The Hunger Games Movie

Okay, I know this is a book blog, but I'm going to review The Hunger Games movie because I just saw it today and I really really loved it. :D

*IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE OR READ THE BOOKS, FIRST OF ALL, SHAME ON YOU, AND SECOND, THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. SO BEWARE!!!*

This is also going to be EXTREMELY long and brought out.

Let's start with the cast. There wasn't anyone who was a disappointment for me. I knew Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) would be awesome, and they certainly were. I was blown away at the scenes where Lawrence was shaking or crying, and you can see it in her eyes how afraid she is. You didn't see much of many characters; Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne) for example. I'm not sure what I think of him as Gale yet, since he only appeared for a short time at the beginning and for moments during the games, but he's such a major character at the same time. I really liked Willow Shields as Primrose Everdeen, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Amandla Stenberg as Rue, and Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman. Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy) and Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket) were good, but I think they could've been better. One of my favorite castings and one of the most surprising was Alexander Ludwig as Cato. My gosh he was amazing at the end scene with the mutts.

I really don't know what happened to Katniss's styling team though. Their names weren't mentioned, when in the book they were, and they become more important as the series progresses. I also wish there was more time to see more of a bond between Rue and Katniss. I'm not a big fan of how they changed how Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin, but it did strengthen the bond between her and Prim. The avoxes are also really minor in the movie, but that didn't bother me.

Now I suppose I'll talk about the different scenes. I loved the reaping scene. How Prim was screaming, how Katniss started screaming too, but knew she had to compose herself, and how Gale had to carry Prim away. The interviews, though you only got a few lines of the other major tributes, I really liked. You got a glimpse at the other tributes, their strategy, and how they fell about the games...and I loved Katniss's dress. Rue's death was good, though I imagined Rue and all the tributes for that matter, to be more dirty and bloody and she didn't scream or wail or anything which seemed unrealistic. I also loved the end; the whole final battle with the mutts and Cato. Oh...and the Katniss and Peeta scenes weren't bad either...like the cave scene. :) I could go on and on about all the scenes that I liked...

I also loved almost all the scenes that weren't in the book.
-Effie saying, "That is Mahogany!" when Katniss stabs the knife into the table. Nice comic relief.
-Haymitch watching the Capitol children play with swords. He was basically watching them having fun pretending to be violent when the same violence ruined his life.
-I loved the scene where Katniss and Foxface collided. Just the expressions on their faces...
-I also loved Cato's ending monologue. This was amazing in my opinion. It showed how he is a Career, he is from District 2, he trained for the games for most of his life, but he's still just a kid. He's afraid and dying.
-The tracker-jacker hallucinations were good, but kinda overdone. If you hadn't read the book, you might not understand what was going on and how her father died in a mining accident.
-I really liked how you could see more of Seneca Crane and the other "gamemakers" (I guess you could call them that) creating all the twists and turns of the arena. For those who haven't read the book, it kinda gives reason to the fire and the mutts that they might not have understood.
-I loved when Seneca Crane and President Snow were talking in the rose garden. "The only thing stronger than fear is hope."
-The uprising in District 11 was just so moving. It leads into the later books when all the districts start rebelling.
-The scene near the end where Seneca was locked in the room with a bowl of nightlock because he basically failed in the aspect that Katniss and Peeta were both close to committing suicide. It was just so ironic and perfect.
-This technically wasn't in the book, but near the end when Katniss is hunting and Peeta is picking berries, and she hears the cannon and then sees the Nightlock, and is terrified thinking Peeta died. I loved that scene.

Scenes that were a disappointment:
-The Girl on Fire scene with the chariots was just too brief. And they totally did not look on fire.
-The berry scene I liked, but it was also too brief. Though I could feel how to Peeta it was an act of love and to Katniss it was an act of rebellion against the Capitol, it just felt way to short for such a major turning point in the series.
-I didn't really like how the conversation in the train home between Katniss and Peeta was toned down. I just didn't feel like you could grasp how betrayed Peeta felt when he realized that Katniss's love was just an act.
-The mutt scene. I was so disappointed because in the book, Katniss recognized each mutt to look like a dead tribute by eye color, fur color, and the collars they were wearing (ex. Glimmer's collar had a "1" for District 1 in rhinestones and Rue's collar had an "11" in straw)

Random tidbits that bothered me:
-Ugh the camera was shaking so much!! Not only during fight scenes, which because of that were hard to focus on, but in the pre-game scenes like in District 12. It was just unnecessary.
-I thought that everyone would look dirtier and bloodier. Katniss, Peeta, and Cato were fine, but other than that, everyone looked like average people off the street who were clean and such.
-The Capitol fashion was a little over the top.
-How every time Katniss and Peeta kissed, they flashed to Gale.
-This kinda goes with the camera shaking, but the violence was sorta toned down too and it seemed like they shook the camera to cover up the fact that it was toned down.
-They cut the lamb stew. How Katniss said it was her favorite part of the Capitol was the lamb stew and how Haymitch sent her and Peeta a picnic with lamb stew, and even in Mockingjay when Katniss is looking around for a can of soup to eat, Peeta hands her a can of lamb stew.
-How they showed the "boy with the bread" flashback three separate times in pieces.
-They took out all of Peeta's witty lines (ex. "Ah yes frosting: the final defense of the dying.")

Random tidbits that I liked:
-The score was subtle, but so fitting.
-God Peeta was so well camouflaged.
-Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith's commentary on the games.
-I loved the relationship between Cinna and Katniss.
-How you got to see what else is happening with Haymitch, Seneca Crane, and in District 12.
-Haymitch and Effie. Not their relationship, but just when they're together.

Overall I really loved the movie. Though there were things that bothered me, they didn't bother me to the extent of ruining the movie for me. It was a really good book to film adaptation, especially considering that the book is in first person and Katniss's point of view and she explains a lot of things as you read to help you understand what's going on. The acting was amazing and the movie was so true to the book.

Excited for Catching Fire!!! 11/22/13

Congrats!! You read the whole thing. In case you haven't noticed, I'm sort of a die-hard Hunger Games fan. ;)

♥Skittlez