Movie Tour: The Hunger Games

Katie and I have had a busy several days.  So, we decided that we needed some time to go out on a date, and we did.  She finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and then we went to see the movie.  I read the book last July, and you can read my review of the book here.  But, I’m here to review the movie now.

Plot Summary

The Hunger Games takes place in dystopian future in a land known as Panem (which was once known as the United States).  Panem consists of the Capitol and twelve (formerly thirteen) districts.  In the history of Panem, the districts rose up in rebellion against the Capitol, and once the rebellion was put down, it was decreed that each district would have to enter one boy and one girl between the ages of 12-18 to enter into The Hunger Games, which is a fight to the death in which there can be only one victor.  The book and movie begin at The Reaping, which is when the contestants are chosen in a drawing.  Katniss Everdeen, the leading character, comes from District 12, which is a poor district found in the Appalachians.  It is a mining district, which appears to produce two things: coal and despair.  The Hunger Games follows Katniss as she volunteers (in place of her 12 year old sister), trains and fights in the Games.

Review

I’m always a little leery of watching a movie that is based on a book, especially when I read the book.  Too often there are important details changed or added in the movies that don’t seem very necessary.  This is a struggle I’m currently having with HBO series Game of Thrones after listening to the first 2.5 books, and I’m only one episode in.  One positive that I noticed as the credits rolled is that Suzanne Collins, the author of the book, is given credit for screenplay as well, which means that she probably had a hand in the adaptation to the screen.  I think if more authors had more control in the production, book adaptations may actually have some hope.  Otherwise, Hollywood tries to spice things up that don’t really need any extra spice (see: The Lost World – “Mommy, there’s a dinosaur in the back yard;” quite possibly the worst adaptation ever).  I think that Collins’ work on the screenplay made the movie so much more faithful to the book than I could have hoped for.  The movie is very well done.  The characters are played perfectly.  Elizabeth Banks’ role as Effie Trinket was every bit as over the top and oblivious as she seems in the book, and the other actors/actresses played their roles incredibly well also.

Recommendation

Go see it. Yes, it has been hyped a lot.  And, yes, it is totally worth the hype.  There are a lot of people who don’t like the premise of the book/movie, but, in reality, that’s because they boil it down to “kids killing kids” without really knowing anything about the book or the movie.  In fact, it is about kids killing kids, but if you leave it there, you are missing a lot.  It is a story of love, sacrifice, friendship and what it must be like living in the type of dystopian future that Collins created in the book.

Best Part

I’m a little torn on this.  In some respects, I want to say that the best part is the faithfulness to the original story.  There are a handful of things that are different from the book, but such changes are understandable given the time allotments for a movie.  There are no major changes in the important details, and that is huge.  Apart from that, though, I think my favorite part of the movie was during The Reaping when Katniss’ sister Prim is selected.  The self-sacrifice of Katniss to take the place of her sister had my heart pounding.  It was pretty emotional, and really set the tone for everything else that followed.  Of course, the worst part of it all is the fact that we have to wait until November 2013 to see the second book on the big screen.