surprising no one i am a huge peeta stan so if you're not into that don't read this SERIOUSLY DON'T READ THIS MY PEETA FEELINGS ARE SUPER ANNOYING

oh my god

where do i even start

ok on the positive the cinematography and set design and everything was gorgeous so gorgeous thank u bigger budget and lack of hideous shakycam

basically all of the arena action scenes were stunningly perfect, i cannot list my favourites but the fucking jabberjays still as terrifyingly amazingly well done as it looked in the trailer

fog was gorgeously creepy but i did giggle at them crawling through water afterwards and screaming. monkeys were scary and not funny, so good. LIKE ON THE BASIS OF VISUALS ALONE I'M SATISFIED

people who were perfect: effie (oh my god all of the extra effie scenes i loved them idgaf EFFIE) and johanna

JOHANNA ASKING PEETA TO UNZIP HER

JOHANNA WINKING AT HAYMITCH

JOHANNA UNDRESSING

JOHANNA

also katniss' face throughout that whole scene sdkjfh

caesar also perfect. um and CINNA.

like fucking kudos to jennifer lawrence's face throughout this entire movie but god her slow realization that something is wrong and then her reaction to cinna getting beaten and the tears in her eyes as she

takes in the arena and forces her game face on

snow was also pretty damn good. like he's nothing like the books which is fine but kudos also to donald sutherland's benign sense of menace throughout the whole thing and also THE WINE GLASS

great visual there

i found the scenes with his granddaughter to be super clunky and i can't tell if it's the writing or the acting but i do really enjoy what they were going for there with his granddaughter idolizing katniss

that mostly covers what i loved altho i'm sure i will gush more later

ok so in addition to me being a peeta stan, i am also a huge peeta/katniss shipper (shocker) and god i... i really didn't like the first movie LMAO mostly because of how peeta is written

i think the script of the first one basically loses almost every single nuance of peeta's character and he comes off as incredibly bland and sincere and not the least bit clever

i think there are MOMENTS where you see peeta's character shine through but the overall approach is. terrible. and lmao the second movie didn't really improve on that at all...........

LIKING TO READ LATER NOT ACTUALLY READING BUT I I LOVE YOU WOMP

OH MY GOD JESSI I LOVE YOU TOO

ANYWAY i usually think that it's the script rather than the casting. i like josh hutcherson's cute face quite a bit altho MAN during this movie i have to say for the pre-arena part i kept asking myself

why katniss was way better at smiling for crowds than peeta was

just like the first movie, peeta was mostly kind of awkward and halting when he spoke, but there were a few bright spots... i liked that they pointedly had him put away the cards and give a speech

so i guess they haven't... forgotten that aspect of his character.....

i also guess it makes sense to completely rewrite the scene where he comforts the morphling as she dies since the whole thing about them bonding over painting was lost, although his words of comfort were so

generic that it kind of loses again the power of his words. also man the showing scenes were totally superfluous fluff, although beautifully done

with the creepy mannequin hanging and the beautiful, beautiful painting of rue, but i feel like anyone who watches this movie without reading the book just totally lost the significance of it

or might have even missed that peeta was the one who painted it, tho i did notice his hands were stained SINCE I WAS LOOKING FOR IT (i spent this entire movie looking for peeta i am not ashamed)

OKAY BUT WHAT WAS PERFECT (even though that whole scene was super truncated godddd but running time, whatever) was peeta's little smile after dropping the baby bomb

(also katniss' dress was beautiful and JOHANNA GOING "MAKE HIM PAY" SO BEAUTIFUL HER FACE AND HER EYES AS SHE SAYS IT JENA MALONE UGH)

but oh god his little smirk and haymitch's reaction hahaha i loved all the little peanut gallery scenes, they were so cute

OH AND THE REAPING ok i have to say i loved how they actually showed the reaping although WHAT THE HELL WHY HAVE SO MANY OF THESE ACTORS NOT READ THE BOOKS

WHERE IS THE KISS BEFORE YOU HOLD YOUR FINGERS IN THE AIR

you can tell the people who actually read the books are the ones who do the kiss /hit

but ugh at peeta volunteering for haymitch

i also liked how haymitch's "you could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him" line came off as this stupid thing he was saying while drunk instead of how it seems a lot more genuine in the book

no secret but i fucking hate this line LOL i don't mind the way haymitch and katniss put peeta on this pedestal but i hate it bc i feel like the author is also doing it and i'm like NO ARE YOU DRUNK

PEETA IS NOT NOBLE AND PERFECT AND GOOD AND INNOCENT

i always loved katniss' sarcastic "yeah yeah he's the superior one in this trio" but i LOVE how it was rewritten here with her saying no one who survives the games is noble or whatever

i can't remember the exact line but i am sure whoever rewrote this also hated the way peeta was put on a pedestal

actually they are probably gale/katniss shippers LOL OK NO HATE i actually think gale/katniss is this really tragic ship altho i don't... ship it at all, even if peeta wasn't in the picture

but in terms of the movie i think all of the gale and katniss scenes were beautifully done and they had some of the most natural dialogue between them and a great rapport between the actors and idek

i feel like a lot of time was spent letting the gale&katniss scenes breathe and let their characters develop within it. i... hate the third kiss between them because it kind of loses the point of how katniss

refuses to entertain the idea of romance bc she is so consumed with just trying to survive (great speech by jennifer there btw) and how she was just so overwhelmed and confused by the issue. her kissing him on

the hillside there looks like she's made up her mind and she... didnt.

meanwhile i do feel like much of peeta's scenes (and by consequence peeta and katniss' scenes) are super rushed so i get frustrated when i feel like i'm not getting an idea of his character or the dynamic

this may be a case of jennifer and liam having chemistry and jennifer and josh having no chemistry lmao IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE but i did really love

1) the scene where he asks her her favourite colour and she's all like "now you're over the line", that was a super cute change, and 2) the ~big kiss~ after he gives her the locket. like. i really feel like

they DO have chemistry -- maybe not as obvious as jennifer and liam, but they could be so much better if the script gave them a bit more room. BUT OF COURSE I AM BIASED and i realize EVERYTHING was rushed, not

just peeta's scenes. altho i'm kind of annoyed at how quickly the "vomitorium" scene went by bc it's one of my favourites and they cut the whole conversation afterwards and just had peeta monologue ugh why

OH AND 3) WHEN PEETA HITS THE FORCE FIELD

jennifer sold the shit out of that scene and i liked the way josh delivered "be careful, there's a force field" and ugh that scene was really well done

more on finnick later bc i need to talk about finnick i guess

ok i have talked at length in... other places... about the huge issue i have with how they wanted to "man up" peeta when he enters the arena, instead of just having finnick save him bc he can't swim

the big thing being the utter grossness of writing out peeta's disability bc it wasn't important but you had 2+ places where it would've come up in the movie: 1) WHY THEY FALL IN THE SNOW

2) WHY BEETEE DOESN'T LET PEETA GO WITH KATNISS (BECAUSE HE CAN'T RUN AS FAST SERIOUSLY WHAT WAS THAT WEIRD SCENE WITH BEETEE ACTING SO SUSPICIOUS IDEK I GUESS WE NEEDED TO SEE EVERYONE AS THREATS)

3) and also why peeta can't swim when they enter the arena. i guess they lost the lake so the explanation that peeta can't swim because HE HAS LITERALLY NEVER HAD THE NEED TO SWIM IN HIS LIFE, HE LIVES IN A

FENCED IN COMPOUND is no longer relevant

ALL THAT SAID

i guess i can be grudgingly glad that the revised scene has peeta KILL A DUDE because seriously let's drop this whole thing about how all the victors are killers and monsters except peeta

peeta also killed a person in the first games, and was probably party to more deaths than just the one we know of, given he was with the career pack and must have proven himself to the careers somehow

although yes it is super gross that they felt the need to "man up" peeta and they did it by... making him fight and kill a dude. peeta is a spectacular character on his own merits

...but only in the book and not the movie bc he is super bland in the movie ha ha ha

oh yeah i also loved beetee. like... he was rewritten sort of oddly but i can't fault the actor for that. wiress was great and lovely. mags was perfect

MAGS

ok i am not fond of the casting of sam claflin. i find it interesting that finnick comes off super creepy and gross but i guess that's actually canon lmfao. i think if not for mags his finnick would not have

grown on me, but all of the finnick and mags scenes were. adorable. and perfect. and her kissing him. i found the way finnick was rewritten to also be an odd writing choice

like in the earlier scenes they write finnick as actually callous and a little mean? like finnick's whole act is just that he's shallow, not that he's... an asshole

obviously the audience (and katniss) is supposed to warm up to him as time goes on and you get a better sense that all of this is an act but idek

ANYWAY i grudgingly admit that sam claflin is ok as finnick. i actually saw some photos of him (not from the movie) where he has his hair and face a certain way and i could really see why he was cast as finnick

i guess he does fill out a wetsuit pretty nicely

NOT SURE WHY THEY COULDN'T HAVE MADE HIM THAT HOT IN THE MOVIE

uhhhh other stuff. i liked the rewrite for the reason for gale getting whipped, they did some funny timeline stuff but it definitely made for a more cohesive movie. really all gale scenes were nicely done

peeta continued to be useless during the confrontation with thread afterwards even though he totally had a line in the book. THIS IS WHAT I MEAN BY THINKING A SCREENWRITER MUST BE A GALE FAN OK

this is a small thing but i loved that little glimpse of gale in the mines (or i guess just out of the mines??). i just... love setting pieces like that.

AND THE SCENE OF KATNISS BEING AIRLIFTED OUT OF THE ARENA

WITH THE SUNLIGHT SHINING DOWN ON HER AND THE FLAMES AROUND HER AND HER ARMS SPREAD

SO GORGEOUS

no this was a really enjoyable movie, like... definitely better paced than the first one and visually stunning and way more cohesive sense of theme and story

MY HATRED OF HOW PEETA IS WRITTEN IS THIS LONG ONGOING ISSUE FROM THE FIRST MOVIE which i imagine will not get solved by the mockingjay movies. but i guess peeta being a drastically different character in MJ

at least will make him less... bland. HERE'S HOPING. i am sure josh can pull it off .o.

I NEED TO GO TO BED FUCK BUT ALSO

KATNISS ATTACKING HAYMITCH AT THE END

KATNISS