A few months ago, I tore through The Hunger Games series. Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I finished the last book, so I eagerly awaited the movie premier.
Rooster, the Mr., and I attended the first midnight showing, and I was almost giddy with excitement.
The previews had been incredible!
I’d shown it to my students to give them an idea of what we were reading, as they were quite bored with the opening chapters that I was reading aloud to them.
It didn’t take me too long from the beginning of the movie to discover something.
The movie’s producers had taken a few liberties.
This started with the mockingjay pin that Katniss “found” in the Hob.
Sigh.
In the book, she was given this pin by her friend, the mayor’s daughter. This is HUGELY significant in the series…namely the next two books…and under girds the ENTIRE theme of the books!!!!
I was miffed.
It was the first of a few poetic licenses taken, and I grew more and more grouchy with each one.
The overt omission of Haymitch falling off of the stage at the reaping peeved me. This was where we learned what a drunkard he is, and it sets the stage (literally and figuratively) for his and Effie’s strained relationship.
Still, there were parts I enjoyed.
I thought the reaping scene was well-done. I also felt like the depiction of District 12 as very poor was excellent. It helped paint the stark contrast between that district and the Capitol, with all of its frivolities.
I loved Effie’s character. I enjoyed the costuming as well…especially of those people in the Capitol. This reminded me a bit of the Star Wars series, as did the hovercraft.
I thought that casting Lenny Kravitz was a genius move! He was FABO in this movie and will forever be who I envision as Cinna. My friend, Barb, said that she didn’t believe it was him…he’s, um, “older.” He cleaned up well, eh?
Other things I didn’t like about the movie were:
- The glossing over of the relationship between Katniss and Peeta – They sleep together (not in a sexual way but in a simple need-for-companionship kind of way). Perhaps this wouldn’t have played to a kid-friendly audience, but the experience in the book helped solidify their relationship and pointed to Katniss’s need for someone to identify with her struggles.
- The scene when Rue dies (which is okay in the movie but not great) could have been done better. I pictured more flowers…colorful in fact.
- The bowls in which they drew the candidates’ names at the reaping should have been bigger…kind of like the lottery. How in the heck are we supposed to realistically believe that Gale has his name in there 42 times? There wasn’t enough room for 42 slips of paper to be in there!
- The creature at the end did NOT resemble the fallen tributes at all. That was part of the freakiness of the animal.
I’m not usually so critical of movies (unless we’re talking about the Transformers movies, which I loathed almost as much as a certain politician in office right now).
I guess I’m giving myself permission to be so picky because I enjoyed the books so much and because I am a purist who needs my movies to represent the words painted across the hundreds of pages I read.
Ultimately I’m most disappointed because Ms. Collins helped write the screenplay!! I’m surprised that she allowed her vision to be changed, even if the changes were subtle at times.
So, that’s my take on the movie.
Oh, and I will say that I got to see the movie a second time…yesterday, in fact…when the reading teachers took our students to the movie theater. It was interesting to listen to their reactions. They loved the kissing scene between Katniss and Peeta (no surprise there). They jumped at a couple of forest scenes.
After we got back to school, I discussed some of the differences between the movie and the book. The kids didn’t seem to mind too much.
So, have you seen the movie? Did you read the books? What do you think?
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: The Hunger Games | 3 Comments »
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