I read a lot. In fact, I read so much that at times my acquisition of new reading material is akin to a swarm of locusts descending on a field; I will happily devour anything and everything in sight. This has meant I have read some things that I wish I hadn't, some things that I would not have picked myself but thoroughly enjoyed, others also not of my picking that I hated, and some that, despite the hype, did nothing for me. In short*, I have read all sorts of books.
It was in this position that I came in to the possession of The Hunger Games, the first book of the trilogy. These are aimed at young adults, so in one sense might be viewed as slightly more grown up than the early Harry Potter books. Either that, or some unfortunate genre combination, like "soft rock". I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, so much so that the same friend offered me On Fire, book two of the trilogy. I am now half way through Mockinjay, the third of the trilogy, and continuing to devour them with great pleasure.
LO on the other hand, just to prove that it takes all sorts to make a world, didn't get on with the first book, and committed the cardinal sin of ditching it before she had got to page 100*. It was with this background that we decided to rent the DVD of the first film-of-the-book, unsurprisingly entitled The Hunger Games.
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, giving it 8/10. LO, as if to prove free will really is wasted on some people, only gave it 7/10.
The plot may or may not be known to you, so I shall not provide any kind of plot spoiler, but I was struck by visuals of the film. The poor areas had a bit of Grapes of Wrath about them, whilst the Capitol was a garish pastiche of some white-wigged-and-dodgy-lipstick Royal Court of some foppish king or other (you can tell I didn't do history, although I know enough to say with some confidence it was not Henry the Eighth's court).
The risk, of course, in watching a film of a book that you have just read is that you find yourself shouting at the screen "it was not like that in the book", however this one did not have too much of that. Of course, there has to be some plot scrubbing to get the film length down, but that was not too obvious and they did still manage to provide some space for the plot-points that needed a bit of air, mostly acknowledged when LO declared it was "... all going a bit slow, and something needs to start happening".
I would be happy to recommend this film to anyone.
This week I am taking off Tuesday to go fishing with Brad. We planned this a while back, and it does seem both odd and extravagant to have a day off midweek to fish, but nevertheless I am really looking forward to it. Let's hope the weather stays dry, and the forecasts predict as much, and that our lines are tight. See you tonight Brad.
-------------------------------------
* Yes please. Ed.** It is one of my better theories that you need to give every book until page 100 to impress you, and this theory has meant I have stopped reading very few books. Likewise with story books, one CD is the minimum commitment.
No comments:
Post a Comment