Readers of the Book Beware

Rating: 3/10 (23 March 2012)

The Hunger Games trilogy is without a doubt one of the best young adult novel series of all time. The Hunger Games movie is one of the worst book-to-film adaptations of all time.
The potential that this movie had is indescribable. I was ecstatic with anticipation for this book's adaptation, and to say that I was let down is the understatement of the year. It practically seems like the screenwriters just read the SparkNotes version of the book and decided to fill in the blanks themselves. Details seemed to be changed every where you look, and it's usually for the worse.
Despite the fact that the runtime of the movie is well over 2 hours, the characters are extremely poorly developed and important points of the plot are omitted every which way. Even as I sit here writing this review, myself and the people with whom I saw the midnight premiere with are coming up with more and more things from the book that were either altered, or omitted from the movie. Although I could sit here and list an endless number of erroneous plot points in the movie, I'll just say the single thing that ticked me off the most: THEY DIDN'T EVEN SHOW OR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE RED HAIRED AVOX GIRL FROM THE BOOK
The further I get into this review, the more infuriated I become. It just seems like everything is wrong. The "muttations" weren't ANYTHING remotely close to what they were described as in the book. The final action sequence was untrue to the book and – in my opinion – was boring and had no rising action. It just happened. No climax. No falling action. That's actually pretty much how the whole movie was. It was like a straight line from start to finish.
Personally, I love going to midnight premieres. The crowd is lively and hyped — ultimately creating an awesome viewing experience. The Hunger Games has been dubbed the new generation's Harry Potter, and if that's true, I fear for the new generation. If you've ever had the privilege to see a Harry Potter midnight premiere, you will know that there are innumerable times when the audience erupts in thunderous applause when a big plot point happens. That didn't happen with the Hunger Games. Not even once.
I'm beyond disappointed. I'm not entirely sure I want to see Catching Fire if they decide they was to do a movie for all three books. It is completely perplexing to me as to how a Harry Potter movie can be more true to the book in the same (or less) amount of time, regardless of having 400+ more pages.
The ending is completely baffling. What happened?! In the book, Peeta and Katniss are already growing distant and mistrusting of one another, yet in the movie it seems as if everything is peachy. The screenwriters actually screwed up the story to a point where I can only wonder how they will even attempt to transform Catching Fire into the big screen. In the end of this movie, Peeta and Katniss are all smiles so how are they supposed to turn to sudden conflict in the sequel? The Hunger Games prospective movie trilogy has only set itself up for failure in the future, if it hasn't failed already.
So often from people you will hear "the book was better." Usually, such people are just being snobby, but in this case it is true. Rarely, if ever does a movie exceed it's literary counterpart, but it should at least be considered a standard for a movie to be just about on par with the book in terms of quality. Thinking back on the movie now, just 30 minutes later, I am unable to recall a single memorable attribute.
This I recommend to you: read the book. Even if you have seen the movie, read the book. Let your own imagination create the scenes. Do not allow yourself to be let down as I was. I do not anticipate recommending this movie to any of my friends who have read the book. In the hearts and minds of so many, The Hunger Games books are sacred. This movie serves to tarnish the emotional connection one has with the book by simply providing images without emotion.