Tuesday, March 27, 2012

the odds are ever in my favor

saturday i got dressed in something i hated and then i ran a bunch of errands. whilst at target i spied this pencil skirt and snatched(actually i paid for it) it up and put it on in the car. for some reason while i was putting on the skirt i also took my shirt off. just habit i guess. i sat in the car for a minute before i realized i didn't have a shirt on. i'm an idiot. free show! anywhoo, i wore it on sunday too. it's non-maternity but it fit just right under my stomach. 

friday night i saw the hunger games movie. i was quite apprehensive about seeing it because i LOVED the first 2 books in the series and disliked the 3rd book. and then i didn't really like any of the casting of the main 3 characters. i just didn't want my fragile young-adult-fiction-adaption-into-a-movie-heart-to-be-broken again. i'm looking at you twilight saga. i was a twilight fan until i had to sit through those insipid movies. i still go on opening night for each new twilight movie, but mostly because i love tradition. and i'm a glutton for punishment. 
but,
i thought the hunger games movie was fine. fine. not love. not loathe. just fine. i still didn't like any of the main characters and i wasn't that emotionally moved with the movie the way i was with the book. however, it wasn't inadvertently comedic because it was trying so hard to be an important film and it wasn't boring. the things i liked the most about it were the supporting characters. woody harrelson was not my first pick for haymitch(i was jonesing for gary oldman, sirius black, in the harry potter movies) but i thought he was the best part of the movie. and  lenny kravitz didn't embarrass himself the way other celebrities pretending to be actors(madonna, mariah carey, shaquille o'neal, john cena) have in other movies.  

biggest plus:
1. jennifer lawrence not looking like a typical, frail hollywood barbie doll. girlfriend looked like she had a healthy, athletic body and that she wasn't starving herself to fit an impossible ideal. ironically though, she may have looked more like the katniss of my mind's eye if she had been starving herself. 

biggest minuses:
1. seneca crane's wrinkly linen pants. they were ugly. they didn't fit well. they were too short. they were distracting in EVERY SINGLE SCENE. please tell me i am not the only one who was disturbed by this?

2. peeta- this toaster could have filled in for him. he was not that engaging, yet not as useful as a toaster, because at least a toaster can toast or you can check your reflection in the chrome.

3. gale- this shiny, dense rock is a perfect comparison. liam hemsworth was simply too pretty to be a rugged-hot-but-doesn't-know-he's-hot-coal miner. i was hoping for at least messy, shaggy hair a la tim riggins. 


what were your thoughts?

7 comments:

lrbodine said...

I don't even dare pick up anything non maternity related right now! Cute skirt though.

I actually loved The Hunger Games and was impressed with the casting. But then again - I was comparing it with the casting of the Twilight series and I still can't stand most of the people that they put in those movies! The Hunger Games cast totally grew on me and didn't bug me.

Carie said...

I loved the movie and thought the casting was spot on, for the most part.

I get what you are saying with the whole Peeta/Gale thing. I myself was not a huge fan of the choice for Peeta. (Two inches shorter than Katniss, really?) I wanted him to be cuter. Hailey suggested that Kato would have made a good Peeta. Ha! BUT after watching the movie, my sisters and I came to this conclusion: if Movie Peeta was as good looking as Movie Gale, you would automatically wonder why Katniss wasn't all over him. As is, you get why he isn't the automatic choice. I thought he was more charming than a toaster, but get your point.

This of course answers why Gale had to be so attractive. You hardly see him in the movie, and yet, you see why Katniss likes him.

For some reason, in my excitement to see the movie, I completely forgot what an emotional roller coaster it was. I bawled like a baby. At the reaping, when Rue died. It took me a few hours to compose myself.

Jeppson Clan said...

I love you Heidi! You look beautiful "with child" as my grandmother would say ha ha!

I took my mom to see Hunger Games when she was in town,and we really liked it. Then I re-read all the books and kinda felt...what's the right word... gyped? So much emotional goodness was left out. I did bawl at the reaping, and with Rue though. And that's about as intellectual as I can get right now.

Emily C said...

heidi -- you can't leave us hanging!! where is the rest of your outfit from?? that shirt is really cute, and i love the whole outfit combo. and the thought of you sitting in your car without a shirt on makes me laugh and then reminds me of the time me and emily came to pick up at the wilk that summer when neither one of us were wearing pants. hahaha.

we're going to see hunger games this weekend and i'm very curious to see how it plays. the third book pretty much ruined the whole series for me, so i'm hoping the movie will bring back a little of the love.

Brisa said...

I have so many thoughts on this...

First of all, I have only read the first book and read it literally the week the movie came out so I think it was almost too fresh on my mind and I could see every single discrepancy in the movie.

I was impressed with the casting except for Peeta and Foxface. Which is kind of a moot point because she really doesn't matter in the movie but anyways.

I spent the whole movie trying to get over the shock of how ugly and feminine Peeta was. And I think I could have a more interesting conversation with that toaster for sure and I definitely would have preferred to look at that toaster.

In the book you don't really feel that much with her and Gale other than her thoughts and in the movie there was way more chemistry there than with her and Peeta. The movie did a poor job of showing that Katniss wasn't sure about her feelings for Peeta and that part of it was her trying to make a show for the cameras. I don't know, the whole Peeta, Katniss, Gale thing just wasn't done well.

I know you can understand this Heidi... I was very disappointed with the costumes. In the book they are actually described well and somewhat an important part I felt like. They were part of creating an allure to Katniss for the games. In the movie they were cheesy and just not exciting at all. There was such potential there that was just wasted on some lame costume designer.

Sorry, I'm letting out all of my frustrations here but this is the last one... the whole survival, desperation aspect was kind of none existent in the movie. I understand they had to show a lot and the movie was already two and half hours long, but if you can't do it justice, don't do it ya know? It felt like the whole games happened in three days. You never see them hungry or cold or desperate. And it drove me crazy how Peeta is like helpless and practically dying in the book and in the movie he's like completely fine running and fighting. A lot of the feel of the book that made it good just didn't translate to the movie. And I think part of that is Katniss' thoughts really are important. It was too hard to adapt it well without having it from her point of view I feel like.

I lied, one more thing. None of the relationships except for the one with Katniss and Prim were really developed at all. Anyone who cried in the theater when Rue died was only crying because they had read the book and were remembering the relationship from that. Because lets be honest, in the movie they team up for a second, Rue gets killed and that's that. There was no emotional development. I think part of that goes back to missing out on Katniss' thoughts.

So the moral of the story is if you had never read the book it is a good, entertaining movie. But if you've read the book there's too much missing to feel satisfied. I think I had too high of expectations because it was a good book.

heidi said...

brisa, that was the best comment i have ever read in my whole entire life. you hit on EVERYTHING that bothered me too. when are you moving back south?

DollHouse said...

My daughter and I ordered a dress from Doll House which was to be custom made. I placed the order on a Monday and was surprised to get a phone call the following Monday to say the dress had arrived it only took eight 8 days. I took the dress home and when I put the dress on my daughter, I realized that had just altered the dress (in store) and found pins still in the side seams. I was so disgusted with their lie when confronted they would not talk to me or acknowledge what they had done. To all you mum’s out there DON’T BUY FROM DOLL HOUSE.