Book vs. Movie - The Hunger Games

                                             

Hunger Games Movie vs. Book

Like so many others, I wanted to compare The Hunger Games book versus the movie. I agree with a colleague who said that the movie is a much better accompaniment to the book than a stand alone. Having read the book made the movie much easier to understand.

I hated the shaky cinematography at the beginning of the movie and I don’t think it added at all to the feelings evoked in the movie. I was extremely disappointed by the lack of development of the relationship between Rue and Katniss. Rue’s death is such a big part of Katniss’ development and of her desire to seek revenge on the Capitol. With the lack of this definition we are left as the audience wondering why she went to such extremes to place the flowers on Rue and why District 11 broke out into rioting.

Overall, I thought the movie did a good job using Caesar Flickerman to explain the moves and motivations explained through exposition in the book. I think even more of that would have made the movie easier for those who have not read the book. My other major disappointment was the downplaying of the violence and emotions in the Arena. While I know that the producers had to get a PG-13 rating at most and violence can lead to an R rating, I wish they had stayed more true to the book in that manner.

You might surmise that I didn’t like this movie at all. You would be wrong. I actually thought, for a movie, it was excellent (other than the whole shaky camera technique which I hated). I thought it was captivating and engaging. I thought the casting was superb. But the goal was to compare the book to the movie.