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In addition to reading the first two books of The Hunger Games last year, I also read a couple of Raymond Chandler books - The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. The first book didn't impress me when I picked it up in college, but I've seen the movie a couple times and kind of love it, although that's mainly b/c of the star power. But the plot is so utterly complicated for no reason, sort of like the precursor to a spy novel, but um, not as interesting, not as much at stake.
Which is why The Long Goodbye is much more appealing. Marlowe himself has more at stake than actually solving the mystery - I've always preferred that sort of detective story. I mean, I usually am not interested in detective stories, but if I'm going to read something without homoerotic subtext, the detective himself ought to be in danger. Ok, sure, he's sort of in danger in the first book, but it just is too abstract. Whereas he pretty much starts out pissing off cops and ending up in jail in this one. And he rants a lot more, in a very cynical way that I find appealing.
And yeah, before watching the movie of the book The Hunger Games, I bought Mockingjay. It's not as appealing as the first two books - I felt it was really limited this time by being only Katniss' viewpoint, because the whole revolution thing is kind of bloody awesome as hell, but we barely get to see or hear any of it. I was especially interested in the treatment of other former winners, the way they are more or less turned into slaves for the Capitol. So, lots of interesting ideas that are limited by the first-person narrator. I think a Haymitch 1st-person book would be completely great.
The movie impressed me a lot. I mean, obviously they couldn't go 100% book, but having just reread the story last week, I think they did an amazingly faithful adaptation. That's not always a good thing, I mean, I feel keeping the spirit faithful is more important than the words/situations, but it was pretty impressive the way they brought things to life. Reg had pulled out Battle Royale after getting this movie, for a good reason. Obviously it's similar, but less... ridiculous. The soundtrack/score is rather subdued, and things don't feel larger-than-life (except at the Capitol, where they're supposed to). It's more like The Handmaid's Tale. The violence is glossed over a lot, since it's PG-13, and I feel that could have been addressed more, but oh well.
And I really really liked the Gamemaker POVs. They're like software designers, not evil, just really proud of their work. Having read the books, I thought President Snow was a little too expository, but I guess for the movie audience that didn't, that's ok. I'm not sure if I liked him being so Santa-Claus looking, I wanted him to look more like Hugo Weaving I guess, but oh well.
Which is why The Long Goodbye is much more appealing. Marlowe himself has more at stake than actually solving the mystery - I've always preferred that sort of detective story. I mean, I usually am not interested in detective stories, but if I'm going to read something without homoerotic subtext, the detective himself ought to be in danger. Ok, sure, he's sort of in danger in the first book, but it just is too abstract. Whereas he pretty much starts out pissing off cops and ending up in jail in this one. And he rants a lot more, in a very cynical way that I find appealing.
And yeah, before watching the movie of the book The Hunger Games, I bought Mockingjay. It's not as appealing as the first two books - I felt it was really limited this time by being only Katniss' viewpoint, because the whole revolution thing is kind of bloody awesome as hell, but we barely get to see or hear any of it. I was especially interested in the treatment of other former winners, the way they are more or less turned into slaves for the Capitol. So, lots of interesting ideas that are limited by the first-person narrator. I think a Haymitch 1st-person book would be completely great.
The movie impressed me a lot. I mean, obviously they couldn't go 100% book, but having just reread the story last week, I think they did an amazingly faithful adaptation. That's not always a good thing, I mean, I feel keeping the spirit faithful is more important than the words/situations, but it was pretty impressive the way they brought things to life. Reg had pulled out Battle Royale after getting this movie, for a good reason. Obviously it's similar, but less... ridiculous. The soundtrack/score is rather subdued, and things don't feel larger-than-life (except at the Capitol, where they're supposed to). It's more like The Handmaid's Tale. The violence is glossed over a lot, since it's PG-13, and I feel that could have been addressed more, but oh well.
And I really really liked the Gamemaker POVs. They're like software designers, not evil, just really proud of their work. Having read the books, I thought President Snow was a little too expository, but I guess for the movie audience that didn't, that's ok. I'm not sure if I liked him being so Santa-Claus looking, I wanted him to look more like Hugo Weaving I guess, but oh well.
