I have been meaning to start writing Book vs Film posts for a very long time now. Since I saw The Hunger Games movie recently I thought I’d start off with it.
NOTE: This review contains spoilers.
Review
First off, one thing people always talk about when discussing book to film adaptations is: “Was it as good as the book?” or “Did they stay true to the story line?”. I thought the film was just as wonderful as the book and yes, they did stay mostly true to the storyline.
I was just annoyed about little things like how Katniss gets the iconic Mockingjay Pin, in the book she gets it from the Mayor’s daughter Madge but in the film she gets it from Greasy Sae? I guess the producers had to cut Madge’s character out of the film to save money or whatever. Also how Katniss is meant to search for water for a long time but it made sense to cut that part out because it probably would have been boring and time wasting.
So when I read the first few chapters of The Hunger Games I cried at the part where Prim gets picked as a tribute and then Katniss volunteers and I cried when it happened in the movie.
I also cried when the people of District 12 and District 11 did the three-finger kiss salute thing. Farhana and Radiya thought it was hilarious that I was crying but I couldn’t help it. It was just so emotional!
One thing I absolutely loved about the movie was the scenery/background. Seeing district 12 and the Capitol was amazing, granted most of it was probably CGI but I was definitely impressed by it. Also on that note I was really impressed with how the Gamemaker’s control room was shown; that big massive futuristic board to control what happens in the arena was really cool.
Truthfully, when I first found out about who was playing Katniss, Peeta and Gale I wasn’t too impressed but they really became their characters so i’m really happy.
I adored Peeta in the book and I think Josh Hutcherson played him really well. He was so cute and innocent. I was in shock when I saw how amazing his camouflage skills were. I mean in the book he’s really good but actually seeing his face in the mud was shocking!
I felt so bad for him when he was in the cave and in pain, then Katniss kisses him which makes him love her more! My heart just broke for him. Poor guy.
Jennifer Lawrence was amazing as Katniss. (Now excuse me whilst I swear) Fuck these people saying that she was too fat to play Katniss or Katniss should be skinnier! She was brilliant and that’s the end of that! I mean can you do this?
Next up all these racist people talking about how Rue and Cinna weren’t supposed to be black and how it ruined the movie for them. This really pissed me off. First Rue and Thresh were described as having dark skin and brown hair. Second what does it matter what skin colour she was anyway? Also since when were cute little blonde white girls only seen as innocent compared to cute little black girls? I cried when Rue died in the book and film. She was so adorable stealing Cato’s knife! lol
Cinna, unfortunately isn’t given much of a physical description in the books but I was happy to hear Lenny Kravitz was playing Cinna. He’s a cool guy and he played the role well.
I forgot to add that the ending of the movie somewhat frustrated me. Peeta’s leg was supposed to be injured to the extent that they amputate it and Katniss is meant to break Peeta’s heart on the train ride home to district 12. This would have made a perfect cliffhanger and then they could have carried on from there in the next film.
Although there were some things the producers cut out, overall the movie was excellent. This was one of the best book to film adaptations I have ever seen. So well done to the cast and crew that filmed The Hunger Games, hopefully the next movie will be just as good even though Gary Ross won’t be directing.
