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| The Hunger Games |
Let me start by saying I am a big fan of these books, and I hate nothing more than Hollywood butchering books that I have read. Thankfully, this was not the case for The Hunger Games and for me to find so little fault with a book-movie adaption is a pretty good accomplishment because I pick these things to pieces.
The casting director did a really good job picking actors to play our favourite characters. Jennifer Lawrence was amazing as Katniss and it was obvious she knew exactly who Katniss was. I loved how she captured her firey temper, her protectiveness and, her nervesness at entering the arena and parading for the people of the Capitol. Jennifer also had some good chemistry with the other main character Peeta. Now Josh Hutcherson would not be my first choice for Peeta looks wise. However, despite this he played Peeta very well and I think he was a good choice for the part. He was charming and boy-next-door nice, everything Peeta was in the books. I also loved Elizabeth Banks as Effie and Stanley Tucci as Caesar, they were just so over the top and spot-on their characters, as a fan what else can you ask for? I would've loved to have seen more of Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, he was one of my favourite characters in the books and I think the friendship that forms between him and Katniss is just beautiful. Unfortunately due to time constraints we didn't see this develop as much as I would've liked. Overall, I was quite happy with the casting, Amandla Stenberg was darling as Rue and Donald Sutherland was cruel as President Snow.
One one the biggest gripes fans have with book-movie adaptions is all the parts that they believe should have been in the film. I admit I have been one of those people in the past, but it didn't worry me during The Hunger Games becuase despite missing come scenes and some characters it wasn't a bit deal. The movie pretty much follows the book to the 't' and the missing scenes didn't affect the story at all, and really they weren't groundbreaking scenes in the book either. I must be getting soft at my old age of 22 becuase I've come to realise that it just isn't possible to have everything in the movie, there is only so much you can fit into a film (therefore, we have this damn trend of splitting fims into two parts now, thank you Harry Potter). That being said I really wanted some parts to be longer just so that relationships could be fleshed out a bit more. As I said earlier I wanted to see more of Cinna and the friendship he builds with Katniss, I would've also have liked the scenes following Katniss finding Peeta to be longer just so their connection could grow a bit more.
The movie was actually very cleverly put together. much of what we see and find out about Panem and the Games is through Katniss and her progression through the book. Obviously, you can't do that in the film as it would interrupt the flow and would just sound silly, so I really liked the cut scenes to Ceasar and Claudius commentating, and to game central where you saw Seneca dictating what happens in the arena. It really added another layer to the film, and gave Stanley Tucci more screen time which is always a good thing in my book.
The studio was very careful in trying to keep this film in the (in American terms) PG-13 age range, a tough feat considering how gruesome some of the scenes in the book are. For the most part I had no problem with this but I did often find in some of the fight scenes that there were so many close ups, cuts and moving shots that I was loosing track who was who is fights and who was dying. Particularly, in the final fight scene where we see Cato, Katniss and Peeta fighting while trying to keep away from the dogs, it is really hard to tell what is happening as the above conventions was coupled with dark lighting, making it a bit difficult.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and I love nothing more than when studios do justice to the book. However, for me the book remains better than the movie based on the sheer fact that it goes a little more in depth. It does give me hope for Cityof Bones especially as I'm not a big Jamie Campbell Bower fan and am not sure if he'll make a good Jace yet or not.
I now eagerly await Catching Fire and being able to see one of my favourite characters of the series Finnick.
Happy Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favour.
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