Synopsis: The United States of America have long been gone. In its place, between the Appalachians and the Rockies, is now the country of Panem, consisting of 12 districts and the Capitol.
Many years ago the 13 districts rose against the Capitol and paid a high price for it. The riot-leading district was completely annihilated. And the 12 other districts have to endure a humiliation every year which proves the total superiority of the Capitol.
Every year each district has to send a girl and a boy between the ages 12 and 18 to the Capitol – where these 24 kids will fight each other until only one survives: The Hunger Games.
My Opinion: Originally I had planned to read the book completely before I watch the movie. Didn’t turn out that way. I just made it to the point where Katniss has her fiery ride into the Arena.
My problem with the movie was that there was no real suspense building up. Sure I didn’t know if Peeta was going to survive, but still. The book on the other hand was very interesting to the point where I read it.
And even the end left me hanging because there was no scene that hinted at what was coming next. Let me make the comparison to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring here: At the end of the movie it was clear that Frodo and Samwise would be travelling towards Mordor and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would try to rescue Merry and Pippin from the Orcs. The question “What now?” didn’t come up. The Hunger Games on the other hand simply ended. Some viewers who are not aware that this is a trilogy will probably scratch their heads even more.
I don’t want to assume anything yet since it’s well known that movie sometimes interpret their original material rather freely but I wasn’t pleased with the actual ending of the movie either.
Spoiler (mark to read):
I would have wished that – when there were only three left and were standing on the transporter – they simply had refused to continue this farce. Now it’s more of a cliché ending where everyone from District 1 is simply a mindless killer. Also the closing interview would have been a good place to stir things up a little. Instead she played nice and did what her mentor told her to do. I hope her motivation is better explained in the book.
the book has 10 time the store in it. The movie was not bad but it didn’t live up to the book. I really think you should finish the book. you will have a better understanding of what is going on in the story.
I believe the movie was as close to the book as could be. I have read the trilogy twice now, and was not disapointed in the movie. You present a different view, not being familiar with the story and make a very valid point. To follow the book entirely, would make a movie about 10 – 12 hours long, which we know is not possible. They left out a number of fairly significant area(story of the Avox/slaves and the friendship with the mayor’s daughter) but they also added some things that were not in the book – those being the conversations between the Games Keeper, Senica Crane and President Snow as well as the action in the control room. Movies are a far different media than books and the two can rarely be identical. The trick is to fins the best common ground that works well, for both. I believe they did this with The Hungar Games, but I do value your point of view.