"i would volunteer for you," and other thoughts from watching the hunger games.

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in january of 2011, i spent nearly every free waking moment i had consuming the hunger games series. i literally lost sleep over the books and when i was done, i was so sad and felt like i had said goodbye to some dear friends.

i know, i'm such a nerd.

so, naturally, i was totally, totally, TOTALLY excited about the first movie. i may have even spent some time stalking forums regarding casting speculations. and i may have also stalked youtube looking for clips and trailers of the movie.

i know, serious nerd bomber here.

my parents very generously offered to babysit choi boy after our weekly sunday night dinner so we could go and watch the movie and i giddily accepted (and i may have even squealed and clapped). my sister, who is also a big time THG fan, and the hubs (THG poser -- did not read the books) headed to the theatre while my mom and dad happily whisked cb away, after not only buying us all dinner, but also buying our movie tickets! whohoo! (yes, i'm 31 and my mommy and daddy still spoil me :) )

like a true nerd fan, i wore cargo pants to pay homage to katniss. my sister, who is crazily often on the same wavelength as me, thought the same thing and we were totally twinsies again. this happens so frequently we are now rarely surprised and only slightly amused.

if only we had worn our hair in katniss-esque side braids.

my sister and i got to the theatre with plenty of time to spare to be sure to secure the good seats. we may have even tested more than one row for optimal viewing distance.

we were straight giddy.

at this point we had a half hour to spare and the hubs was being a gentleman and waiting for my cousin (also big time THG fan) who was running late. and it was probably a good thing since he would likely have rolled his eyes at the number of self-portraits we took and at our slightly obsessive conversation.

my sis and i had semi-sappy conversations about volunteering for one another if we were called in the reaping, though we agreed that my sister would last much, much longer in the arena and would have a strong chance of winning. i, on the other hand, would likely be one of the first that the cannon would sound for. sad, but true.

finally, FINALLY, the movie started.

and i tell you, i loved all 2 hours and 22 minutes of it. i cried (a lot), laughed, hid behind my hands, sucked in my breath, squeezed my sister's hand...so many emotions. (sidenote: i'm really embarrassing to go to the movies with. i get really into it. yes, i'm that person. thankfully, so is my sister. unfortunately for the hubs, it's twice as embarrassing for him when he's with both of us.)

it was SO good.

SO, SO, SO good.

jennifer lawerence IS katniss. it took me a little bit to get over how tall she was, but man, oh man, she played katniss so well and was able to depict many of the subtleties that are often lost when turning a first person narrative book into a movie.

the other characters were spot-on, too. at first, i was a little skeptical of josh hutcherson as peeta, but he won me over with his charm and winsome nature, just the way peeta would, and just the way josh did in one of my favorite movies, little manhattan.

the movie was just incredibly well done and probably one of the best book to movie adaptations i've seen.

but it also left me feeling really unsettled. the books did, too, but seeing it live action made the dark themes and the social commentary (suzanne collins is a genius) a lot more in-your-face and glaringly apparent.

i couldn't help thinking about the capitol and all its lavish and frivolous niceties and our own lives and luxuries and our first world problems. and all that we often ignore. and about all those people that don't have the luxury of choice.

it really made me remember and think.

which is often what the best movies do, no?

did you see it? what did you think?