Book Vs. Movie: The Hunger Games

So I finally sat down and watched The Hunger Games. Let the comparisons begin (And may the odds be ever in their favor)! 

Description: "In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed." ~Amazon

Alrighty, let's take a look at the book. 

Book: 

Pros: For one thing, I blew through this book in two days. (I could've probably finished it in one, but I got it in the afternoon and had to eat/sleep at some point... ;) Although it starts out a bit slow, Suzanne Collins knows how to write. 

The character development was pretty good, too. (I had a couple problems later in the series, but that's for another time. haha) Suzanne Collins made the characters believable and the dialogue natural. 


The plot line was creative, and I think the author made it obvious who the enemies were, and that the Hunger Games were not seen in a positive light by the main characters. Suzanne Collins did a good job with portraying how corrupt the Hunger Games were, as well as the Capitol. It has the potential of being a really thought-provoking book. 


Cons: From a Christian standpoint, the one thing you might want to take note of is the obvious humanistic worldview. There is no God or religion in the post-apocalyptic world of Panem, and everyone just sort of follows their own moral code. (There was a point in the book where Gale was trying to convince Katniss that killing people in the arena shouldn't be much different than hunting game, assuming the idea that we're all animals and it's survival of the fittest). So, yeah. You just have to take the good and leave the bad. 


Although the Hunger Games are looked on with contempt, there's still a lot of violence in this book. So if you're really sensitive to things like that, you might want to steer clear.

Movie: 

Squeeeee! I was so excited I got to see the movie in the theater! I didn't get a chance to a few months ago, but I got to watch it in the rinky-dink theater by our house that plays movies a couple months after they premiere. :D  


Pros: This movie was so well-done in terms of making it exactly how the book played out in the minds of its readers. It was like I was watching my own imagination. 

Katniss was played by Jennifer Lawrence (first movie I've seen her in, but she did a great job)

Josh Hutcherson was Peeta. (Swoon). 

Gale was played by Liam Hemsworth (I don't think there's any way his name can sound more British, but he's actually Australian. haha) 

Effie Trinket was played by Elizabeth Banks. 

I could go on and on with the cast. They picked all the right people. 

Rue... :')

The movie also brought to mind things that I didn't really see in the book. Sure, it was easy to see how the Hunger Games affected the Tributes and families in most districts, but the movie also showed how they could make other Tributes (the Careers) see the Games as just that: a game. They touched on that in the book, but I guess I didn't imagine it like they had it in the movie, and it just continues to show how messed up the Capitol is. 

Cons: I found pretty much the same problems as I did in the book. 
I also noticed that they kind of made Peeta look more... stalker-ish... in the movie. "I followed you home from school every day... every day." O_O 

I wasn't *too* thrilled with the ending, but it wasn't really bad or anything. haha 


So which one wins this round of Book Vs. Movie? 

I'd say this one is a tie. 
The movie complimented the book perfectly. The book is still worth reading because there are things in the book that weren't in the movie, so I think they balanced each other out. :)