In re: the Hunger Games movie haters…

I didn’t like the books all that much. (HERESY. Still. The love tri­an­gle and the way it resolved felt forced, and don’t give me the “But it’s YA, they can’t talk about some things” BS, and I would have been happy with a less happy/pat end­ing.) I thought that some of the text/events they edited out in the movie (SPOILER ALERT: WHERE IS THE BREAD?!?) were things that should have been left in, espe­cially to fore­shadow Kat­niss’ role in the books to come. But. I thought it was vis­ceral, the bat­tle scenes and chases in the Arena were per­fect, I loved the ever-loving hell out of Woody Har­rel­son and Don­ald Suther­land, and while Wes Bent­ley is a new and fas­ci­nat­ing fig­ure to me (MUST GO RENT ALL HIS MOVIES, even if he lacks the facial hair), in the end, I thought it did what it ought– as a movie– put into pic­tures things that can be hard to imag­ine on the page, even if you’re an avid reader and fantasist/fandom nerd/artist/writer/whatever. I thought Josh Hutch­er­son was espe­cially bril­liant, and made me want to go back and re-read because his smil­ing slick­ness and couth at the “star-crossed-love” made me re-think Peeta. I thought the other actors all brought lay­ers to the char­ac­ters that I could tell were there in the book, but some­times you need to see someone’s jaw clench, their eyes steel, before you think “Yes. That’s the story, right there.”

Plus, Lenny Kravitz. Gold eyeliner.

Spread the Lenny love if you like.

P.S.: I have the books in e-format if you would like me to email them to you. Leave me a comment.

P.P.S.  If you don’t want to read the books, just a hilar­i­ous spoi­lerific sum­mary of the first one, you should read this.  And if you have read the books, do go read this now.  You will LOL.  For reals.