Movie Review- The Hunger Games

So I usually do book reviews but since I saw The Hunger Games last night, I'm sharing my review with you instead. Also, happy April Fool's day! I don't have any jokes for you sadly though. Well I have one, but it might be offensive, so I won't post it. Anyways, since today is also April 1st, I'll be doing a overview of March after this post.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games.  A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains.


Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy.  If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.


Note: Read at your own risk. There will be spoliers. 


So I've been really excited to see this movie. Everyone says it was epic and it looked epic in the previews. And it was very good, but it had some problems.

As whenever they base a movie off a book, I'm always worried that it won't be anything like the book. But I thought they did okay with making it like the book. There was some differences. Like Madge, the mayor's daughter, gave Katniss the pin in the book. But in the movie, Katniss buys the pin at the market, gives it to Prim, who then gives it back to Katniss. There was some other differences too.

When it started out, I thought that the camera moved around a little bit too much. And I thought that the acting didn't seem quite right. Plus everything seemed really fast paced and I felt that if you didn't read the books, you might get a little confused. Like with the lady in the fancy outfits who came to their district, who was she? And when Prim's name was called, I thought they did good with that, but Katniss should have screamed sooner.

And I thought that Haymitch was good but I think that he should have had more time in the movie talking to them. And what in the world happened with Cinna? He was good in the movie and he was how I imagined him. But they didn't give him enough screen time in the movie for him to have been as close to Katniss as he was in the movie. He wasn't there much at all so I thought it was kinda weird that he was so close when the viewers may not have been sure why.

I really enjoyed see the fashions of the Capitol and of the districts. Some of the stuff the people wore in the Capitol was actually kinda cool and with a little modification, I wouldn't mind wearing it. Although I'm not sure I'd dye my hair all those funky colors.

Oh and during the parade, where they were all in the chariots, the flames that were coming off of Katniss and Peeta did look really fake. I'm not sure if they meant them too or not because they were fake even in the movie, but they just looked fake. But I loved Katniss's hair then. I would have liked to have seen the other tribute's costumes though.

I thought that they should have showed more of Peeta and Katniss when they were training. Like the training didn't look all that much like training. You could tell they were...acting at some parts. I enjoyed the part where Katniss had her own personal time with the sponsors. But it didn't seem like they had trained all that much.

But the movie finally got good when they actually were in the Hunger Games themselves. Rue was super cute. So cute! I loved her character. And she was exactly how I had imagined her. It was exciting and cool during the rest of the show. I enjoyed the 3rd person view we got so that we could see them controlling the games, Haymitch trying to get sponsers, and Rue's district rioting.

I thought that they did a bad job with the mutts at the end. The dogs were suppose to look like the characters they represented. Like Rue's should have been small. But all the dogs were the same. And there were times were the tributes would die and the cannon wouldn't go off like it was suppose to when they died.

I thought they did good with Rue's scene where she died and afterwards. Although Rue had been under a net and she hadn't been in the book. Plus her district didn't send Katniss bread afterwards for singing when Rue died. But Katniss did well afterwards with the crying and looking upset.

As for the other characters, they were all good. Although I didn't like Gale's character much. He wasn't as handsome as I had imagined him and I didn't like his acting. Prim was cute throughout the whole thing and I loved her character. She did well.

Peeta was so cute! There were some parts where I didn't like his hair when it was slicked back, but when it was messy or lightly combed, he looked really cute.

As for President Snow, he wasn't as how I had imagined him. I had imagined him as a forty-year old man with short white hair and hard, pale blue eyes. But in the movie, he reminded me of Santa Claus because he had this white bushy beard.

Other than that, it was a good movie. I really enjoyed it and it was my favorite movie of the year. My cousin and I kept whispering the whole time and we annoyed some people. But we didn't really care. But I enjoyed it. I give it four and a half stars.

Resources:
IMDb- The Hunger Games
The Official Hunger Games Website

Sincerely,
Sareh