1300 tickets sold here in Happy Valley. Theaters 4-12 expected to be jam-packed. Lines out the door and around the building. A bazillion pre/early teens are staying up waaaay past their bedtimes tonight all around the country. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that I’m referring to the premier of Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, and The Hunger Games.
As I’m writing this my wife and 2 of our daughters are already in the theater (#12) to see The Hunger Games. Lilly and Sadie made shirts for the occasion earlier in the week. They’ve been re-reading the book so that the storyline is fresh in the minds. I’m fairly certain that they’re having a good time; Kim called a few minutes ago to tell me that the first 5 gallon bucket of popcorn is facing an early demise.
The question in my mind is this: Will the movie live up to the buzz generated? Everywhere I turn there are ads and references to THG. Almost every student I ran into today (older elementary students and middle schoolers for the most part today) was talking about THG.
Have you ever liked a movie better than the book on which it was based? I haven’t. No matter how good the movie is, I prefer the cinema of my mind. Case in point: I found the Lord of the Rings movies to be visually stunning and incredibly well-done, but compared to the way my mind imagined the stories unfolding, the movies came up flat. Of course, I’ve read the books every year since I was 12. When a line changed or the movie varied from the book it stood out to me as if Arwen Evenstar stepped out of character to say, “I know this doesn’t happen this way in the book, but I wanted a bigger role in the movie.” So it stands to reason that a simpering Frodo Baggins would not pass.
It will be interesting to hear how the girls enjoy the movie tonight. My guess is that they will be raving about it in the morning. Lilly will have spotted most of the departures from the book; Sadie will like the archery!
I’m glad Kim decided to take the girls. They’ll remember this for a long time.
2 Comments
Jessica @ Muthering Heights · March 25, 2012 at 8:19 pm
I do hope it turns out to be good. I’ve never read the books, but several friends of mine {writers, all of them} have noted that the writing is amazing. Hopefully the filmmakers were up to the challenge!
stacy · March 25, 2012 at 10:38 pm
We’ve read the books, and thought the storytelling/writing was superb, even if the concept was a little grisly. My predictions about the girls’ reactions to the movie was spot on. They liked it, but Lilly was pretty displeased with the changes from the book.