Unless you have been living under a rock for a month, you couldn’t escape “The Hunger Games” pandemonium in the U.S. “The Hunger Games” film is based on “The Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
The plot focuses on the main character, Katniss Everdeen, who participates in the Hunger Games, a televised event where 12 children fight to the death until one winner remains standing. Since its release in March, the film grossed $152.5 million its opening weekend and was the #1 movie for four weeks, according to boxofficemojo.com. According to NPR, “The Hunger Games” film has spurred an interest of archery in children due to Katniss’ skill in the book. The success of “Hunger Games” has even spawned spoofs on YouTube and Tumblr.
Junior English major Delaney said that she can’t listen to Adele’s “Set Fire To The Rain” anymore without laughing due to a inside joke referencing the book with the song. Sophomore history major Ayla Mangold is one of many fans that liked how the movie was consistent with the book. “I loved the movie!” Mangold said. “It’s not often that you see a film really stay true to the book, but The Hunger Games movie was on par with almost everything the emotions, the characters, the events, all of it was there.”
Junior English major Ashley Delaney agrees with this statement as well and understanding of the difficulties of facing a book-to-film adaptation. “I actually generally enjoyed the movie,” Delaney said. “I was so glad it didn’t use music to distract from the fact that loads of people were just killing en masse. I think I wanted more of the games, but it’s pretty hard when you only know what Katniss is doing since the books are all narrated by her. It’s probably pretty difficult to put it all into the movie.”
However, other fans tend to disagree. “I think the movie was good, but not the best movie-to-book adaptation I’ve ever seen,” senior marketing major Carrie Johnson said. “For Hunger Games, I wish it had been as brutally violent as the book was. I realize they needed to keep the PG-13 rating though.”
Junior environmental science major Yvonne Chan added, “I did not enjoy the movie as much as I enjoyed reading the book. I don’t like how they changed the part in the movie where Katniss obtains the Mockingjay pin. I thought that was a bad change because that character is important in the book, at least in my opinion.” Secondary education and English major Omari James had some strong words of criticism for the main character as well. “Katniss . . . I don’t know, I guess I remember wrong, but I thought the people in District 12 were supposed to be a bit more emaciated? I thought they had little to eat? Katniss looked damn well fed.”
Mangold, James, Johnson and Chan all mentioned Rue’s death as one of the scenes they noticed during the movie, but had different viewpoints about the scene. Rue’s death was Mangold’s favorite scene because Jennifer Lawrence’s acting and musical score helped her connect emotionally to the scene. Chan and Johnson both liked how the movie incorporated the riots from the second book after Rue’s death in the film. Chan adds that Rue’s death and Rue’s district rioting was her favorite scene because of the political aspect in the book.
On the other hand, Johnson wished that the movie would have focused a little bit more on Rue as a person so her death would seem more tragic to viewers. However, Delaney’s favorite scene featured characters from the Capitol. “I think my favorite scene was probably Caesar’s interview with Peeta,” Delaney said. “It was done verbatim, and since I had loved the scene so much in the book, I REALLY loved watching Josh Hutcherson bring Peeta’s love for Katniss to life right then. Jennifer Lawrence did a great reaction shot, like ‘What just happened in my life?’ It happens like that in the book too, so I was really happy about it. ”
After the success of “The Hunger Games”, production has already begun for the film adaptation of the second Hunger Games, Catching Fire, which has a Nov. 22, 2013 release, according to The Wrap website. Margold and Delaney are looking forward to the introduction of new characters in the second film such as Finnick while Chan is excited about how the Quarter Quell will be portrayed. Regardless of the contrasting opinions, “The Hunger Games” continues to grow in popularity as “Catching Fire” releases next fall, thus filling a gap lost from the “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” series.