Reviewed: The Hunger Games movie [SPOILERS]
March 26, 2012 7 Comments
It took less than three days to read The Hunger Games trilogy, but I’ll have to wait about three years to enjoy the trilogy in movie form. After watching part one this weekend, I hate having to wait that long.
Whenever they make a movie based on books people love, it’s inevitable that something will be off, like the casting, or they’ll just miss the mark completely. With this one, author and co-writer Suzanne Collins kept it relatively in-line with the book, the casting and sets were phenomenal, and some added adaptations fit well. All that being said, I do have a few criticisms.
The books were largely about the politics of this society, and to me the movie seemed to hint at it instead of going into a bit more detail. Katniss’ many inadvertent thumbs in the face of The Capitol were hardly touched on until the ride back to District 12 when Haymitch says she upset them by forcing two winners. With how the story progresses, the sparks she creates here play a huge part in future events, but for whatever reason they decide to not delve into it more.
Another key point missed was the importance of Katniss playing up her feelings for Peeta. They make it clear that Peeta has feelings for her, but it’s not so obvious that she’s putting on a show to keep them alive. The fake relationship also plays a key part in her relationship with her best friend Gale, but we’re barely given a sample of the struggle she goes through doing what she did.
I know some adaptations have to be made for any film, even if the book isn’t that big, so I’m crossing my fingers for them to touch on some things that were glanced at, a bit more in the next two movies.
As I mentioned before, the casting and sets were phenomenal. While the characters didn’t all necessarily look the same as I had pictured, they certainly acted the same. When it came to the two main ones, Katniss and Peeta, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson made them come to life much better than I could have imagined.
Sets are just as important as the actors in many cases. For this one, it was as if my imagination was on the big screen in many cases, but especially in the Games. Whether it was in the forest trees, the cave or in the open cornucopia space there were times when I couldn’t believe how perfect they’d actually stuck with the book. So often I picture one thing, then when it’s in a movie I think I read it all wrong – not this time.
Forgetting it’s an adaption of a book for a second, I can say this was the best most entertaining movie I’ve seen in a long time. If I hadn’t read the books I would have given it a higher score, but I did, so I can’t forgive the fact that key plot points weren’t touched on enough. I give The Hunger Games a 4.5/5. After some reflection, I edited the score to accurately reflect my review a bit more. Like I mentioned in a sentence above, if key plot points were focused in on a bit more, it would have deserved the 4.5-5 rating.
