Movie Review: The Hunger Games

It was another busy weekend for me starting with a viewing of The Hunger Games on Friday night with Jackie. As you may recall, I read the books back a few months ago upon Jackie’s recommendation and they were some of the best books I have read in a long while; so, I was anxious to see the movie to see how it compared to the book.

We met up for an early dinner at I Love Sushi. Jackie hasn’t been feeling well lately so she just had soup and edamame while I had a salad and some yummy sushi. We headed over to the movie theater and got our tickets and our seats and settled in for the show.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised with the movie. It followed the book quite closely which made me very happy. There were some minor details that were left out but they were not essential to the story line and therefore were not that missed. I felt that the scenery was very similar to how it was described in the book and the movie was also well cast. The only problem I had with the casting was the guy who plays Peta. He did a good job in the movie, but he was nothing like the Peta I had pictured in my mind when I read the book.

Jackie commented that it was a lot more gruesome on screen than when reading and she was right. Watching children kill each other is a bit much on the big screen. Although we both knew what was going to happen, we both found ourselves nervous and anxiously anticipating what would happen next. I found my heart racing on more than one occasion. There was a lot of foreshadowing in the movie, setting the plot for the next two movies. It didn’t take away from the film and was probably necessary because of the amount of material that needs to be covered in the follow up films.

If you liked the books, I think you will also like the movie and if you haven’t read the books then you will probably also like it. I thought it was really well done and in fact wouldn’t mind seeing it again.