Yes I ended up watching the movie because of my girlfriend. The movie follows the book fairly well (with some expected changes), but what surprised me was that I liked it better than the book. I’ve mentioned in my review of the book that I liked the story, but not the way it was told. Now that it’s a movie I no longer had to suffer the unexciting writing of the book, and I felt more interested to continue watching as opposed to the feeling of wanting the book to hurry up and end. Of course, much is cut out, but there are a few things the movie presents that I found quite pleasing.
The book only presents the story of what Katniss experiences. The movie allows scenes of the outside world during the Games, and I thought this was much better. The limited view of the book was done to simulate the disconnection between all the people of the districts and the people of the arena as well as provide some mystery to Katniss’s surroundings, but this had no significant effects and only blocked the story going on outside of the arena. This creates drawbacks to the storytelling in the book, and I often got bored of following Katniss around and reading her romantic feelings about the boys when her life is in danger. There is one scene added where District 11 is seen rebelling, and I found this to be the best scene of the entire movie. The book, obviously unable to show this scene, is certainly missing out on some powerful moments.
The big feeling I got was that I liked it better than the book – the movie looks great and the soundtrack good enough, but I had no feelings afterward thinking it was particularly spectacular in any certain way. It is just an action movie with good scenes and good acting.
Rating: 4/5
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