Hey Hope!
If you’re like me, this time during quarantine has been really beneficial for increased reading habits. Last week, my mom and I decided to have a spur-of-the-moment Hunger Games rewatch of all four movies, and let me tell you: I’ve. Never. Felt. More. Alive. Okay that’s a tad dramatic, but it was still pretty awesome. I couldn’t help but aimlessly fall in love with all the characters I once knew so well when I was younger. I decided that watching the movies wasn’t enough; I wanted to take a dive into the books once again and compare them with their movies.
For anyone who needs a quick refresher on The Hunger Games, or for anyone who didn’t try to wear their hair in a side braid at least once in 2012 with black apparel head to toe, this synopsis is for you.
The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl who lives in a world where North America has been renamed Panem after a terrible war that almost wiped out all of human existence. Panem is divided into twelve “districts,” each of which represent what that area specializes in (coal, fishing, mining, etc). In order to “keep the peace” and remind the districts of the terrible cost of war, every year there is a nationally televised “Hunger Games” that takes one girl and one boy from each district between the ages of twelve and eighteen to fight to the death for the amusement of the Capitol, the country’s rich and powerful. The story follows Katniss Everdeen, the narrator, and Peeta Mellark, the boy tribute from district twelve, as they fight to the death to stay alive in the 74th annual Hunger Games, even though they know twenty four tributes go in and only one will make it out.
Let’s break it down.
1. The Hunger Games
The book: This is a very solid coming-of-age first book. There is obviously a lot of world building, which is to be expected. Katniss really had my respect in this book, because she was somehow very honest, cold, sarcastic, and maternal, and normally that would be a hard character to get behind what with so many conflicting traits. However, you can’t help but root for her, which goes to show Suzanne Collins’ immense writing talent. Also, I found Peeta to be surprisingly funny and charming, and I loved getting to be reintroduced to his wit and compassion. 9/10
The movie: Don’t get me wrong, this movie is good. BUT. The camera work is a bit too shaky for me and also some of the dialogue between characters felt a bit forced or uncomfortable. They did a great job building the world up and helping the viewer along, but I have one major complaint with this movie. They cut all of Peeta’s lines! I truly feel bad for Josh Hutcherson, because I know he read the book as well, and he had to have felt a bit cheated. Every time Peeta’s line would be coming up from a scene directly from the book, the subject was changed. This doesn’t sit well for me as I am very Team Peeta. 6/10 (justice for Josh)
2. Catching Fire
The book: This book was truly my favorite from the trilogy. For me, this is the Twilight: Eclipse of the series. If you’ve read my “Not So Serious Review of the Twilight Series” post, you’ll know what I mean. There’s just something about this book I can’t help but love. We got to see Peeta and Katniss really connect both in friendship and romantically, we got to explore some hints of rebellion, and we also got to dive into another Hunger Games. We got action! We got plot! We got romance! What more could we ask for? 10/10
The movie: This movie helped my twelve year old self to figure out what the heck was going on. When I originally read the book, I had no idea what the arena was or how to picture it, but ever since this movie came out, I definitely got it down. The writing was very clever and followed the book, except for Josh Hutcherson’s scenes of course. Once again I was angered by the lack of Peeta’s witty energy, and that left a sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention they left out my absolute favorite scene in the series (page 245-246 for those who are curious) which killed me a little inside. Other than that, no complaints. 8/10
3. Mockingjay
The book: Surprisingly, I flew through this book, even though I remember reading it for the first time at a snail’s pace because Peeta was barely there (or at least it felt like it). However, this time around I really enjoyed it because I felt like the themes of the book such as rebellion, war, PTSD, etc. were things I could better understand as an adult than I ever could as a prepubescent teen. Go figure, I know. There were a lot more subjects to dive into and understand what Suzanne Collins was trying to say with the series. Even with a better understanding, I still wasn’t totally satisfied with the ending, so I’ll settle with a score of 7/10.
The movie (Part 1): I hope anyone who is familiar with this series has noticed I haven’t written one word about Gale. I really was so close to finishing this post without talking about him. But, sadly, in this movie, with the amped up “love triangle,” Gale was very present and in my opinion, destructive and manipulative. I have no beef with Liam Hemsworth, but I hate the movie trope of making the less likable love triangle opponent into an unbelievably attractive and “irresistible” man in order to make it seem like a more difficult choice. Something about that doesn’t sit right with me. However, in this movie, Jennifer Lawrence did a fantastic job portraying Katniss’s conflicting emotions and various stages of grief and loss. With this being the least action packed movie, Jennifer Lawrence had to give the audience the urge to pay attention to the battlefield in Katniss’s mind, which I believe she did. Also in this movie we get the famous “Hanging Tree” anthem for the revolution, which bumps the score up one point as it leaves me with chills every time. 8/10
The movie (part 2): This is the stronger movie out of the two final installments of the franchise in my opinion. We get to explore more of Katniss and Peeta’s up-and-down relationship, as well as fighting the good fight until the very end. Not only this, but the acting stepped up a notch, as well as the tension. It even got me feeling anxious even though I knew how everything turned out! I also really love the short little epilogue clip. It always makes me very emotional and shoots me right back into my 2015 Hunger Games headspace, which is a blessing and a curse. 9/10
P.S. James Newton Howard, the composer of all four movie scores, is phenomenal. Every movie has such beautiful and complex music that makes you feel very connected to the screen. HP, since you have a talent for finding new music, I definitely recommend looking into James Newton Howard’s other soundtracks, I think you’d really appreciate them.
If you made it all the way through this, thank you for letting me fangirl over this series for a second. I recommend you read/reread this series if you have some extra time on your hands at the moment like I do. This could also help you to refresh your memory for Suzanne Collins’ new installment in the Hunger Games series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which just came out this month! Let me know if you’ll be reading the new book, as well as what you think of it!
-maddie
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