The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

Arguably one of the biggest book to movie franchises yet, The Hunger Games is full of everything teenage girls want, a relatable female protagonist that deals with realistic mental illness, two attractive love interests that would do anything to keep her safe, and enough bloodshed that the movie barely passed the pg-13 rating. The movies shaky camera filming gives a realistic, rugged feel to the movie, all while giving viewers motion sickness. The characters are captured well enough by the actors, though the directors made some questionable acting choices. Hiring twenty somethings to play teenagers doesn’t work. Having adults fight to the death is not nearly as effective or startling as having children do so. The special effects overall were quite good, accept for the iconic girl on fire chariot scene. It was painful to watch the actors pretend to be amazed by photo shopped flames that were barely noticeable. The only other thing that didn’t make sense, was the berry scene. When Katniss and Peeta tried to kill themselves in the books, they put the berries in their mouths and almost swallowed. They had to wash out their mouth with lake water to make sure they weren’t poisoned. In the movie, they barely had the berries in their hands before Seneca Crane stopped them in desperation. The viewer doesn’t realize that Katniss and Peeta aren’t trying to trick the game makers, they are actually serious about killing themselves.

Compared to the books, The Hunger Games movie is a mostly faithful adaptation. While it does exclude Madge, changing the story of how Katniss got her pin, the plot is overall retained. When it comes to casting, there are a few problems other than just age. Katniss is described as short and light, which is why she’s able to maneuver around trees so easily, and she, like the rest of the poor community of District 12 living in The Seam, is not white. She, Gale, and her father are described as dark haired with olive skin and gray eyes that clashes with the middle class community of blue eyed blondes, like her sister Prim and their mother. Hiring a blonde haired, blue eyed actress taller than her romantic interest to play Katniss simply doesn’t seem like an authentic and honest decision, especially considering the casting process only asked for white actresses. Casting aside, the movie overall reflected the source material accurately, and you could tell a lot of care went into the production

The Hunger Games is definitely a watch, and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to see a well done dystopian.