the top of the stairs. One of them was from Cobie Smulders, saying we couldn't be together anymore. It was a long letter, full of charted data plotting how she just didn't have the time to devote to a relationship, and she has to let me go. But I'll never forget that first moment at what I presume was an award show, when she was dressed so elegantly, but smiled like a school girl when she took my hand. It was lovely.
Oh Cobie, brief as it were, I'll never forget our time together.
I woke up before I could read the second one. But I knew it was another rejection. I can only imagine it had something to do with Cobie Smulders.

The Hunger Games

Usually I write these reviews immediately after seeing the movie, and it's been a few weeks since I've had the time to do this, so forgive me in that the steam has died a little. I did just now watch the trailers to remind me of how I liked the movie, which was fun cuz usually I avoid trailers at all costs, so they were exciting to see. By the way, whoever edited the first theatrical trailer did an incredible job. Give that person a comfier chair, they earned it.
Alright, onto the review.
I mentioned in my blog that The Hunger Games was the first book I read in a day. If you wanna know why that's such a big deal, read my blog. But I bring it up to emphasize just how much I enjoyed the experience of reading The Hunger Games. I hoped that the experience I got from the film wouldn't disappoint. It didn't. I'll say it wasn't as solid of an experience, and I'll get to why that is in a moment, but it still was an enthralling movie viewing experience.
What won we over in Suzanne Collins' writing was how easily and purely she put the reader into Katniss Everdeen's place. The perspective in the book is entirely through her thoughts, memories, and reactions. It's so easy to connect to her and feel for her because the way it's read, we all might as well be her. The dialogue was casual and the asides were natural. Nothing felt elevated or forced, it felt just as if this was a first hand experience that went straight from her brain's synapses to the page. The writing was even clever enough that nothing needed to be explained to me in a direct manner. I was just given information and was allowed to put it together myself. Just like in the way my brain works. And considering this book was set in the new nation of a dystopian future with it's own customs and jargon, the fact nothing had to be explained to me says something.
Still, above the accomplishment of giving the reader information in a way that doesn't remind you're merely a reader of a book is Collins' ability to put the reader so deeply in the place of her protagonist that the reader truly empathizes with the character. That's what I loved about The Hunger Games film. The film gave its viewer as much of Katniss' experience as it could. Rather than letting the action play out in front of us, like some disconnected sports fan from the Capitol, the filmmakers wanted us to have the experience of one of the tributes right in the middle of the games. Director Gary Ross utilized all the techniques his crew had to let the audience be a part of Katniss' story, rather than just watching it. Shaky cameras, ringing silence, slowed moments, blurred focus,and misframed shots are things that usually deter an audience. And I'm sure it deterred some people in this movie. It made it harder to see or hear all the action going on in some scenes, but, in my opinion, it gave us so much more.
These tricks were craftfully used to give us Katniss' account of what was happening around her. Yeah, I didn't get to see a handful of nameless characters die in a flurry of blood and violence, but I got to feel the exhilartion and fear that Katniss must have felt as she ran into the choas and decided that was a bad move. I could tell just how bad it was. I didn't logically come to that conclusion by inducing the other characters killing each other may or may not come to Katniss' space where they would most likely decide to kill her as well. I knew she had made a mistake worthy of putting me on the edge of my seat in concern because I felt it. Ross had set the scene up to make me understand how scared she was by playing out her experience for us in the way it came to her, taking time when there was a long hallway, and throwing us into the madness when a countdown reached zero. Most films try to slow down the interesting moments and skip past the uninteresting ones, which usually is a very good thing to do. But Ross played out everything for what it was. He let us stew in the anticipation in that long hallway, and when the countdown reached zero our eyes and ears had to keep up or else miss something. I felt the pressure Katniss felt. I felt relief when there was calm, and my heart went racing when there was action. Just as with the books, I felt right there in Katniss' place because the film did it's best to let me experience it first hand.
Now, keep in mind what I said there. The film did the best it could. This film was incredibly clever to give us the information we needed in that casual, natural way that the book did. But it couldn't do it for everything. It still reverted to that old staple of having an educational video give us the exposition for the setting. It had to explain tracker jackers to the audience. And it had to use flashbacks to stir up Katniss' old emotions when words would only fail. That's just how it is. Movies have to be a little more blunt than books because movies can't tell us what a character is thinking. If it sets things up right it can suggest it, and actor can show us what a character is feeling, but the only way for a movie to spell out exactly what a character is thinking is with a voice-over, but then you just might as well have a narrator tell you straight up. So, Katniss can wonder what Gale is thinking of her when she's in the cave, but we won't know that's what's on her mind through the facade she's putting on unless the director cuts to Gale doing that.
So no, the feels-like-I'm-really-there experience of the movie isn't as solid as the book. And no amount of 3D is ever going to fix that. Unfortunately, to give those in the audience who hadn't read the books and already knew everything the information that was necessary to follow along, there were scenes which cut away from Katniss and our first hand experience. The film cut to the Greek chorus that was Gale and Katniss' loved ones, and to the narrator that was Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith's commentary. When those tracker jackers showed up, the writers went to that old staple so the audience knew they were not ordinary wasps and how they could easily kill a career tribute. I just wish they had been a little less straightforward with how they got that information out. I felt like the rest of the film was so clever in telling us stuff that to have it explained like an encyclopedia would do it just fell short. My only complaint really.
But getting back to what I was saying, the book had to be adapted into a movie. Pretty much all of them do when they become movies. So Ross decides to cut to a few scenes and take us away from Katniss for a moment. Well, if we're going to be forced to pause on the Katniss Everdeen Experience, and instead focus on someone else for a moment, we might as well roll with that. To give us perspective on what exactly is happening to her. Ross takes us behind the scenes to see how the show that is the Hunger Games is put on. He gives us insight to Haymitch's workings, and how events in the book get to where they can take place. He devises a new character to make this all relatable to the story. Pretty cool. Not sure whether I would rather it be left out like in the book, but I can see how it fills in the picture. I can only imagine that it's really setting the stage for the sequels. We'll just have to wait and see. I will say, in most cases these additions did give me more of the foreboding sense of the omni-powerful Capitol that Katniss already knew of. So I think it does tie back to the goal of giving us the first hand experience that the books did. However, there definitely were scenes that were just secondary plot unfolding. Yes, it made me dislike President Snow as much as Katniss and Peeta must, but it did seem unnecessary. Like I said, I can only assume it's needed for the sequels. I will say the final moment with President Snow brought out the same reaction I had in the final moment of the book; "I need to know what happens next!" Somehow they managed to flesh out the plot and expand upon the story, while also allowing us to take our time with scenes, and still keep things to the point. Even more impressive, they did all that editing and didn't miss anything.
What I enjoyed the most with this film is how well it managed to adapt the book and still give the same experience. Yes, characters were left out, and thus moments with those characters were also left out. Not everything happened the way it did in the book and therefore I did not have the same exact experience. What I'm saying is, through Jennifer Lawrence's phenomenal acting and the direction of this film, I experienced The Hunger Games. I didn't just watch it, I felt it. And just like with the book, I kept wanting to know what happened next. Being someone who had read the book beforehand, you'd think I wouldn't have that feeling watching the movie, but that's how immersed I was into this film. That's how well they snagged me; I felt everything all over again. All the anticipation and all the dread. The addition of new scenes and characters, as well as the exemption of others shook things up just enough, and then there was the reaction to Rue. Oh man. That was my favorite moment from the book. They took it out. But what they did instead really shook things up. Katniss didn't know what was going on, but I wouldn't want to miss out on that moment. It fills out the picture, and I know it's setting up those sequels. I'm glad they adapted that scene, cuz I can't wait to see what happens next.