Bad ... just ... just bad

Rating: 3/10 (29 July 2012)

When I heard that there's going to be a cinema release of "The Hunger Games", I was really excited (as many fans, really). Casting seemed kinda appropriate, even though not perfect. I believe they should cast actors of the age as represented in book, not any other.
Beginning was ... okay. I guess. They drill us in by few slides of the basic explanations of everyone who hasn't read the books. However, everything from that on goes downhill. At least 80% of original scenes from the "Tributes" part of the book were either changed or left out completely. She buys the medallion on the market instead of being a gift from a friend. Peeta's father never visits her, giving her promise that he'll watch out for her sister. Haymitch is nowhere until the train scenes. I mean, his failure of drinking problem is NOWHERE NEAR AS POINTED OUT AS IN BOOKS. I like the actor they cast for him, Woody, my boy, but they just don't give him an opportunity. There's no chemistry between characters, actress who plays Kantiss is just staring here and there like a dead seal, without any acting whatsoever. Actor who plays Peeta might be even worse. There's simply no connection whatsoever between them, no chemistry - before or during the arena.
For everyone who has read the books, Ru's death was one of the most emotional scenes in whole book. In movies they scavenged it to 30s scene without any emotion whatsoever. It's like watching that dude who died at the first step in arena being buried - no one cared! Jokes were plain, not well executed, Kantiss's absence of water was never portrayed (as if she instantly found the water), scenes in the cave were empty, without any emotion whatsoever, scene where Tresh spares Kantiss was plainly retarded as if he had the eyes over the arena and saw what she did for Ru ... I can't begin to describe the enormous burden I bared during the movie time. They almost destroyed the book for me. I can bet up my house that (if anyone ever decides to make it) this will be the easiest movie to make parody of (maybe just above Twilight) simply because they thought they can make it to look better in the books.
They ruined great R+ books and dug them down to the PG+13. I mean, seriously? There's like three drops of blood in the entire movie. Main actress looks as if she ate her whole life ten meals a day, not starved for half of her life. She doesn't lose weight in arena, no, she actually gains it.
I can go on and on about the flaws of the movie, but I think this is enough. I'm just hoping someone will remake it in the future and make it ACTUALLY R+ because that's what it is. It's not a freekin' teenager drama but the movie about survival and overcoming the tyranny that was put upon them.
They even put president as if he was nothing. Just a dumb guy. They added a "bonus scenes" so we can see what's happening "behind cameras". Oh God ... even special effects looked as if the movie was made in 2000thish. Seriously movie makers ... if you can't do your job properly, don't do it at all.