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I have now seen the movie a second time, this time in IMAX. I am glad that I did. My original complaints still stand, but in IMAX you can catch things that you might have noticed the first time. Ironically, the second time I went looking for things that bothered me, and on second microscopic inspection, I see why the director made some of the changes that he did and why some scenes were cut. Francis Lawrence is obviously believes in show, don't tell and if you aren't watching closely, you can't catch all of the nuances. My suggestion is that everyone should see the movie twice because it's a darn good movie. I still hope we'll see an extended edition.
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My complaints come with the characterization of Katniss's mother. She's portrayed as a bumbling incompetent idiot, which she is not, while Katniss's younger sister Prim is portrayed all heroic and in command. This is a grave injustice to both characters. Katniss's mother in the middle book is shown as a fine healer that everyone takes their wounded to in District 12. Prim just helps. In fact, in the third book Katniss will only take some mistreated people to her mother. Prim doesn't come into her own until book three. If they are splitting the third book into two parts, it seems to me that there would be plenty of room to show Primrose Everdeen blossoming into the capable young woman that she becomes. Someone slipped Johanna Mason a nice pill in Catching Fire, too. She's not a nice person in the book and doesn't become sympathetic until the third book. I also wish that they had kept her yelling at Snow in the arena to the word in the book. I think it would have had more impact. There is some wonderful acting here that you have to look for. All of the actors can really act and it's very obvious in the movie. Katniss kisses Peeta with far more passion than she ever kisses Gail here. Haymitch sneaks drinks in various ways during the film and you have to watch for it to really notice how much the character is drinking. After Johanna Mason talks about how angry she is during the tributes interview, you have to listen as she stomps off stage while Ceasar Flickerman talks. And what the hell is wrong with those people that they changed the cat from the first film? I am sure fangirls complained that Buttercup was not orange, but black and white in the first film. I am sure that must have complained a lot, because lo and behold, now we have Buttercup in orange in the second film. I was prepared to ride out the movie with a black and white Buttercup. To change it in midstream was jarring. The other little nit I have is that they went to the trouble to show Finnick with the sugar cube, followed by Chaff kissing Katniss on the lips and Johanna Mason getting naked in the elevator. But they do not follow it up with the short scene that puts all of that behavior into context. In the book, when they get off the elevator, Peeta is laughing at Katniss. She asks him what's so funny and he replies that they were teasing her like that because she's so innocent by Capitol standards. That would have taken a whole 30 seconds to film and it would have given more meaning to the various behaviors. The film is beautiful. They had special effect companies from Weta in New Zealand to companies in Singapore, London, and Montreal working on the film. The amazing thing is that everything seems to fit into this universe. You aren't looking at things saying "Gee, that looks like some terrible CGI there," or "mmmm, look at that matte shot." They have created a fairly seamless world. For all of my nitpicks above, it was a great film, so go see it. I saw why the director made the choices he did and in the end, it's a fairly faithful translation of the spirit of the book. Oh and I can predict how the third movie is going to open. We are going to have Katniss, in a similar pose from the ending of Catching Fire, in the ruins of District 12.
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