I gotta say, I really liked it. I was a naysayer the whole time it was being made, but in the end it all came together quite nicely. Not everything was perfect, but enough was. The world of Panem was so wonderfully realized, especially the Capital. They could have gone way over the top, but they kept it pretty real, like an extension of the celebrity that already exists today. The games themselves were pretty good, except for the cave part but thankfully that was short. Lots of stuff was left out or slightly altered from the book, but nothing that really hurt the movie.
The ending kind of sucked. Well, I guess I’d say that if there were an ending. It’s so clearly just part 1 or a trilogy (please don’t make it 4 movies…), and I knew that going in, but it’s no excuse. Even the Lord of the Rings movies felt like they each had a solid conclusion to the story. I still think that having the whole series be two movies would have been best. Cut all the bullshit out of this one, have a rather quick victor’s parade, and then hit us with the cliffhanger ending: they are going back into the arena. Part two would be 30-40 minutes of solid games action, and then the revolution for 2 hours.
So yeah, I was a hater, but I’ve come around. I look forward to seeing it again on blu-ray, hopefully with some kind of enhanced viewing mode, or at the very least a commentary. Catching Fire is going to be awesome. Mockingjay will probably suck, but that’s a story issue and it doesn’t look like they’ll be making and huge changes to that.
