I really loved The Hunger Games trilogy from the moment one of my classes suggested that I read the series. Although I like the books, I'm not a big fan of the movie. The movie wasn't bad, but there were several things about the movie that I didn't like. Here are the 10 Things I Hated about The Hunger Games in no particular order.
#1-The Point of View: In the novel, Katniss is your 1st person narrator. In the movie, you have to rely on a 3rd person narrator, which detracts from the inner turmoil Katniss feels, especially when it comes to Peeta and Gale.
#2-Peeta: I like Josh Hutcherson. He's not a bad actor, and he's even a little cutie. He's not my Peeta. Nothing about Josh Hutcherson says he can throw a 100 pound sack of flour or was a wrestler for that matter. Plus, he's shorter than Jennifer Lawrence. Liam Hemsworth would have made a better Peeta, or the kid that played Cato. Also, they made Peeta into such a weakling.
#3-Katniss: I like Jennifer Lawrence as well. She is a great actress. Here are my problems. One Katniss is suppose to be a rather thin girl. Jennifer is not heavy by any stretch, but she looks like she has never missed a meal whereas Katniss has. She is too pale for the character as well. I actually saw the girl who played Clove as a better fit for Katniss as far as appearance was concerned. P.S. Why was Katniss so distant AT ALL TIMES?!! Especially in the cave, when she really was feeling Peeta. At times Jennifer Lawrence played Katniss with the interest that Suzanne Collins had with the final book.
#4-Katniss/Peeta's Capitol Costumes: The girl on fire looked more like smoked Alaskan. The costumes were better by Catching Fire, but their coal miners outfits were beautiful until the fire was added. Then, they just became rather lame.
#5-The Mockingjay Pin: When I took my students to see The Hunger Games after reading the novel, one of their biggest disappointments was the fact that Greasy Sae instead of Madge Undersee the mayor's daughter gave the pin to Katniss. While it made for an interesting moment between Katniss and Prim, it lost the symbolism of that moment between Madge and Katniss. Madge giving Katniss that pin is a big eff you to the Captiol from the daughter of one of its underlings. Plus, it has a connection to Haymitch as well, which of course you lose when you have it being a not-so-good luck charm for Prim, and it will be difficult to make the connection between the Haymitch and that pin later in the series.
#6-Haymitch-I liked Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, but why remove Haymitch from the stage in District 12. His stumble was more choreographed than we are led to believe, but you lose that when they remove his presence until the drunken stupor on the train.
#7-The dogs: If it was one thing the Capitol loved to do, it was to mess with peoples minds. So, at the end of the games, it had Katniss, Cato, and Peeta to the cornucopia. The dogs had hair and eyes to match the tributes who died during the games. The dogs in the movie were a weird pit bull type hot mess. Of course, they would have no problem killing those dogs, unlike the characters in the book who felt bad about possibly killing fellow tributes again.
#8-Peeta's dad's cookies: They just eliminated the moment between Katniss and Peeta's dad. He gives her the cookies that she eventually throws out of the moving train. She throws them away because the remind her too much of the bread that Peeta throws to her when she was starving. They, of course, hit a patch of dandelions which also remind her of Peeta. They show the reader that Katniss my have more of a thing for Peeta than she would like to admit even to herself. They also remind her how much she feels obligated to Peeta.
#9-Katniss' dad: She mentions her dad through the movie, but we couldn't get a flashback to see how close these two really were? We just get dad blowing up, not making bows, or teaching Katniss to hunt or scavenge, just BOOM, dad's dead.
#10-The Avoxes: The avoxes were a big deal to Katniss in the novel, especially the red-haired girl who served her in the penthouse--the one she saw attempt to escape while she and Gale were hunting in the forest. No mention of this in the movie, she barely notices the avoxes, much less recognizes the girl.
These are not all of the differences between the movie and the books. These are just some of the ones that bothered me the most. FYI, I never really cared for movie Gale, nor book Gale. Just an observation.
Until next time, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor" -Effie Trinket
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