My thoughts on The Hunger Games

I know this is a little weird of me to be writing this on here as this is a trip report blog, but I really need somewhere to write down my thoughts on this and explain myself.

I didn't love The Hunger Games film.

Let me start by saying how much I love the books. When we were on Trek America, my lovely friend Loz bought the first book and when she had finished with it she let me have it. I'd heard about the books before and it looked like an interesting book to read while we were doing loads of driving in the van. To cut a long story short over the course of our travels I read the entire trilogy twice, and Gary, Kirsty and Leah all read them once too.

I love the story so much and have read them 4 times and I am now reading them again for the 5th time. Needless to say I was so excited when I saw the film trailers and couldn't wait for the film to come out. I know this makes me sound like a geeky teenager who loves Twilight or something, but I really do feel like I know the characters in the book. I love Katniss, I love a lot of things about her. And yes, I even got an arrow tattoo on my arm because of the books. Now I sound like even more of a weirdo but I think tattoos shound be fun and remind you of things that you like, but that's a whole other topic. Don't judge!

Gary thinks I was expecting too much from the film, and I do think he may be right. I read The Hunger Games in the week leading up to seeing the film and waited to read the last few chapters until 2 hours before we were going to the cinema, so the story was very fresh in my head. I'd been counting down to this day for months, and I was super excited when Gary told me a couple of weeks ago that there was a preview showing the day before, so I would get to see it a day sooner than I had thought.

This time yesterday I had my hair in a Katniss braid, and had Mockingjays painted on my nails in anticipation.... (ok, I still do haha)

I was even more excited to see this film than I had been to see Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides. When Gary got home from work, we went straight to the cinema and I could not contain my excitement, all the reviews had said it was an amazing film and I was so happy that I was going to see my favourite book come to life. Gary had to keep telling me to calm down while we were sitting waiting for the film because I was acting so over the top.

I thought the film was good, really good, but I didn't love it and that makes me sad. I want so badly to love it. There were some parts of the film that were perfect. I loved the reaping, when she said the words 'I volunteer.... I volunteer for tribute' I had goosebumps (even though I've watched that but in the trailer a million times). There were lots of parts in the film that I think were really good, but my overall feeling about the film isn't what I thought it would be.

My biggest problem was that I didn't really get to see Katniss on film as I know her in the book. So much of what I know about Katniss is from her relationships with other characters, and I don't feel it was shown enough. I totally know why this was, of course a film can only be a certain length and there is a lot to fit in. I felt like there was always a lot happening and it was happening fast, so it's not like the film makers could have done a better job with that, but I really just missed the little details.

In the book Katniss goes into so much detail about food. She has had a hard life, she hunts for food, and her family are often hungry. When she gets on the train and when she gets to the Capitol, she eats a lot. I feel that this was hardly included in the film, which I jus find weird because it is such a focal point in the book.

The part with Rue was rushed, the part with Peeta in the cave wasn't long enough to portray what Katniss is feeling for him. I think it is one of the most important parts of the story to understand how Katniss is confused about her feelings for Peeta. From before they were in the arena to when they are in the cave, and on their train journey home to District 12, I feel that so many important things were missed.

Does he really love her? Is that why he saved her with the bread? What does Gale think about this whole thing? Is there a chance that Katniss and Gale could be together? Does she have feelings for Peeta?

When watching the film, I felt that I understood what she was thinking because I knew from reading the books, but I don't know if people who hadn't read the books would get all these things from watching the films. Maybe someone who hasn't read the books will give me their opinion on this? I feel w needed more time to see their relationship develop and to realise Katniss's evolving thoughts and feelings towards Peeta.

We hardly got to see any of Katniss's relationship with Haymitch, and Madge and the Avoxes were totally eliminated from the story. Also, the whole Peeta's leg situation. Peeta's leg is meant to be badly bleeding when they get taken up in the hovercraft when they win the games, I really wanted to see the part when they take Peeta and start operating on him in the hovercraft and she is stuck behind a glass door screaming his name. I am gutted that this bit got missed out.

I don't mean to sound totally negative, the film was really good, I promise, and it definitely helped me picture some things that I hadn't been able to before. I could never really picture the Cornucopia no matter how hard I tried, so I was glad to see that with my eyes (although why wasn't it gold, am I mistaken for thinking it should be gold?), and I also could never picture Peeta discuised in the river, so it was really amazing to see things come to life. The film making and the actors were great. Jennifer Lawrence was a perfect Katniss, and I love how well the music fitted with the film.

I think the only thing that would make me happy if for everything to be included, so basically I want a 10 hour film LOL. I feel really weird and sad about it, I wish I could stop thinking about it but I cant. I want to love it, when I woke up this morning all the people in the USA had just watched the midnight showings and they were all saying how amazing it was and all the trending topics on twitter were Hunger Games related. I wanted to be happy and excited about it but I'm not.

I want to watch it again, in a few weeks maybe, and then maybe I will change my mind. I desperatley want to watch it again and decide that I do love it. Maybe now my expectations are lowered I will watch it again and decide to love it for what it is. Hopefully..