It's Catching Fire day! I'm seeing it this weekend. Are you?
Here are some things I'll be watching for in this film:
(CAUTION: THERE BE SPOILERS HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ OR SEEN THE HUNGER GAMES. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.)
- How will the civil unrest across Panem be portrayed?
- The Victory Tour. This was incredibly difficult for Katniss in the book, but most of her anguish is inside her. Hard to translate those kinds of moments to film.
- Katniss and Peeta's on-camera vs. off-camera relationship.
- Cesaer Flickerman. I love Stanley Tucci anyway, but he was even more solid gold in the last film than I was expecting. I have no reason to expect he'll be any less perfect here.
- I admit, I am excited to see how the jabberjays are to be depicted.
- FINNICK. HOW WILL YOU EVER COMPARE TO THE ONE IN MY MIND.
- I really hope the budget was increased for the special effects in this film. Cina's fab creations didn't really translate in the last film. Maybe this one will do better.
- Most importantly, How will this film feel? I had many conversations with friends when the last film came out, wondering if it was hypocritical of us to pay money to be entertained by a film about a story that criticizes people for their poor choices of entertainment. (That was a very circular sentence. Apologies.) In the end, I think the first film did a good job of showing that the Hunger Games were a terrible thing. It didn't glamorize the deaths. It didn't soften the emotional distress. It was hard to watch, and it should have been hard to watch. Will this film follow suit? If not, I will be very upset.
Finally, for better or for worse, the anticipation is over. TO THE CINEMA, JEEVES.
Gaaaaaah and now I want to go watch it! Blast! I was so sure I wasn't going to because the last one was such a distressing, traumatizing film! But now I want to! What is up with my masochistic streak?!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I totally get your turmoil. However, as hard as the first film was to watch, I would argue that at its core The Hunger Games is strongly anti-violence. It shows the games, yes, but it also shows how horrible they are. And that is the key difference between The Hunger Games and, say, Transformers. You cheer when someone dies in one, cry when someone dies in the other. One teaches that anything goes so long as you're being entertained, the other teaches compassion and morality. The ironly is not lost on me that it is still a very violent film, alas.
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