In Front of the Silver Screen-The Hunger Games

     Before I start, I will say that I have read all the books. (In order from favorite to least favorite Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay.) This movie was really good. I've heard some people say that it is a better adaptation of the book than any of the Harry Potter movies are. I think in that case we need to define our terms. What makes a good adaptation? Is a good adaptation one that changes as little as it can from the source material? Or is a good adaptation one that makes changes for both time and what fits best in the new medium, while keeping the spirit and feel of the original? For me, the latter is closer. In that regard this is a great adaptation of it's source material, though Prisoner of Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince are better adaptations, for me. As a movie on it's own it is still very good.

     I won't bother explaining the plot. Either go to your local theater and see it or to Barnes and Nobles and grab a copy of the book. They're both excellent and I'll tell you now that I literally recommend them both to everyone. The acting is really good here. Especially Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, who manages to get across what's going on in her head without narration. Really, for me, that's the best part of the movie. It doesn't have much dialogue, and is quite for very long stretches of time. That builds the atmosphere, which is one of the most important parts of any movie for me. The action was a bit hard to follow, which was very annoying, but the design for the Capital and the arena was almost identical to what I pictured from the books. Overall, I really good movie, and a great way to start off the year of awesome movies. Laters.