This post is going to have SPOILERS for both the novel and the movie! You have been warned...
The first of my two biggest complaints was the change in the bread scene. Peeta didn't burn the bread on purpose in order to feed Katniss in the movie. That's a huge difference. Instead, he notices her after he's burned it and struggles on whether to toss it to her or not. Book Peeta would never have hesitated because he knew before he even burned the bread he was going to give it to her.
The second complaint I have was the change in the scene after the second rule change. Katniss doesn't intentionally draw her arrow on Peeta, showing her distrust. Instead, she starts to load her arrow, but her eyes dart about, as if looking for more Capitol mutts. It's not Peeta she distrusts, but the Capitol. This scene was my most anticipated, so I was pretty disappointed when it wasn't portrayed the same.
Overall, though, I liked the additions, especially the scene where Haymitch sees the Capitol children role-playing the Hunger Games. It really hits you how ridiculous and cruel it all is, how lightly the Capitol citizens take it.
Give your feedback...
Post a comment below with YOUR thoughts on the movie. Did you like it? Were you disappointed?
I loved it! Except, they didn't have Madge. They did in the book. She was supposed to give the pin to Katniss and she wore that in the arena. But there was no Madge.
ReplyDeleteA movie is rarely as good as the book on which it is based in my view, and I was particularly concerned that they wouldn't be able to pull off The Hunger Games. All in all I was duly impressed with the casting and...Lenny Kravitz? Wow, he was a believable Cinna! I felt it was a good reproduction. I did not catch the discrepancy with the bread scene...I'd have to watch again and look for that. I also didn't like how the pin was received, but I don't see them having been able to add Madge without it being a distraction.
ReplyDeleteI agree--Lenny was fantastic! And I agree Madge would have taken too long to explain. I need to see it again, as well. We're going to take my husband this weekend.
DeleteOver all, I really enjoyed the movie. I am going to see it a second time and feel like I might be better able to enjoy it during round two, since I won't be so consumed with the changes. I liked all the additional scenes, like Haymitch seeing the Capitol children and all the scenes with President Snow. Stanley Tucci was a total scene steal-er for me. I was sad that they removed the bit about the bread during training and the bread from District 11 - I thought that was a brilliant piece of exposition and such a show of support and humanity from District 11. I very much enjoyed the movie and am excited to see it again!
ReplyDeleteDitto!! I missed the bread, too! And Tucci was so good.
DeleteThey did solve that part well though - instead of District 11 sending bread, they answered with showing the sign. It was a clever way of showing the humanity that doesn't take as long as it would with the breads and stuff. And a huge crowd doing something for one person sure gives you goosebumps (although it is a big cliche).
DeleteI agree with you, Tracee. I found most of my students were a little disappointed with the omissions as well. They liked the movie, but agreed the book was much better. Wonderful to hear from kids who don't normally identify as readers.
ReplyDeleteI posted a pretty detailed (and long) review on my facebook page if you or anyone else is interested.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=10150684573799383
Most of my students that viewed the movie were very disappointed because it didn't follow the book exactly. I think that they portrayed Peeta differently in the movie than in the book because the book explained the reasons he was with the Careers group in the beginning of the games and in the movie it didn't show his reasoning. I thought that the movie, just as a movie, not comparing to the book was very good, but from readers of the book the movie left out some very influential aspects of the book. Some of the emotional aspects of the movie, the Rue scenes and when Prim and the mother say goodbye to Katniss, hit home to me and made those aspects of the game more emotional, even than what I felt in the book. Overall I really enjoyed the movie but of course with all book to movie comparisons, the book wins.
ReplyDeleteThe movie was okay, just okay. I was disapointed that the cheese Primm left for Katniss was left out, the cat "buttercup" was black and white, they left out Haymich's drunken dive off the stage, they left out Madge, they left out the story about how Primm got her goat. Why show the shot of the hovercraft at the beginning and then leave out the red headed avox girl? Too much was left out or changed. It feels like they wanted to fit in as much action as possible but in doing so, you don't really get to know any of the characters or become attached to any of them.
ReplyDeleteDitto. My son said he wished it had more violence, that it felt a little tame. I agree. The characters seemed a bit flat. It is very hard to make a movie from a book. I just hope that the next ones give a little more depth to the characters. I agree about the arrow at the end. If I remember from the book something causes Katniss to draw her arrow, but the whole thing was left out. It could have caused more tension in the movie which would have been good. Liked the camouflage Peeta does on his arm and face in the movie.
ReplyDeleteI liked the movie and everyone was yelling from excitement. It differed from the book of course, but it was a 2 1/2 hour movie for a book that was about 200 pages so of course they had to change somethings. I loved seeing all the scenes come to life because it was honestly hard to visualize some of the descriptions (like the Cornucopia). I was hoping to see some scenes that didn't make it in the movie like Rue and Katniss' talk about their districts or Katniss telling Peeta about how she got Prim's goat. They changed some of the scenes, but I think that in order for them to work in the movie they had to like Cato's death being short. But then some scenes they changed or added in so people who hadn't read the books could still understand what was going on like the scene where Haymitch talks about Peeta and Katniss' "love". I did not like the scene where Peeta tries to hold Katniss' hand and she pulls away, but then gives in. The fact that Cinna had told them to do so and that it was such a great reaction from the crowd gave Katniss another reason to trust Cinna. I also did not like the fact that they did not include the part where Gale says "I..." and he gets cut off by the Peacemaker and Katniss is left to wonder what he was going to say (even though we all can guess what it was). It showed the "love triangle" start to form and I thought that it was important to establish that.
ReplyDeleteI loved the movie. There were things I missed; namely, the food. The food in the Capitol is one of the only things Katniss really enjoys about the whole experience (and it helps contrast the Capital with District 12), and although there are scenes with food, she's never eating it and loving it. I kept waiting for them to start drinking hot chocolate. I don't know how they're going to work the Mockingjay becoming the symbol of the revolution now . . . she wears it under her clothes in the arena, like she's hiding it. They play up the Girl on Fire bit, of course, but how is she going to transform into the mockingjay, the real symbol of the revolution? No one knows that she had it in the arena. I also missed that they won't be able to tie in the history of the pin now, because she didn't get it from Madge. These things didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the movie, and I really did love it. I'm actually seeing it again tomorrow. It's with different friends though, so it totally counts and isn't me obsessing. : ]
ReplyDeleteI took my son to the movie on the first day out because he has always loved these stories. I had never read any of the books before seeing the movie. After seeing it, I went home and pulled out my son's Hunger Games copy and read it through the night. :) Because i saw the movie before reading the book, I have a slightly different take probably. My only issue with the movie (and i felt this while i was at the theatre before even reading the book) was that i was confused during the cave scenes when Katniss all of a sudden started kissing Peeta and being overly friendly. I just didn't understand why the change all of a sudden. I did get why they were a team and why she was helping him, but I didn't understand the romantic feelings at all. After reading the book, I of course now understand that she was just playing to the cameras, but for some reason this did not come across to me as I was watching the movie. I never saw Haymitch tell katniss to pretend to like Peeta during the games, and because they didn't include the scene at the end on the train where Peeta discovers that katniss was just faking, I couldn't understand it. Maybe i just need to see the movie again and I will catch it, but I have a feeling that now that I have read the book, my reaction will be different anyway, since now i do know the reason. I just feel that this could have been shown better, and that the train scene at the end with Peeta learning that it was fake should have been included. Or maybe they are planning to do something with that scenario at the beginning of the next one to set tension. Don't know. Otherwise I thought the movie was fantastic!! And since Suzanne Collins co-wrote the screenplay, it definitely felt that the movie was as true as it could get to the book while trying to incorporate everything into a 2.5 hour timeframe.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was brilliant. I just got back from the theater - we took 165 students and 17 adults to see the flick. I've read the book eleven times now and feel pretty passionate about it. I was getting very nervous because so many people said they liked it - so I thought there's NO way it's going to live up to all the hype...
ReplyDeleteBut it did. I thought the additions were fantastic. Haymitch watching the small boy play with the toy sword? Genius. The inclusion of the gamemakers - well done. The tie-ins to the other books that set the stage for the next movie - District 11 and Seneca at the end... Loved it loved it loved it.
Cinematically, it just makes sense. You can't be in Katniss' head. You can't hear how much the people of the Capitol disgust her - thus the scene with Haymitch. She's not telling us the gamemaker's motives - the gamemakers are.
The part I most feared though, was the scene with the Mutts. Were they going to look like pixilated crappy CGI creatures with the tributes faces super-imposed on top? (I was also worried that the tracker-jackers were going to be comically large and hideous...) But they nailed it.
Well Mrs. Orman, I wasn't sure that Peeta didn't burn the bread on purpose. We don't see how it was burned - and from Katniss' perspective, the book was ambiguous as well. I don't know if she ever realized Peeta's hand in it...