HUNGER GAMES... My thoughts

If you DIDN’T read the books and you’re into action packed, suspense filled, fiction movies, then you will love Hunger Games.

They were faithful to most aspects of the original story, changing them slightly to fit the film version, and made sure to include some of the moments of substance in the book, like:

• The bakery flashbacks to show their history together
• Peeta confessing he wanted to show Capitol they didn’t own him, which tied in nicely with the berries double suicide attempt
• The original interviews, with a funny and caring Caesar Flickerman, and where charming Peeta confesses his love for Katniss
• Peeta shaking his head at Katniss at the cornucopia willing her not to go in
• The three finger kiss salute to Katniss at the reaping and then for Rue after she is killed

 I also found it fascinating how they included bits that were not in the story but gave it a nice twist, like the Capitol control rooms, the reaction from district 11 when Katniss said goodbye to Rue, and then from Gale in district 12 when Peeta and Katniss kissed, as well as Haymitch working to get sponsors after he sees Katniss suffer from her burns. Even though they weren’t in the book, it all alluded to things implied in the overall story, like the pure evil of the Capitol, the Peeta/Katniss/Gale love triangle and Haymitch’s willingness to help.

However, if you DID read the book, then like me you most likely enjoyed or will enjoy the film, but you’ll feel a little disappointed by more than a few missing pieces and inconsistencies.

For starters the whole Peeta/Katniss relationship was underplayed. In the book, Katniss develops feelings for Peeta, which can be seen when she calls his name, goes to search for him, nurses him to health, risks her life to get his medicine and then loses it when she thinks he’s dying at the hands of the medics. However, she struggles with these because she has been, since the beginning and per Haymitch’s instructions, playing up their image as star-crossed lovers, so almost every active sign of affection she shows, in terms of kissing, sharing and snuggling, is an act, regardless of how she feels, whereas Peeta truly is madly in love with her and believes she has finally fallen for him. In the film her inner struggle is not as intense and it is implied that Peeta knows it is all an act.

Another inconsistency is when Katniss sets out to find Peeta, in the book she overheard how Cato had cut him after he saved her following the tracker-jacker wasp attack, she knew he was badly hurt and had to be close to water to survive, but in the film she never reached that conclusion, so in a place as big as the arena, how did she know to look for him by following the river?

Finally there is Peeta’s leg, when Katniss risks her life at the cornucopia to get his medicine, it was for an injection to fight the blood poisoning, and even though it made him substantially better, it was not the miraculous ointment they showed in the film, which appeared to completely cure him. By changing this they underplayed his true condition, not only missing out her attempt at a makeshift tourniquet, and the medics on the hovercraft working to save him, but they completely cut out that he was left with a wooden leg, which considering there are two more books/movies to come, I would have thought would be worth mentioning.

I have a great imagination, and am the kind of reader who can envision the book happening inside my head, making bookmarks along the way of moments that should have made it into the movie. Most of them are not necessarily moments that a person MUST know to watch the film, but they would have certainly added to its essence. Some of the missing moments I would have liked to see include:

• Drunk Haymitch stumbling off stage at the reaping, and then agreeing to sober up enough to help the tributes
• Katniss’ screaming out Peeta’s name (as opposed to whispering it) when the rule change was announced, it was her instinct to call for him and showed she actually cared
• The realization that the mutations were actually the fallen tributes
• Peeta being worked on by the medics while Katniss screamed for him behind the glass that separated them
• Video recap showing all their intense moments, him saving her from Cato, her screaming his name, finding him and nursing him to health, the kisses, the medics, etc.
• Peeta’s heartbreak at the realization that all her affections had been part of a strategy

 All in all, despite the shortcomings, it was a great film, and I will be looking forward to the next two, hoping they try and get a few more moments of essence from the books.

Until next time… Smooches to all xXx