The Hunger Games

Ah happy Monday! What a difference it makes to have more than 20 minutes to get ready. Feeling awake and alert and sufficiently caffeinated and even yellow scarf girl has defied the odds with a red scarf today. Wow. Almost anticlimactic.


It really is a red letter day.


So let's talk Hunger Games. I'll admit to being a diehard Twihard, I've devoured the books cover to cover at least three times and have been known to start sentences with "OMG I feel like a dirty old woman perving on a teenager but Jacob! The pecs!"


In the spirit of complete honesty however, that the movies thus far have pretty much sucked. And when this comes from someone prepared to overlook and forgive anything Edward related, you know this means they totally sucked. It pains me to say it but translating to the big screen = epic fail. And it's mystifying as the cast is perfect, they've nailed locations and script but somehow when all put together it really, really bites (no pun intended). It's like they've just Twi-ied too hard. Yes, oh dear.


So when I heard another of my favorites, The Hunger Games, was announced as being the next victim candidate for the big screen I was naturally sceptical. Ok here's another series dear to my heart about to be butchered adapted, that I will still defend, go and see and worse...BUY THE DVD. All of them.

It had promise. Bloodthirsty enough for the guys (teen-on-teen killing, anyone?), romantic enough for the girls and thought-provoking enough for the intellectuals. But then so did Twilight...


And then they started releasing set photos and snippets from the movie and slowly I have gotten ridiculously excited and hopeful that this time, just maybe, they got it right. Hey stranger things have happened, yeah?


I even spent the weekend devouring the books for the second time. And ok I'll admit it, scouring the Internet for all critiques, trailers, interviews...anything THG related that I could lay my sad little hands on.


And they're raving. Well ok due to the embargo on the press they're not allowed to release their entire reviews yet BUT they are allowed to post on Twitter and Tweet they did!


Now I'm a complete Twitter noob, I joined and sat there looking at it for a bit, reading what other people were having for breakfast and I just couldn't get with the program (by the way I actually DID write above what I've packed for breakfast but have now deleted in the interest of not being a complete hypocrite). And if the universe expected us to be able to confine our thoughts to 150 characters or less (I don't know if that's true actually, I just made it up) then they wouldn't have invented blogs. And who needs another outlet to drunk-rant on? I have Facebook for that and at least thats just my friends who will laugh at me for a day or two and not imminent public humiliation due to re-Tweeting or hashtags or whatever the heck they're called.


And really, if it's called Twitter why is it a Tweet? Shouldn't it be a Twit? Or is that just the name of the user?


Anyway I've been heavily reliant on gossip sites to compile THG feedback so it is second hand info but even so it's hard not to imitate a pre-teen with Bieber-fever when you read things like this:

Empire - Olly Richards: as thrilling and smart as it is terrifying. There have been a number of big-gun literary series brought to screen over the past decade. This slays them all.

The Guardian - Xan Brooks: The Hunger Games is that rarest of beasts: a Hollywood action blockbuster that is smart, taut and knotty. Ably filleted from the Suzanne Collinns bestseller, it's a compelling, lightly satirical tale.

Total Film - Matthew Leyland: What's remarkable is the lack of cheese. Tacky effects, corny dialogue and creaky performances are all shown the door. We repeat: not the new "Twilight".

This is made more impressive by the fact that most critics were ready to slay the film purely based on the fact it has been nicknamed "the new Twilight".

So forgive me if I'm getting a little giddy at the prospect of getting to see Katniss et al on the big screen. Already I'm trying to tee up with fellow blogger Willow to get to the screening STAT. The fact this means a 4 hour round-trip to another town just to ensure I see this with her is no matter and well worth it in my opinion. We've had a long-standing steady date to see all the Twilight movies together, however due to circumstances and the fact that she moved to Nowheresville, NSW for Breaking Dawn Part I we haven't managed this for a few years so am very much looking forward to THG with her now that she's back in civilization.

Are you going to see THG? I'll let you know my thoughts when I've seen it, I really hope it lives up to the hype.

xx