The Hunger Games Movie vs. Text

by rprewitt at April 2nd, 2012 2:10 PM

To start things out, I can go ahead and tell you now that I am no avid reader. Books and I do not get along and never have. However, after hearing about a gory book that included some totalitarian government and hearing about it from every other person I talked to, I decided to cave and turn the first page of this “Holy Book.” It took me about a chapter to get hooked, but once this cleverly-devised plot began to unfold, I couldn’t turn away. I have honestly never finished a book that had more than 200 pages. On top of that, I rarely finish a book in less than a month because I’ll only read it for a class. But The Hunger Games is most definitely an exception. I was finished with this book within a few days. I couldn’t set it down! I was in constant suspense and found myself addicted to every next word as the pages began to fly beneath my fingers.

Another reason I decided to read this book is because of the movie coming out. I didn’t want the movie to ruin anything about this “amazing book.” So I made it a goal to finish it as soon as possible, so I could see its video counterpart. Now I’m not going to sit here and ruin it for those of you Hunger Games virgins, but I’ll do my best to give you what was going on through my head.

As many can agree, the movie is never as good as the book. I hate to break it to you, but I’d say this situation is following the trend. However, that’s not to say that the movie is bad! It just simply does not live up to the book. There are many parts of the book that seem to take days—even a week—to happen, such as some of the more in-depth love events between Katniss and Peeta. These essential things helped me as a reader really step into the book and feel the connection/relationship beginning to form between the two. I could feel it, and it made future parts of the book that much more real. It gave me the ability to sympathize with each of the main characters as the events unfolded. However, the movie didn’t put nearly the amount of emphasis on what I thought to be very key parts of the plot. Even when these parts came up, the movie seemed to fly through them.

I understand to a certain extent why they sped things up. The audience, of course, isn’t going to want to watch the sun go up and down just to match the book exactly. However a little more emphasis could have been put to use, especially on the relationship between Katniss and Rue. In the book, I felt the strong, almost family-like relationship between the two as Katniss starts to grow this bond with Rue—much like the one she already has with her sister Prim. But in the movie she was close yet still had that barrier as just another tribute to some extent.

But all and all—not bad. I’d say it’s a little hard to fully understand everything the book gave just by watching the movie. I found a lot of parts that, if not for me having already read the book, I would have had a hard time interpreting or following in the movie. So yes, the movie is both highly enjoyable and great to go see or read, but I definitely recommend that if you have to pick one then you should read the book. It’s a fancy combination of 26 letters that is sure to leave you wanting more.