A Terrible Interpretation of What Was an Excellent Book

Rating: 1/10 (2 July 2013)

First of all, whoever was in charge of casting should never work again. Just about everyone cast was wrong for the part--with the exceptions of Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Donald Suthlerland as President Snow, and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark was all wrong. In the novel, Peeta was handsome, very blonde and blue-eyed. I am sure he was taller than Katniss, too. He was also brave, considerate, strong in deeds as well as heart. Hutcherson plays Peeta as a whiny little (and I mean "little") troll. Jennifer Lawrence was equally offensive as Katniss. Again, all wrong! Katniss was dark, mysterious, attractive, but hollowed from hunger. In fact, hunger seems to be present only in the title here, not in the story line. Why not just call it "The Hollywood Games"?
Well, I thought that I could overlook the casting gaffes, and just watch the movie. "Perhaps it will work anyway," I thought to myself. In this, I was the one who was all wrong. The movie missed all of the important aspects of the book, and dumbed it down drastically to reel in more moviegoers by giving it a PG-13 rating. The book was most definitely not for kids. What a terrible disappointment this movie was.