Hungering for an Opinion?

...well you've come to the right blog!  Because Nathan and I just got back from watching The Hunger Games, and  I am chock full!  (Not "chalk full" apparently; I learn something new every day.)

One thing that my friends know about me is that as much as I enjoy a good movie, what I really enjoy is a good movie with one thing wrong with it so that I can bitch about it (I am not totally joking about this...)  Long story short, I really enjoyed the hell out of Hunger Games.  I thought it was a really good adaptation (emphasis on adaptation) of a really good book.  Sure, they had to leave things out, but they didn't leave out anything that really bothered me, and they made up for it by adding a few things that, in my opinion, enriched the story.  In fact I'd have to say that the only thing that sort-of bothered me (and this was before I watched the movie) was the casting.  Because I am sorry, but it could not have been two actors in five that actually fit the physical descriptions laid out in the book.  Jennifer Lawrence is a smokin' hot young woman (although I must say- she should stay brunette fo' sheezy), but do you know what she is not?  She is not an emaciated, petite 16-year-old who-easily-can-pass-for-14.  Josh Hutcherson, while most likely attractive to a certain segment of the population, is simply not believable as a stocky-wrestling-champion-of-a-boy who can hurl 100lb sacks of flour like it ain't no thang.  And Amandla Stenberg?  I'm sorry but her skin is not "dark".  Her skin is literally almost as light as Jennifer Lawrence's (which adds a whole 'nother layer of WTF to the moronic "controversy" of casting her in that role).

But do you know what?  None of that matters, because each one of those actors played the hell out of their parts.  They may not have looked exactly like the descriptions of the characters, but they acted like them, and that's the important thing.  As Nathan put it, in the hierarchy of Casting for Movies-From-Books, it goes:

Awesome Actors Who Look Like the Characters
Awesome Actors
Actors Who Look Like the Characters
Keanu Reeves

Of course, if I can't even DRAW them like I see them in my head, what hope have we of CASTING them that way?

And yes, yes, they cut down on the horror of the book, but that was to be expected, if they wanted anyone beneath the age of 18 to be able to see the movie (it does amuse me that it's apparently okay for thirteen-year-olds to imagine someone taking hours and hours to die a painful death, but to have it be inferred on screen is too much for their delicate sensibilities).  But all in all?  I highly recommend it.