So as many of you probably know, I really like the hunger games trilogy. I brought the books years ago and I reread them quite religiously, at least once a year. I’m not ashamed to admit that not only have I read hunger games slash fics, ive also written my far share of them (No I wont let you read them, they belong buried in the past). 


 This Christmas holiday I have reread the books, and I decided to rewatch the films too. And hoo boy, have I got some complaints to make. Because they are so expansive, over four films, I am going to do them by sections, and potentially over various parts (my rants tend to get pretty long, you guys know how much I love complaining)
Without further explaining, I am going to start. There will be spoilers. And swears that some people may find offensive.

My first topic of complaining, is the most logical I suppose, Katniss Everdeen. This bitch. So, in the books, she is portrayed to have taken over her fathers roll in the house after he dies in a mining accident. She is emotionally repressed, she feels betrayed by her mother who retreats into depression after her husband dying. All in all, pretty angsty, which is always successful for a YA novel. She sarcastic and, despite a cold front, often irrational and impulsive, as we see in book, and film, one, where she shoots an arrow at the game makers.

Her story is supposed to be relatable, the question it poses is one that many people have probably thought about at one point or another: How far will you go to save your family.

In this, Katniss does what we all wish we would do. This is why she is a strangely loveable character. Those of you who don’t love her, at least can empathise with her. So that leads me to my first question. With such a complex and loveable character, how the hell did they fuck up so badly in the films?

My first complaint about her is honestly, I don’t think that Jennifer Lawrence is a good choice. She is a brilliant actress. Her acting is usually more genuine than others, she does less acting more than being herself and learning new scripts. Shes sarcastic and witty. However, to me, her acting in the films feels wooden, but more on that later.

Katniss is supposed to be very introspective and the way that her film counterpart has been written, often portrays her as relatively simple. Acting entirely on impulse. Yes, she is impulsive, but there is much more complexity to her than that. I understand that it is hard to show inner dialogue in a film but it feels like they gave up trying half way through. This makes half of the events seem a little more forced. But again, more on that when I talk about the shit show that was the romance between not only Peeta and Katniss, but Katniss and Gale, too.

This reluctant hero, reluctant leader. Honestly they really fucked that up. In the whole series, I never got the impression she felt anything but mild annoyance that her life has been disturbed.

And now onto my next character complaint. Primrose Everdeen. The one we are all supposed to want to protect, the darling, dearest baby sister. Maybe its because I don’t have any younger siblings but jesus Christ. Nothing about her in the film makes me want to save her. Whilst granted she doesn’t get a lot of screen time, the writers just, slap her into the films, like old lettuce into a sandwich just because it needs to be used up. Katniss is supposed to be so devastatingly protective of her sister and yet, I get the overwhelming feeling of meh. I cant understand why film Katniss would try to save film Prim.

Acting in these films, simply put is soggy. It is wooden and I don’t believe anyone could have genuinely enjoyed filming this. It feels like the actors are bored. In an attempt to make the characters ‘relatable’ they have stripped them of their personalities. As I mentioned above, I have a problem with the acting of not only Katniss, but also Prim. They both seem to mirror indifference. In no way do I feel compelled to like them, nor to sympathise with their struggles. Jesus Christ, honestly, could they not find anyone who could act better than this? The more I watch of these films, the less memorable each performance becomes. Prim, to me, seems just like a soggy slice of bread. Sorry for the sandwich imagery when I talk about her, but jeez there isn’t anything nicer I can compare her to. Id say a sponge, but they’re useful and honestly, in the films, we see her doing medicines, cool. But that’s it.  All she seems good at is getting people hurt who are trying to keep her safe. Katniss is not convincing in anything she does, I don’t feel her pain in seeing Peeta brainwashed by the capital. I don’t feel her pain when Prim dies. Perhaps it is just me being an insensitive person, not understanding feelings in the slightest, but I call major bullshit on the whole thing just based on the acting.

My friends, the inconsistencies between the films and the books are numerous, I could literally go for hours about them. But let me just do something else. Here is a small snippet of my reaction when watching Catching Fire after having finished reading the book the night before.

...Here somes a parcel from Haymitch, not that its mentioned in the book its from him explicitly. It’s a tap thing yay, Katniss how will you work it out? SPILE WTF DID THEY DO IN THE FILM KILL ME OMG, also what loaf?! Also mags doesn’t speak in the film so that’s something, also the 12 chimes only Katniss and Finnick were awake to hear wtf jesus, and as for the whole thing with plutarch, he gave he a fucking clue about how to win the games. The whole training montage was wrong. Peeta dying, briefly, was the most accurate thing. Oh here comes the fog. And Katniss frowns at it, that makes sense, lets frown and try to touch something that evil people have put in here to try and kill me. Jesus Christ, my life just shortened slightly.peeta didn’t run first im just sayin. Also Katniss carried mags, because peeta couldn’t run and Finnick had to carry him. For the good of the capital. Finnick didn’t even acknowledge her dying in the books till later. Fuck you Lionsgate. And to the beach we go. Ah, pretty fog, up against an invisible wall, apparently disappearing straight away, not remaining for the rest of the hour like it is supposed to. Wait, is this a beach, it looks suspiciously green. Wait guys, its okay, Katniss is sorry about mags dying! Oh here are the mutt-monkeys. And Peeta fucks it up ofc…

Alright guys, listen up. If just twenty minutes of screen time can make me so frustrated like that did, imagine imagine how the whole series can. I understand that in the films they can’t show everything like in the books, i get it. There will always be inconsistencies, but it honestly felt like they didn’t try. In the first film they missed so much it feels like perhaps they thought they got away with it and were like ‘‘nah the fans wont notice this huge missing detail, and a for the new fans who haven’t read the books, they’ll eat whatever bullshit we feed them anyway!’’

I hate it when film makers do this. They take a book and just, snip away the important things, and replace it, in this case, with mediocre CGI which is apparently exciting to viewers. When you make a film adaptation, who do you cater for, the existing fans or the potential new ones. Of course, the answer is to create something that will satisfy both parties, but I honestly wonder if that exists. I often feel like for books like this, they would do better as a TV show rather than films, because one season can be one book, and it allows for more of the ‘boring’ things to be shown.

Honestly these films are subpar at best for anyone who has actually read the films, just google it. Im not the only one who thinks this.

My last piece of running commentary, ‘THE BREAD IN CATCHING FIRE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MESSAGE BUT NOO WHY WOULD WE NEED TO PUT THAT INTO A FILM, IT JUST EXPLAINS A HUGE PLOT DEVICE’

And finally, friends, fans, adoring public, we move onto everyones favourite topic when complaining about The Hunger Games. Romance.

Now don’t shit your pants when I tell you this shocking piece of news, but. The films did romance badly.

I know, shocking right? “lies” I hear you cry “How wrong you are” some of you tut, but let me enlighten you as to why the romance in the films is not even as good as Twilight. That’s right, you read that correctly. It is NOT a better love story than Twilight.

What makes a good romance? I’ll start with this before I tell you everything wrong with The Hunger Games.

A good romance is relatable, makes you crave the intimacy of your loved one. If you don’t have a loved one, it makes you feel like shit. A good romance touches you in ways that, honestly, other genres never will, because it touches on our most human and primal desires. To be loved. What does a good romance do as a subplot? It adds spice, another layer to character complexity. However the story can survive without it.

What does this romance do, prey tell? Nothing. It adds nothing. I feel so underwhelmed by all of it, I often wonder what the films would be like if they didn’t portray it at all. Oh wait. They don’t! holy mercy from the lord that is good. Alright, let me learn you guys something. The romance between Peeta and Katniss, mostly one sided, is very important. The entire trilogy is about the lengths Katniss will go to protect those she loves, and let me tell you, its not just Prim and Gale who fall under this. Peeta quickly becomes important to her. From the very first reaping we get to know about their past, starting with the bakers son giving Katniss some intentionally burned bread. Id wager a bet that over half her internal monologue in the books is about Peeta is some way. Either about keeping him safe, or even him compared to Gale. Because no love story is complete without the mysterious male best friend.

Did you know, girls and guys cant be friends without romance happening between them, because that’s what I learned. Although in the films you barely get a sense of their friendship even potentially crossing over into the romantic side. Theres no lingering touches, no caressing of lips when Gale is injured. Just a kiss. And a pouty Gale. Because girls love pouting men. Honestly I was so attracted to him when he pouted that I might have just jumped through my screen, declaring my love for him screaming ‘take me now’. No, really.

Taking Gale out of the romance doesn’t change much, hell, substitute him with a cactus for all I care. Peeta is a loveable character but is also guilty of pouting. If teenage girls are actually attracted to this, it baffles me.

Katniss is supposed to find herself irrevocably in love with Peeta, without even realising. She craves his touch, their kisses make her hungry, rather than satisfying her. In the films, the chemistry between them is about the same as the chemistry between myself and a wall. Actually, scratch that, some walls are beautiful if they’re painted well. Their chemistry is non-existent. Not once did I get the sense that Katniss could do nothing but kiss Peeta. An urge that she was supposed to be filled with a lot of the time. Not once did I get the feeling that without him, she couldn’t sleep comfortably. That if he were to die, her life would contain no meaning. In fact, in Catching Fire ala Film, it feels like she only wants to save him because in the previous games, Haymitch saved her. Sure, on the surface that is how she portrays it to Haymitch, but everyone knows Katniss cares about him, even before she did herself. But did you see that in the films? No.

I could write for days about everything wrong in the films, I wont, but I could. I’ll just leave this post with a request. Read the books. Read the books and they might just change your life.

the image above does not belong to me but can be sourced from:
http://www.incitingariot.com/2014/01/book-review-hunger-games-trilogy.html

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