Attention...if you have not seen the Hunger Games movie yet, you may want to stop reading this post now....I will be giving stuff away. The same goes for the people who have seen the movie and now are going to go back and read the book....dont say I didn't warn you.
That said...I went to the movies yesterday with my mom and step-dad to see Hunger Games. I have to say I was pleased and disappointed all at the same time. I often feel this way when I watch a movie after I have already read the book. I alway feel like to movies are so rushed, things happen way to fast. I felt the same way about Twilight (not to mention that the first Twilight book was horrid). Especially when it comes to the relationships of the characters. I am sure everyone understood that it was very sad when Rue dies because she was so young and she becomes friends with Katniss. What you don't know is that they were allies for almost a week before she dies. She reminds Katniss of her little sister, and that is why she takes her under her wing.
You also don't truly get to understand the relationship between Katniss and Peta either. The spend a whole week in the capitol before they enter the games. He truly loves her, and she is very confused about her feelings for him. She hates him, she likes him, she's playing him, etc.
She's also confused about her feelings for Gale. She loves him like a brother at first, but when she starts to have feelings for Peta, she starts questioning her feelings for Gale.
They also "toned down" a lot of the movie to make it PG-13. The book was defiantly rated R. The killing at the cornucopia was much more graphic and bloody. The scene when Glimmer dies is a bit more disgusting (btw, Rue didn't give Katniss the idea to drop the bees nest, she came up with it in her own). They cut out the day she almost died of dehydration, and she was burnt longer in the book, they kind of combined 3 days into one there.
Rue's death was very mild compared to how it was in the book...not to mention there is supposed to be these hovercrafts that remove the bodies, that's why she covered Rue in flowers. Cloves death was down played as well. But the most disappointing part was the end. That is the coolest and scariest part of the whole story, and they glossed over almost all of it, or skipped it all together!
The beasts are versions of the fallen tributes, they have their stature, eyes, and hair. After Cato falls off the cornucopia the beasts drag him inside...he is stuck in there dying for a day. Katniss and Peta have to listen to his cries of pain all night before she can finally reach him and shoot him in the head.
When they take the two back to the Capitol (after they win) Katniss goes a bit crazy, and Peta looses his leg (they skipped the part where he gets bitten and almost bleeds to death waiting for Cato to die)
I know they can't have the movies and the book be exactly the same, the movie would be too long, but I feel like they don't do a good job deciding what to cut out. When I watched Harry Potter (after having read the books) I wasn't disappointed. Sure they left parts out, and occasionally they were important parts, but I just didn't leave the theater feeling the least bit disappointed. And those books were a hell of a lot longer than Hunger Games. This is why I just skip the movies. I haven't seen Water for Elephants, or The Help. And I will never watch another Jodi Picult movie...they've screwed up every single one. She is one of my favorite authors...she needs to stop allowing her books to be made into movies....they screw them up every time!
What are your feelings about turning books into movies?
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