This comparison is only intended for people who have already
read the book and want to know
how the film deviates
from it. Basically, the film
follows the story of the books exactly and
contains no surprises,
so I will not use spoiler warnings. I hope I got all the
names right, because I watched the german version and there could be minimal
changes in the names.
In general:
The film was good, but far
below its possibilities. At first
I thought that the production studio was to
blame for the PG-13
rating, but with the further errors occur, the director is not entirely innocent
of it. Especially people who
have not read the
book may have problems. The beginning feels rather stretched and bored and later parts got less screen time. A movie
which relies on visuals should show more of the arena than about dialogue in
district 12 in my opinion, which was the opposite.
The fights are completely shown
in a shaggy cam. They are just a mess
and don’t let the movie look dynamic. It’s sometimes like a bad youtube video
in which the camera holder forgets to stand still for a second. It was great to
see the character dying, because the fight was over and you could watch
something, not just a mess of pixels. Blood is seen only rarely, or
hardly at all. Too bad, because a slightly higher rank than PG-13 would certainly have been sufficient, without degenerating into an Saw orgy. Most of the characters
fall in an unconscious rather than dying. Furthermore, not many things are explained. Examples: The importance of the camp of the career tribute and
their inability to hunt.
At this
point I may ask a question about the book. Why
do the career tributes
put their stocks onto a mine field, without
even fearing to lose them entirely? There could be about 18
enemies and only one of them
needs to be a crazy starving
bastard to run into it, to cut off their
entire supply. It’s like
destroying your own base to kill a single person. In my opinion a big disadvantage, especially given that most others could hunt to survive.
Now I tell
you more about the comparison. The fire
which serves katniss
to distract the carrer tribute is revealed
only in retrospect to the audience. Furthermore, it’s not shown that the transporters collect the dead
bodies. The Mockingjay brooch is given to her by
Greasy Sae, who
owns these in
huge quantities. Madge Undersee
was cut out, which wasn’t bad, as the
Avox girl. Rue's
death is a little differently, but no
major change. Basically, the above mentioned
things aren’t a big problem, but they
were, due to lack of inner monologues. I don’t understood
why they didn’t used them, because they needed so many tricks to explain a lot
of things, which would be a lot easier to handle with inner monologues. They
just don’t care and show it without explanation most of the time.
Some changes to the characters:
Cinna: I'll start with him because he was
the weakest character integrated into the film. He appearing is not only explained,
also his role is nearly cut off.
He says something along 5 sentences in the whole movie, in which he mostly praises
Katniss beauty and of course the obligatory farewell before she enters the arena. His
appearance was unexpected normal.
His Role as a huge supporter of her is not that clearly shown and explained by
the movie. The dresses were nice with some CGI effects,
but they never made
such a lasting impression as they
needed. Showing them felt forced and happened rather
along the way.
Haymitch: In the beginning he is
shown drunk on
the train. Visually not like as
I would have expected him, especially after years of alcohol addiction. Although
he behaves calmly and defiant as in the book, it looks in the movie
more like that kind of cool uncle guy, the one envied
by all cousins, than a good for nothing,
who he looked like in the books at the beginning. His
alcoholism is in
fact shown, without further negativity effects on him. Precisely
because of his eloquence, the
looks and Athletic ability, he seems to be fine with drinking all
day. In the second half of the
film his glass of whiskey disappears without a hint and he
is no problem without it, as if there wasn’t anything at all.
There are two smaller scenes added in which he talks with sponsors and the game master. The good point is that he is as
funny as in the books with his statements towards Effi and her moral concerns
all the time. Overall he was one of the crowd’s favorites.
[Question: Had Haymitch in the first book an eye patch, or was that later? If not than this
part would also be missing. ]
President Snow: He got a lot more screen time than
in the books. After the descriptions of the
book, I would have expected him
to be a slick botulinum infested
Armani carrier. He was portrayed more
as a wrinkled Santa Claus, who predicts the following problems
with Katniss. Mathpahern about the spark as it will be told in the
second book.
Peta: He is basically the same as in the book, but with the
exception of the final battle. This
time he doesn’t lose his leg. One change I absolutely liked, because I had problems
to understand the need of it in the book, which just
looked forced to me. Something like there can’t be a “perfect” happy ending
happen to them. It also makes things easier in future installments.
Buttercup: The cat was indeed shown, but only briefly. It’s questionable
why it was kept,
since it occupies an insignificant role.
Seneca Crane: I can’t remember the fact that his beard was described
in the book, but his look is fantastic in the movie. He was granted quite a few new scenes, in which he directs
the outcome of the arena or has deep dialogues with
President Snow. The only blemish was his surprise
at the Wolf Mutts, as if he was not the one who instructed the worker to create them.
They also looked more
like bulldogs and were teleported in a magical way out of the ground. Human eyes were also missing. All in all, he was one
of the most successful added aspects.
And the highlight at the end!
Flickerman Caesar: He also got more screen time. Things that were usually told in
the book by inner monologues
were explained by him instead of Katniss. Be it the Wolf Mutts or the Tracker
Jackers Mutts. He
was the most positive enrichment for
the film.
All the other characters were felt exactly like in the book
and hadn’t any changes. For example Katniss,
among others like Primrose, Gale and Effie.
i hope you like it. If you have any unanswered questions left, just contact me and i will try to help you! Tell me what you liked and disliked about the movie or something i forgot to tell in the comments below please.
Hi Prabh first of all, could you tell us a bit about
yourself.
Hi Liz, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
