The Hunger Games: Movie vs. Novel

Synopsis
Each year, twelve districts must offer up two tributes, a boy and a girl from 12-18 to enter into the arena, where they will fight to the death on live television.
 
I most definitely fell in love with The Hunger Games. I plowed through the novel in a matter of a few days, and I was pumped to go see the movie. The movie stayed extremely close and true to the book but I still had a few things that I nitpicked at (sorry, I like to put my two cents into everything).

The actress and actor that played Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark did a phenomenal job. They embodied their characters very well. As did the rest of The Hunger Games cast.

Now, I'm not going to get my knickers in a knot over small detail changes, but some of the bigger changes got me to cringe a bit. The biggest thing that bothered me was how the Mockingjay pin came to be. In the book, Madge Undersee (the mayor’s daughter) gives it to Katniss after the reaping; as a reminder of home. In the movie, Katniss ends up getting it from The Hob, and giving it to her sister, Prim as a good luck charm.

Photo By: Fiona Ho

The reason that this bothered me so much is because of what the Mockingjay pin symbolizes. For those who have read the rest of the books they know that the pin symbolizes a rebellion. The pin also previously belonged to Madge’s dead aunt (died in the arena as a tribute), and so the pin deserves a better back story than just saying that she got it from the Hob. However, Madge’s character isn't actually of much importance for the rest of the books, and the screen writers probably wrote her out because of that fact. I still think that Madge deserves a part in giving the Mockingjay pin to Katniss.

Another thing is the character development. I feel like they strictly built this movie based off of a fan base. In the movie we get the general idea of what relations each character has to Katniss, but we don't ever really know what is happening on a deeper level. Clips of Gale, Katniss' best friend keeps popping up throughout the movie and people who have never read the books are super confused! It's like, why do they keep putting clips of this really hot sad guy in? He's in love with her that's why!

The last thing I had an issue with was Katniss and Peeta's relationship. In the books, Katniss was only pretending to be in love with Peeta to gain donations from the viewers (though she did subconsciously fall for him). However, in the movie, they made her seem like she was totally head over heels in love with him. They didn't show how she only acted the way that she did for support from viewers.

Overall, I really liked both the movie and the book, but each as their own standalone. You can't get the same effect from the movie like you would the book (that goes the same for most book adapted movies). The books were amazing, and by far the best YA series I have ever read and I thoroughly recommend it

The movies on the other hand, I feel like it will still be a good watch and very entertaining for sure. However, I personally think that once the hype dies down I won't feel as strongly about it anymore. I love it now, and I still would recommend it to people, but it definitely has nothing on the books.