Thoughts on: The Hunger Games

From left to right: Peeta, Katniss and Gale

Just in case anyone's wondering, in preparation for seeing this film I hunted down the first book and read it in a couple of days and at time of writing I've also done the same with the second book too.




The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books written Suzanne Collins and set in the near future. There was an uprising against the dictatorial Capitol way in the past and as a result a boy and a girl are selected every year from each of the 12 districts that were involved in the uprising. This boy and girl enter an arena and must attempt to kill every other child from the other districts before they themselves are killed, all broadcast around the country for everyone to watch. We enter the story on the day of the selection from Katniss' (the main character's) district. Much to her dismay her sister is chosen to enter the arena, so Katniss volunteers to save her sisters life.


There was an awful lot of controversy surrounding this film before and during the release, stretching from the main actress (Jennifer Lawrence) being to overweight and attractive for the role of Katniss to complaints about the child killing within the film. When you sit down to actually watch the film all of this dissolves in an instant as you're transported to such a fantastically created world you have little chance to let your mind wander.

To really enjoy this film I would entirely recommend having read the book first, not only is it a real cracking book but the envisaging of the film from the text is as damn near spot on as I've ever seen. The obvious comparison here for books to films would be Harry Potter. I can say with absolute certainty that The Hunger Games does a much better job in bringing the words to life, most of the script is unaltered from the book and I can only think of a handful of changes from the film to the book.

One of the big changes is that we get to see the people who run the Hunger Games in the film, and we get to see news reports outlining what is happening in the Games, this is probably the biggest change but from the viewpoint of watching the film it was a stroke of genius. If you've read the book you'll know that Katniss is a very introverted character, and she explains a lot about the world we don't quite relate to through thoughts in her head. The film chooses not to pursue Lawrence voicing over her own acting, but similarly it needs to explain things to the audience that they won't understand. The perfect example being some genetically modified bees with some nasty stings, if the audience weren't filled in on the fact these aren't ordinary bees then parts of the film like this would simply cease to make sense to the audience unless they've followed the book series as well.

To address the criticisms Lawrence faced when taking the role I have to say with absolute sincerity she really pulls the cat out of the bag here. You have to put into context this is a plot where Katniss has almost  endured the death of her sister, her family may now die due to her absence, she is in the middle of a love triangle with two guys, she has to kill people her own age and to top it all off suffer deaths of people close to her. In terms of emotional portrayal thats one hell of a list to try and get through in one film. I think Lawrences job is made easier by the fact she's not been in any big hits before. This means that people watching the film kind of forget that she's an actress and she becomes the vision of Katniss effortlessly (like Daniel Radcliff if you like!).

Im not gonna lie, its a long film (142 minutes!) and about the first half of that contains no real action at all. This is where the film will have the marmite effect on you. I doubt you'll enjoy the first half of the film that much if you haven't read the book, as its likely you'll have just come to see some crazy action scenes. However if you have read the book these scenes are pure gold, they are so true to the text its astounding, I really enjoyed the film as a way to literally turn the entirety of the book into something i could physically watch.

The only real downside to the entire production is some of the camera effects chosen, at points the film decides to be 'gritty' and 'realistic' by using a wobbly camera to represent the human vision, this was just frustrating when used at the beginning of the film, and when used in some of the fights at the end just meant it was really unclear what was going on! a real shame but a minor niggle in an otherwise perfect package.

The other actors in the film hold up fine as well, although I think the character of Gale was a bit weak as he barely says anything (same in the book) which makes understanding Katniss' attraction to him difficult to relate to when compared to Peeta (for those unclear the love triangle mentioned earlier is that both Gale and Peeta like Katniss, but she is unsure who she likes herself).


If I myself have not made it clear that if theres one film to see this year make it this one, then perhaps the fact this film has gained more 5 star ratings than I've seen in a very long time will. It seems despite everyone moaning around the release of the film the film really has won the world over!

My worst bit- The silly camera choice at parts

My Best bit - I was really concerned as to how they were going to present the clothes Katniss wore in the Capitol, this is a really poignant moment in the book as it's when people begin to take note of her. Luckily its perfectly created in the film and you really do get to witness Katniss Everdeen as "the girl on fire"

My Rating- 9/10 > It absolutely deserves this score, its one of the best films I've ever seen in the cinema, and easily the most fantastic text to film adaptation I've come across.

-James