Hunger Games + 21 Jump Street

[wickedcherub]

I saw both 21 Jump Street and the Hunger Games this week. I enjoyed the former more than the latter, though both were good.

21 Jump Street was sweet and funny and very bromancy. I can't take Channing Tatum seriously, so in a movie where I'm not supposed to, he's wonderful. It kind of had nothing to do with the original 80s TV show, which was Serious Business if you were a Vietnamese person because it had a Vietnamese actor in it, omg. I can't really think of any other 100% ethnically Vietnamese actors in Western media at all since then (except for Thuy Trang, the Yellow Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). I liked how self aware it was (enough, not too much) and how much fun it poked at various tropes. Lots of penis and gay jokes though, but it wasn't homophobic at all? Just in character. I thought it was great.

Saw The Hunger Games. Loved Jennifer Lawrence in it, hated that she was too old and white, which isn't the Katniss I interpreted from the books, so tried to forget about it. Actually saw a tweet where people were shocked that Rue was black because they read her as 'white and innocent' in the books. Gag. It was pretty explicit that she was black. And her actress was PERFECT.
Anyway, the PG rating meant that it wasn't realistic enough for me, there weren't enough reaction shots to the deaths in the audience/world outside the arena. I would have liked to see a screen/graphic in the control centre that clearly stated who had died and who hadn't. That way we would have maybe gotten to know the other tributes better and felt more suspense.
All the casting was pretty good. Katniss aside, Liam Hemsworth was so obviously cooler than Josh Hutcherson, even if he did look like he belonged on the WB channel. Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson were great. Lenny Kravitz was perfect.

So yeah, not as good as the books, but wasn't expecting it to be.

Comments

[frozen-doll.livejournal.com]

I want to see The Hunger Games but at the same time I don't. Movies are NEVER as good as the book. And characters are often not how we picture them. I actually missed the sentiment that Rue was black (but then I've only read the first book) and was surprised she wasn't little and white and cute and innocent. I agree with Katniss being too old, and I imagined her different looking to Jennifer
I'll see it but I know I'm be grimacing all the way through.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I remember reading a post after the first Hunger Games character posters came out, and they showed some tweets by people who were shocked---shocked!--that Cinna and Rue weren't white because of course they were in the books.

Made me want to beat my head against something and weep.


Going to see the film on Monday with a friend in Amsterdam. I know it won't be as good as the book, but I'm excited anyway. :)

[bluedano.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah, I think it was pretty clear that Rue was black. My sister was shocked that Lee Jordan, from the HP universe, was not a white boy with dreads. Really? I mean JK Rowling was pretty explicit about it. In her defense, she said she kept picturing him as this kid in her Hebrew school class, so in her mind he was just a white Jewish boy. :P

[mrsmdub.livejournal.com]

I was actually glad they toned it down as much as they did re: violence. I still got the idea and I know that I can recommend it to all my students (and their younger siblings) who love the books.

[wickedcherub.livejournal.com]

I just remember being really horrified about what happened in the book. It wasn't the same? Like, even if the violence was toned down, I don't think the reactions to the death should have been?

[giselleslash.livejournal.com]

I just went to The Hunger Games this afternoon and was really disappointed in it. I mean overall it was fine, but that's about it. Fine. I felt a real disconnect from all the tributes and couldn't have cared less if they lived or died (Peeta included, ugh, didn't like that actor AT ALL) and so there wasn't much for me to be excited about. I don't know if it was the actors that were unappealing or the way it was filmed or what, but even with the tributes that die right away in the book you felt at least slightly connected/invested in them.

I dunno if that makes any sense at all, but yeah, not my favorite movie.

[wickedcherub.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Peeta much, but I never liked Peeta much so I thought that was okay casting?

I think that there wasn't enough time to get invested in anyone. Like, the training section wasn't done well enough for us to get to know the characters.

I would have even taken a quick 'DISTRICT 1: THESE PRVILEGED DUDES' 'DISTRICT 12: COAL MINERS LOL!' type short cut intro from the TV guy would have worked for me.

I think it was just one of those movies that took what happened in the book and just lay it on screen without asking how or why. I feel this way about some of the HP novels.

[giselleslash.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a Peeta fan either - books or movie - but for me having a more appealing actor as Peeta would've helped.

I agree. There's never enough time to give minor characters or plot points in movies, but I thought they did a particularly poor job of it in the movie. Like you mentioned, the training scenes didn't really give you much and other than Rue there wasn't much development for any of the Tributes. You never really got the sense of what each district was about.

I feel that way about some of the HP movies too. They just kind of slapped the books onto film and were like, here, done!