May the odds be ever in your favor

You'd think Suzanne Collins had an idea of how things are run in Philippine showbiz when she wrote the Hunger Games. Power trips, glamour, scripted stunts, love teams and rumors  - you don't need to look too far to say how you can relate. 

The Hunger Games as a trilogy already has a solid storyline - it all boils down now to how to take that to film.

Over all, I liked the movie adaptation. I was expecting more bloodbath but what the heck - I looked around the movie house and there were kids! But judging from the people's gasps on the Cornucopia scene and when they saw how young were the Tributes that died, I think the movie has made its point. 

I just feel bad though how the friendship between Peeta and Katniss, and Gale and Katniss wasn't strongly established. Even for me who's read the books, I still felt clueless as to why Katniss looked at Peeta in a certain way when he was called during the Reaping. The flashbacks only helped a little. I wish it showed more of why Gale was her best friend - the things they did together, how he watched out for her; the struggle Katniss had to go through selling the game she caught in her hunting trips. I think those parts were important because that's when you'd get to know who and from where are the three main characters coming from. 

Another part that lacked emphasis was Cinna talking Katniss and Peeta through their costumes for the Tribute parade and why they needed to be stone-faced and fierce, compared to the other Tributes who were smiling and waving at the audience. Cinna was my favorite character in all three books. He knows and sees all through the bull that the Capitol pulls, but he still does his job and encourages Katniss.

I had a totally different vision of him and Haymitch in the book, but the actors (Lenny-freakin'-Kravitz!) who played their characters did justice to their parts. Jennifer Lawrence was also perfect as Katniss. And I am torn between Liam Hemsworth's fool-proof hotness and Josh Hutcherson's arresting boyish charms. If Katniss was in some chic flick movie I'm sure she'd have a hard time choosing between them. Lol.

I remember reading through Rue's part for three times - each with more tears than the first. So I guess it's a given that I was trying to pull myself together during the scene that led up to her death. I was most looking forward to that moment and the movie did not disappoint.

I think the movie was OK as a movie, but my suggestion? Read the books too not because it's better, but because you'd get the storyline more since it's not condensed. I understand the time limitations so maybe that's why not everything's explained or given emphasis. 

The Hunger Games is more than a sci-fi flick that showcases violence and tolerates murder. It makes you think how we act as normal human beings. Everyday is a dog-eat-dog world, and unintentionally and not literally, we're killing someone with our actions just to survive for another day. We become someone we're not because a situation forces us to. 

Are we going to be like Cato, who only knows how to kill because he thinks that's what's he's born to do; or Cinna or Peeta, who refuses to be a piece of the game? Do we resist the system or go with it?

<3