Movie Review: The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games

Director: Gary Ross

Release Date: March 23rd 2012

Author: Suzanne Young

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence,

Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. 

Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

All I can say: AWESOMESAUCE!

The whole cinema was completely filled! There was an equal amount of boys/males as there were girls/women! Which was totally right, since it reaches to a much broader audience than some! Alright: so I've read the books and I have to let it out: You better have read the books before reading this, just to get the best experience and I've heard from people who haven't read the book before got a little confused, I can see why that is. My mum (who went with me) never read the book, so at times, she was whispering like crazy and asking me what the hell was going on. Also, some tidbit; people can interpret Katniss and Cinna (her stylist)'s relationship wrongly. Like some people who haven't read the books thought they're more than friends. I personally don't like the actor playing Cinna and I've never saw him as the character.

The special and visual effects was stunning! The parade scene and the girl-on-fire scene was the best! Also, can I just say how the set design (especially in the Capitol) was exactly like how I imagined it when I read THG four years ago!! The camera angles were so deliberately shaky at times, and I was so freaking dizzy by the end!

Jennifer's acting...was ok. I dunno, I never really warmed to her as Katniss. I still imagine Katniss as a weak, skinny, and dark hair and quite a tan complexion. But Jennifer wasn't like that; she wasn't really skinny, and the hair was wrong even though they dyed it.. Ugh. I still think she's pretty though :) Just not Katniss enough for me.

Peeta. *sigh* Josh Hutcherson IS Peeta Mellark. He is exactly like how imagined him in my head when I read the first book 3 years ago! Seriously, his acting was perfect! Love Peeta! TEAM PEETA FOREVER! I love the Boy with the Bread! <3

Liam as Gale wasn't actually that bad! He looks and acts like how I pictured Gale! Even though, he only had like 3 minutes of screen time, he still did what he was suppose to. :)

The rest of the cast was spectacular!
Haymitch was the best! He was just so hilarious and I just LOVE him so much! Definitely my favourite character out of all of them! Effie was also great, and Rue and Prim! I never cried at movies, but the Rue scene nearly made me cry :( It was just so greatly depicted!

There was quite a few minor changes to the film, and that kinda bothered me a bit. Like the character interviews, they didn't say the same things, and I don't understand for the life of me why Katniss was backstage instead during Peeta's confession. But I did love while at the Games, there was Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith gave us information about the tracker jackers and all that, they provided the necessary news. 

I think it was just my brain, but while I was reading the book, I thought most fighting or whatever took place in the night. So I was like WHAT??!?! when most of it actually happened during the day: in the blowing-up-the-food mission, the Rue dying scene, the fire in the woods scene. But overall the action was awesome, so was the tracker-jacker scene and the mutts scene (which had my mum covering her eyes, bless her!). The violence wasn't actually that bad!

Overall, the best book-to-movie adaptation I have seen! A fan of The Hunger Games series wouldn't be disappointed!