Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be EVER in your favour...

After reading the Hunger Games trilogy and loving it, I gained very high expectations for the movie. I figured that I was either going to be extremely impressed or extremely disappointed. I was aware of the growing popularity of the film, but I hoped it wouldn't become a second Twilight and the fan base being split into two teams. Unfortunately, the majority of teenage girls are shouting "Team Peeta!" and "Team Gale!" at each other. I hate people my age sometimes.

Back to the actual film, it's all based on the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy, written by the amazing Suzanne Collins. It's set in the country of Panem, ruled by the rather-disturbing President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Every year, the Capitol of Panem holds a reality television show which takes a 12-18 year old boy and girl from each of the twelve districts (chosen in a lottery-like Reaping) into a large arena where they all have to fight to the death until one person remains alive, and they are crowned victor. This is all done as a punishment for the past rebellion against the Government and to try and prevent one from occurring again. The main storyline is similar to the popular Japanese novel and film Battle Royale, which I watched and enjoyed immensely.

The story is set in the 74th Hunger Games, where a 16 year old girl from District 12 called Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers as tribute when her sister Prim (Willow Shields) is unexpectedly picked in her first year at the Reaping. Katniss and the baker's son, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are taken to the Capitol to begin the vigorous training and mentoring by the drunk and disorderly past victor called Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) before they are put into the arena and the intense bloodbath and the ultimate battle for survival begins. Katniss is slightly more experienced compared to the other tributes, as her and her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) spends their spare time hunting for food to put on their family's table. However, her plans change when the idea of Katniss and Peeta becoming "star-crossed lovers from District 12" is practically forced onto her when Peeta reveals a long-lasting crush he's had on Katniss in an interview with TV personality Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci). 

With the whole nation watching Katniss, she has to try and win the hearts of sponsors, try to survive the lethal attacks from the tributes and be able to go home and see her sister once again. 


CASTING

Since I read the books before the cast list was announced, I was wondering whether my interpretations of the characters visually were similar to the ones I imagined as I read. Jennifer Lawrence seems the perfect representation of Katniss, and her acting portrayed Katniss immensely. Josh Hutcherson wasn't exactly what I imagined Peeta would be like, but he pulled off the role pretty well. I also had very high expectations for whoever would play Gale, since I'd always liked Gale the most out of all the characters, and in the scenes he's featured in, Liam Hemsworth acts convincing enough to satisfy my view on Gale. I also liked the casting for the other tributes; Amandla Stenburg was exactly as I imagined Rue, Alexander Ludwig was excellent for Cato and Jacqueline Emerson looked the part of Foxface.

However, I wasn't so sure on the casting for President Snow, as I thought that Donald Sutherland looked more like Santa than the sick and twisted character that Snow is made to be in the books. Woody Harrelson fit the appearance of Haymitch, but unfortunately seemed too sober at times when he's meant to be so drunk he's toppling over. Plus, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and all the other Capitol residents looked absolutely ridiculous, and I know that they were meant to, but I thought this was really strange.

STORY AND VISUAL

The visual aspects in the film were 50/50, in my opinion. The special effects and the camera work were pretty good quality, but at some parts the camera was very shaky, making the action scenes difficult to make out and made me feel a bit dizzy. I think the film missed out vital parts of what makes The Hunger Games so good: the strong emotions of the characters. It defeated the object of the Katniss and Peeta romance being a fake; the film made them both look like they were completely head-over-heels when this wasn't the case. It missed out other little parts from the novel, but they obviously couldn't incorporate every single detail. What particularly annoyed me was that they either missed out or skipped through the vital parts of the story and that slightly ruined it for me. Obviously because of its 12A rating, it wasn't able to show much of the gore that was described in the novels, but I think I would have preferred it a lot more if I could visualise more of the violence and less of the lovey-dovey stuff (I think I'd prefer to watch all the deaths of the tributes, rather than hardly see them!). 

However, I liked the fact that the film allowed me to see the Games from other people's perspective, rather than just Katniss's. Being able to physically see parts that you had to imagine as you read the novel was great, and I liked to see if what I'd imagined was what Collins imagined as she wrote the novels and helped with the writing of the script.


OVERALL

To be honest, I prefer the books to the film. The emotional and gorier part to the story is what I like the best about The Hunger Games, which the film failed to show fully. Other than that, the story overall and what you see of it is pretty epic. The film is great for those of you who haven't read the novels, but if you have read them, you may regret sitting in the cinemas for two and a half hours.