Okay so I went and saw Hunger Games the movie last night with my friends and it was really fun. Being in college is awesome. I saw the movie earlier in the year, too, but I like to watch movies twice before I review them. I read the book like 3 years ago, so way before it became popular. Suffice to say, I did mostly like the movie but there were some things I didn't like, things that were added, things that were in the book but not the movie. So here is where I'm going to talk about those things.
I liked:
The Reaping Scene, it was beautifully done
Gale and Katniss at the beginning
the love between Katniss and Prim and how Katniss would do anything for Prim
how well done the capital and people at the capital were
Cinna's character
Effie Trinket, she's so hilarious and naive that it's hard not to like her
Caesar Flickman, another hilarious character
The chariot costumes and how cool Peeta and Katniss looked as the rode
The girl on fire dress and Katniss's interview with Caesar
Katniss and Peeta talking on the roof
Peeta's confession of his love of Katniss and her reaction
Katniss shooting the apple of the pig
Katniss's goodbye to Haymitch and Cinna before she goes to the arena
Foxface's mysterious character
Katniss on the move
Haymitch going to the sponsors for Katniss
Katniss in the trees, the tracker-jacker attack, and her hallucinations
Rue and Katniss's teamwork and the blowing up of the food
Rue's song, the flowers, Rue's death and Katniss's grief
when Katniss finds Peeta and says she won't leave him
The Feast scene, very well done and similar to the book
Favorite scene: When Katniss gets to her room at the capital and clicks on the control for the screen and gets to the forest one and stands in front of it looking with longing.
I didn't like:
The train ride
Haymitch's character
President Snow
Seneca Crane and all the back story
the training sessions
the mutts
Cato's character
The Cornucopia scene, shows way too much death
Thresh's death
District 11's revolt after Rue's death
Cato's death
I'm sure there's more I didn't like, but I'm just too tired to remember it all right now.
Things I felt where missing:
Buttercup is not an orange cat
Madge is not in the movie and does not give the pin to Katniss
there's no prep team!
The avox girl that Katniss knew had tried to run away
District 11 does not send Katniss bread, which shows that they support her
Katniss does not yell for Peeta when she finds out they can be together (instead she whispers)
Katniss and Peeta don't pretend to be in love before the games start
Prim and Prim's mother are missing medicine/healer backgrounds
There's no candlelight dress and we don't see Cinna at the end
It's called the Hunger Games and it's about those who have and those who don't have (food) yet no none, even in the games, is shown as starving
the boy with the bread scene, there was no reason for it to be shown 3 times
The training lady (in the movie) says that most of them will die from natural causes in the movie, yet no one appears to be sick/infected, starving, or thirsty
Katniss and Peeta aren't shown to be recovering from the games afterwards
The there main problems I had are elaborated on below.
Where's the love? Katniss does not appear to be pretending to be in love with Peeta. She does not leave him devastated at the end of the film. They do not get to know each other in the cave. Katniss doesn't tell Peeta the goat story or about her family. They don't talk about their lives outside of the games and they don't get to know each other.They don't really kiss all that much. At the end of the book when they are on the air craft and they are separated by a glass window, Katniss bangs on the glass and screams for him. It's one of my favorite scenes of the book and it's not in the movie!
The back story of President Snow and Seneca Crane. Personally, I just felt there was way too much of them and I didn't like the actors and I felt they took away from important elements that should have been in the film. The whole tracking thing seemed really unrealistic, esp with the mutts and the fire scene. Fire balls, really?
And the ending. I just didn't like it, because it seemed so rushed. Peeta and Katniss are a bit shocked after Cato's death and Katniss doesn't draw her bow and point it at Peeta when she finds out only one of them can go home. They don't actually put the berries in their mouths and have to spit them out. There's a weird shot of Seneca Crane being locked in the room with the berries. Then there's Haymitch telling Katniss how angry the gamemakers are and Katniss in a weird dress that looks like a wedding dress. Then they go home and Katniss gets to see her mom, Prim, and Gale and holds her hand up with Peeta's. I would have liked it to end with that shot.
Okay, I've written enough. Time to stop. Have a good night, yall!
