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As a fan of the books, I walked away from the midnight screening of The Hunger Games both pleased and disappointed, as I’m sure most fans did. While Gary Ross and the film succeed in many areas, one thing I was bothered by most is the “love triangle” that the filmmakers claimed they worked so hard to avoid.
With the endless Twilight comparisons made and a “passing of the torch” to the next big book-to-film adaptation franchise, Gary Ross and the producers involved said that they aimed to please fans by not having a “love triangle,” so it doesn’t become the next Twilight (OMG!!! becuz it is so not twilight becuz katniss is bettar then bella cuz she is strong and bella is stoopid and edward is soo ugly anyways!). Now of course there are readers that came away from the book shipping Gale and Katniss or declaring themselves members of Team Peeta, but they totally missed the point. To the people that didn’t miss the point: you were partly right to get mad during your midnight screening when the film cut to Gale during the cave/kiss scene and all the little teens giggled (the same people who cheered for the Breaking Dawn – Part 2 trailer). However, some of that anger needs to be redirected at Hollywood, because someone involved managed to create a marketable love triangle through the magic of editing that could easily have been avoided.
During the Games, Katniss is chased by careers, stung by tracker jackers, and nearly killed by three-foot-wide balls of fire, but according to the choices in editing, Gale didn’t care about her life at those times, nor did he feel the need to root her on when she was destroying piles of food with a well-placed bow shot. Instead, we cut to Gale at work who feels “love’s keen sting” because his hunting buddy/crush is kissing another guy; on the cheek, no less! Just in case once wasn’t enough, we cut to Gale again in a similar moment, just to make sure the love triangle is fully crammed down the viewer’s throat.
Editing is a powerful thing in cinema, and I really feel like poor choices were made here; not to mention that there are far too many quick edits early in the movie, but that’s a different topic entirely. Catching Fire is already on the horizon, and let’s hope that this doesn’t become a bigger part of the story than is necessary. With a lot of confidence and what will likely be a much larger budget comes great responsibility, and I hope Gary Ross and the filmmakers use it to make Catching Fire a better film than its predecessor, as opposed to following the way the books decline in quality as the story goes on.
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