The Town of Odyssey

I guess I never posted, but I saw this in the theater because my movie group was going.
The interesting thing is I’ve never seen the first movie or even read the book. Normally I would never jump into the middle of something like this, but for whatever reason I wasn’t worried at all about this one. I think it was probably because even though I hadn’t seen the movie I knew the story of the Hunger Games, so I had enough understanding to pick up and follow along.

I enjoyed it a lot, more than I expected to. It made me plan to watch the first one, and I will definitely see the third one when it comes out.

I watched the first movie before I read the books, and I honestly think the films are better than the books (at least so far), which is a rare occurrence for me. (For the record, I think Catching Fire was actually better than the first film, which was also quite good.)

I have yet to watch it. *Sigh*

Aeva wrote:I watched the first movie before I read the books, and I honestly think the films are better than the books (at least so far), which is a rare occurrence for me. (For the record, I think Catching Fire was actually better than the first film, which was also quite good.)

Because you watched the movie first, you have a bias toward the movies. Generally, those who read the books first have a bias toward the books. It's simply because we get used to how the world in the story is presented (whether in book or movie form), and it just doesn't have the same emotional draw as the medium through which we first experienced that world.
...
If that makes any sense at all.
It's nearly 9:30 on a Saturday night... It's past my bedtime.

So, I finally watched Catching Fire, and I think I must be missing something because I was fairly unimpressed by it. I'm not sure if my expectations were too high or something, but it didn't strike me as particularly good, or particularly memorable. Honestly, I think I actually liked the first one better.

There were a few things that I really liked. Jena Malone as Johanna was brilliant. I couldn't have asked for better. I actually also like movie-Haymitch far more than book-Haymitch; Woody Harrelson is doing a great job with the role. The Capitol outfits seemed much more elaborate this time, so that was cool.

But then there were other things. Like that child who plays Prim. Who seems like she is constantly on the verge of slipping into a coma. And it could've just been me, but Finnick's accent seemed really dodgy. I don't know if he was trying to sound like someone who's been living in the Capitol for a long time or whatever, but the end result was just grating. And, I'll probably never be forgiven for saying this, but...Jennifer Lawrence just doesn't look like a seventeen-year-old, and say what you will, that makes the movie a lot less believable.

My biggest problem with it was mostly that it just seemed to spin endlessly on and on--maybe I watched it when I was exhausted, but the thing just WOULD NOT END. I was ready for it to be done about an hour before it actually was.

I'll probably watch the movie again at some point, but I don't really anticipate liking it any better.

~JCGJ~ wrote:

Aeva wrote:I watched the first movie before I read the books, and I honestly think the films are better than the books (at least so far), which is a rare occurrence for me. (For the record, I think Catching Fire was actually better than the first film, which was also quite good.)

Because you watched the movie first, you have a bias toward the movies. Generally, those who read the books first have a bias toward the books. It's simply because we get used to how the world in the story is presented (whether in book or movie form), and it just doesn't have the same emotional draw as the medium through which we first experienced that world.
...
If that makes any sense at all.
It's nearly 9:30 on a Saturday night... It's past my bedtime.

Yeah, but then I finished the series long before the second movie came out, and, having digested it for a while, I still like the film Catching Fire much better than the book.

On the whole, though, I do agree with your point. The Hunger Games is an anomaly for me.

So I saw this movie a while ago. I loved the arena! It was amazing. Finnick was amazingly awesome. The ending was a little more than okay.