REVIEW: ‘The Hunger Games’ is an Urgent, Exciting, and Moving Experience

Just wow. Since launching Mockingjay.net in 2009, I’ve been anxious and excited to someday see the film version of The Hunger Games. I expected some level of ‘Hollywood’ – pointless changes, glamorization, fakeness, and always had that nagging worry that the movie would be a huge disappointment. After seeing it I can say…this movie is amazing. Fans of the books and non-fans alike will be entertained, intrigued, and moved by Gary Ross’ film version of Suzanne Collins’ novel.

The Hunger Games may be the best adaptation of a book I’ve ever seen. I think the best way to explain why is, when I watch the film adaptations of other books (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or Twilight, for example), it’s a very different experience. It’s cool to see a version of a book that I love on screen, and I absolutely love many adaptations of books, but I don’t really feel the same way watching the movies as I did when reading. While the actors and directors do a great job creating entertaining movies, the films are very separate experiences for me.

The Hunger Games book and film are perfectly complementary experiences. With The Hunger Games film, I felt all the same emotions I did while reading the book and it just really came to life for me. I believed the actors were the characters that I read in the books. Josh Hutcherson is Peeta. Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss. Elizabeth Banks is Effie. I don’t mean it was a perfect scene by scene, word by word adaptation. Things were changed, scenes were added, as you need to do to make a good movie – but it was just so faithful, and true to the novel’s message. It was also just an entertaining, and moving film in it’s own right.

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