Taking A Short Day for Mockingjay: The Hunger Games Trilogy (thus far)

Busy day today! I’m trying to zip through as many tasks as I can this morning, because I’m taking the rest of the afternoon off! Why am I being so decadent on a Thursday, you ask? Cause I’m going to see The Hunger Games Trilogy in the theatres!

Woo-hoo! I’m so excited. I’ve seen the movies before—well, the first two of course (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). The third film, Mockingjay Part I, opens tonight! So they’re holding a special marathon in the theatre of all three movies, and Alex and I are going.

It’s crazy to be so excited about a movie I’ve seen several times before, including recently. (But hey, that’s me.) We actually watched The Hunger Games just last Saturday, in preparation for Mockingjay, and we had seen Catching Fire again about a month ago, because friends of ours were visiting and had never seen it. But it’s still so fun to see the movies again: to get caught up on exactly where the saga left off, and to see it on a big screen with comfortable reclining seats and a live audience. There’s an excitement to seeing a movie with a big, active, opening night crowd that you can’t get at home. It’s not live theatre, but it’s close. All I need is my snuggie—which I may bring with me to the theatre.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with The Hunger Games since I discovered it some years ago. The obsession is light, considering how obsessed I can get, but it’s still there. Alex introduced me to the books, telling me how great they are, and I’d heard about it online and in magazines. I knew they were making movies of them, so I decided to read the books before seeing the movie. That’s incredibly rare for me.

I read the first one pretty quickly. Could not put it down. And I’m a very slow reader. Truth is, I don’t read a lot of fiction. But I only got through the first one before seeing the movie. That’s a different experience, because the book is written in the first person, from the heroine Katniss Everdeen’s point of view. The film, of course, takes other perspectives into account, and starts to hint at events that come more into play in the second and third books.

I have to say, it’s really enjoyable to read a book before going to the movie of that book. I do that more with stage plays or musicals, but those are rarer (cannot wait for Into the Woods, for example). It’s fun to see how they envision the world of the book and bring it to life. It’s interesting to see what they decide to keep or leave out, or move around. And Panem is quite a world—and not one that I’d want to live in.

It was a little unfortunate that I already knew who was cast in the film before I started reading, because then I instinctively pictured Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale at every turn in the book. But I love all three of those actors in their roles, so there are worse fates.

And as far as the whole “who’s hotter, Gale or Peeta” discussion, I have to say I’m still more drawn to Peeta. Those cheekbones! That jaw! I mean, come on! Plus he’s definitely kind, loyal, and totally engaging with the Hunger Games audience. He really helps Katniss win the games in a way she never thought she would even need. Yes, Gale’s pleasant to look at too, and we’re learning more about him as the movies go on. But I’m a little more Team Peeta. I always go for the more unconventional (read: nerdy) guy anyway.

That’s for my own decision, not necessarily for who Katniss should be with. She doesn’t need to be with either one.

Boy I’ve gone off on a tangent. But that’s ok.

Point is, I’m off to the movie theatre to see The Hunger Games Trilogy—thus far. Mockingjay Part 2 will be out next year, and I’ll probably do a marathon leading up to that one too.

Are you excited to see Mockingjay too? Have you read any of the books or seen the films? Are you Team Peeta or Team Gale, or do you even know what I’m talking about?

2 thoughts on “Taking A Short Day for Mockingjay: The Hunger Games Trilogy (thus far)

  1. Cool that you did the marathon! I loved Mockingjay, but feel like it mostly served to set up Part 2. In some ways, they probably could have put Part 1 and 2 into one long movie, but I don’t mind, because it gives us one more movie in the franchise. Gave it 4 out of 5 Reels:

    http://www.reellifewithjane.com/2014/11/movie-review-the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1/

    • When they first announced breaking the last book into two movies, I balked, but watching Mockingjay, I think having the whole book in one movie would be too long. Some people complained of padding, but I don’t think that’s true at all. It moves pretty quickly and I don’t really see anything that I’d consider padding. And there’s still a lot of action left to go in the next movie. I just hate having to wait a whole year to see it! It’s torture! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.