By Liz Brossard
My name is Liz and I am a book snob. I’m the person that will exhaust you with every detail of a book and tell you why it shouldn’t be made into a movie. Or if it was, what the director did wrong. “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is no exception; however, I must give credit where credit is due. The new director, Francis Lawrence, made a solid adaptation out of the second book in the Hunger Game series.
Images courtesy of Liz Brossard.
I read the Hunger Games series a few years after all three books were released, but before the announcement of the movie. I just want to make sure everyone is aware that I didn’t jump on the bandwagon since; after all, I am a book snob.
The three books were easy reads, but the best dystopian novels I’ve ever read. Every detail was perfectly explained and I became invested in Katniss, District 12 and the revolution.
Suzanne Collins got me emotionally invested from book one, but “Catching Fire” is what really solidified my love for the series. Though it may fall into the same genre as other YA series’ like “Twilight,” the depth, darkness and social implications of the Hunger Games cannot be compared to the silliness of sparkly, lustful teenage vampires.
The movies don’t show the depth in the way that the books do, but I think they did the best they could for a PG-13 audience. There were a few missing puzzle pieces, and I will explain why they were important and why the movie fell a little short. I’m not going to give you an entire synopsis of the book or the movie, but beware, there are spoilers.
One of the missing pieces was that the victors had to show off a hobby or a skill, and the book explained that Peeta had become an incredible artist, which would have explained a little better why he drew the picture of Rue on the floor at the trials before the games. But that’s not the detail that frustrated me.
I have anger built up from the first movie when they never even mentioned that Peeta’s leg or Katniss’ ear had to be reconstructed. These are things that they touch on in the second book quite extensively. Peeta is supposed to be a hindrance to the group due to his leg. Yet, in the movie they show him just as limber as the rest of the victors. In actuality, he is a problem and the only reason everyone goes out of their way to keep him alive is because he is important to Katniss.
Overall, these are unimportant details. More so, I would like to touch on the foreshadowing moments in the book that left the movie lacking.
Plutrach Heavensbee
The culmination of the victors’ tour lands Katniss and Peeta at President Snow’s mansion for a party at the capitol, where Katniss meets Plutrach Heavensbee, the new gamekeeper. Heavensbee was eager to meet Katniss. During their meeting, he showed Katniss his watch, this watch is important for a couple of reasons. First, it had a holographic image of the mockingjay in the background, and he makes it a point for her to see that. The scene foreshadows the layout of the arena and was Heavensbee’s way to show Katniss his allegiance. She is not sure of where his loyalties lie, but in the movie that is never questioned. She doesn’t realize this until much later, but at some point she does realize that he was giving her a clue. This isn’t even alluded to in the movie, but what would it have taken, a whole three minutes for that scene?
Bonnie and Twill
This is one of the biggest errors in the movie. Bonnie and Twill, the escapees from District 8, meet Katniss on their way to the supposedly non-existent District 13. She is introduced to the pair in the woods in her last excursion beyond the fence before the games. She learns about the uprisings, the possibility of District 13’s underground existence and how the mockingjay has become a symbol for the districts’ revolution. There are some things you had to leave out to avoid a five-hour movie, but this, to me, was a key moment.
President Snow
Not once in the book did we learn about President Snow and his grandchild. You know why? Because she didn’t exist. The movie also never alluded to President Snow’s odor of blood and roses, which I understand. How do you explain that in a movie properly? Still, it’s something that Katniss mentions frequently and it helps explain Snow’s character.
All that being said, I enjoyed the second movie much more than the first. Maybe it was the new director or the acting – the casting was great – but at the end of the day, it was a solid movie and it left me excited for what Collins and Lawrence will do with the final installments.
Bottom line: take the time to read these books. They’re a quick, simple read, but you will feel like you are part of the storyline. Katniss’ odds may not always be in her favor, but they are for the reader.
About the Author: Liz Brossard is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago where she earned her BA in Print Journalism. Currently she resides in Crystal Lake, Ill where she works as an Administrative assistant and a freelance writer. Previously Liz was the editor of an online Indie music site/zine and hopes to find her way back to writing music reviews, book reviews and movie reviews on a more regular basis. She is an avid reader and finds it hard to put a book down, even if it subpar. To her, reading and learning is the only thing that keeps this world going well, that and her two cats.
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