THE HUNGER GAMES

THE HUNGER GAMES ****

Trailer
OH MY GOSH. I have been looking forward to this movie forEVER. Seriously, since I started reading the books years ago I started dreaming and hoping they would make a movie. I thoroughly enjoy the books and was hoping the movie would at least do it justice. Which it DID. It was AWESOME. OH MY GOSH. Seriously. It was one of the best movies based on a book I've ever seen. It followed the book soo well. They left out a few things, tweaked a few others, and added some scenes but I felt that it all worked. The things that were left out were most likely due to time restraints. The things that were added were things that were talked about in the story but not in detail because Katniss wasn't there. I was really worried about Josh Hutcherson playing Peeta because I had really only seen him in movies that were super cheesy and aimed toward a younger audience. So I was pleasantly surprised to see him play the role PERFECTLY. He was spot on. Jennifer Lawrence was also a perfect Katniss. Everyone in the movie did a wonderful job. I am currently in love with this movie. Almost everything about it was perfect. I can't wait to go see it again. And then own it so I can watch it whenever I want. Yes. GO SEE THIS MOVIE. And READ THE BOOKS if you haven't already. Okay. I'm going to go read the Hunger Games now. :)

. . .

Ahem. So now that I'm over my initial high, and am able to look back on the movie a little more objectively, I would like to add a few more thoughts. There may be some spoilers in here so feel free to just disregard this whole section... :)
Basically, I still think they did a fabulous job. The scenes that take place in district 12 are almost the same as the book, as are the scenes in the capital. They even quote it word for word at times. Things are definitely tweaked, but like I said before, I believe it's for timing reasons, making them understandable. The first half of the movie didn't bother me at all, I thought it was great. It wasn't until after the initial blood bath in the arena that things were changed quite a bit. The important things are still there, but she is in the arena several weeks in the book, whereas the movie portrays it as being more like a few days. Which honestly is totally fine, can you imagine what it would have been like if they HAD tried to drag it out a lot longer? The injuries received by the characters are also downplayed quite a bit. They are still pretty bad, but nothing compared to the book. In the book they are pretty gruesome, if the movie had made the wounds that bad it, probably would have been rated "R" for gore. So I was okay with that as well. Overall I was happy with everything until it got to the scenes with Peeta, once they can be a team. Katniss and Peeta were really great at the roles they played. p.s. Did I mention that I really loved Josh Hutcherson as Peeta? I thought he did a FANTASTIC job. Honestly, it's because he did such a good job that I wish they had done more with it. They just cut the whole thing so short! They could have done a cut scene to show a passing of time and just do a little bit more with their relationship building. Oh well. What they did was pretty good, I just wish there had been more. Outside of that, the ending kinda bummed me out. They just wrapped everything up SO quickly that it felt rushed. The ending was pretty important and they just whipped through it. In the end I have few complaints. The movie was really well done and I can't wait for the next chapter. Honestly, I could go on and on about how I've been obsessed with the Hunger Games since Thursday afternoon, but you probably don't care about that! So go see the movie and enjoy it! It's wonderful! :)