I want to preface this article by saying that I did like the Hunger Games movie a lot. But there were several points of note with it, some good, some…….not so good. [HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD]

Everyone seems to be frothing at the mouth over this film. However, I had quite a few issues with it and I’ll mention them here. Iʼll address the minor issues I had with the movie and work up. Then Iʼll address the main problems before going into everything the movie did right(which was most of it btw).

The first thing is the Hob. It was a too organized. Everything was quiet and everyone just strolled around like avoxes buying things. When I pictured the Hob, I pictured something akin to a rowdy pub. Everyone was making noise and trading and carrying out their business. The dead silence was so off-putting, it took me several moments to realize the area Katniss was in was supposed to be the Hob(I only realized when we saw Greasy Sae. She went unnamed but I presume it was her).

Another thing is the shaky camera. Yes it is very effective in the arena but outside that, itʼs just annoying. It was totally un-necessary during the reaping and just got really irritating at times.

Then there were the costumes during the chariot ride. I would have thought most people pictured Peeta and Katniss cloaked in fire. Instead, we got fiery angel wings. It was good but it was a bit of a let down from what I expected. However, they made up for it with Katnissʼ interview dress so I let it go.

I was also slightly bothered by the demotion of District 4. The District 4 tributes arenʼt Careers(or if they were, they were entirely forgettable). In fact, the male District 4 tribute is a boy, little older than Rue, and is killed by Cato in the Cornucopia. As I said though, it is a minor issue.

I also disliked how they underplayed Foxface. One of her big moments is how she hid in the Cornucopia and stole her bag from the Feast from there. In the movie, thereʼs no mention of her hiding in the Cornucopia. She just goes up and grabs it and runs away. But when Katniss runs up, she turns around and thereʼs Clove ready to pounce. I highly doubt Clove would have let Foxface just grab her bag and not try to put a knife in her while she had the chance.

Rueʼs death was also odd. They changed it. Katniss frees her from the net, turns around, sees Marvel, Marvel throws the spear, Katniss ducks and it hits Rue. And Rue just stands there. Hereʼs this 12 year old girl with a spear sticking out of her and sheʼs just standing there. She even pulls the spear out herself. Donʼt get me wrong, everything after that is so heartbreaking and the acting is so good. It was just the death itself that bothered me.

But, as I say, these are all minor issues . Just tiny naggles. I can live with them. My biggest problems were how they handled Peeta, the berries and the mutts.

They never explained the muttsʼ eyes. The piéce de resistance to showcase the Capitolʼs brutality and itʼs never even mentioned. Theyʼre just giant dogs that chase Katniss and Peeta for 2 mins and eat Cato. Thatʼs it :(

Donʼt get me wrong, Josh Hutcherson does a great job as Peeta. But the way they handle him is nothing short of atrocious. There were several parts where the theatre I was in burst out laughing at some of Peetaʼs scenes. Iʼll isolate the main 3 disasters and work from there.

1. The first one is the tracker jacker scene. When Katniss is stung and starts hallucinating, the hallucination is bookended by Peeta running up to the camera and screaming at Katniss to run. It looks ridiculous. The hallucination itself is done so well and is used to explain the backstory of Katnissʼ dadʼs death. But it is totally ruined by Peeta running up and staring into the camera, 2 inches from his nose, and yelling. It looks terrible.

2. When Katniss finds Peeta camouflaged. Itʼs done so well and he really does blend in. But the expression on Peetaʼs face is sooooo awkward. This happens right after Rue dies. Rueʼs death is so engaging and youʼre sucked right into the movie but itʼs totally ruined by how odd he looks. It was better in the books(at least I think it was in the books), when he gives some smart-aleck comment when she finds him. Heʼs just moaning in pain with gray paint on his face in the movie. It really does not look good.

3. The berry scene. Just as theyʼre about to eat the berries, and theyʼre counting to 3, he reaches up and starts stroking Katnissʼ braid. Cue the entire theatre snickering.

This was compounded by how much they messed up the berry scene in general. The mutts never bit Peetaʼs leg so they both climb down off the Cornucopia and are just standing there, staring at each other. Itʼs very well acted but it just doesnʼt work. Plus, Peeta not being bitten removed one of the best parts of the book for me, Katniss screeching like a lunatic while they operate on Peeta in the hovercraft and try to save his life.

This may sound like Iʼm bashing on Peeta and Iʼm really not. Peeta is one of my favourite characters and Josh does an great job playing him(the cave scene in particular is excellent). But the way they handled his character is very poorly done IMO. In particular, they kind of robbed Josh by cutting the scene at the end of the book where Katniss explains to Peeta that she and Haymitch constructed a faux-mance around him.

With all the bad stuff out of the way, letʼs get onto the good stuff. While I disliked how Rue died, a great majority of the deaths were done well. Senecaʼs death, while occurring off- screen, is very well done and has a lot more impact than what we can only presume was a firing squad in the book. They do cut away from the gore of the deaths, but you do see the blows being delivered and thatʼs good. Glimmerʼs death, as well as the death of the District 3 boy were some of the most honest(the people in my theatre even gasped when Cato snapped District 3ʼs neck) and I appreciated that.

But where this movie can really hang itʼs hat is the acting. The acting is nothing short of brilliant. I particularly appreciated Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson and Alexander Ludwig, simply because I didnʼt expect them to be as good as they were. Everyone was worried about how tidy they made Haymitch but, when you watch it, they really couldnʼt have done it better. Cato has a speech before he dies, that wasnʼt in the books, that is brilliantly done. It really makes you connect with Cato a lot more than just the mindless brute he was in the books. I donʼt know if anyone read the Hypable article claiming that Cato and Clove were actually good people but I would keep that in mind when you see the movie. It really makes him a more tragic character than he was. All things considered, it really is a stellar cast and itʼs well worth going to see the movie just for them, even if you hate sci-fi. I honestly canʼt name a bad actor amongst the bunch(Cinna was alright but he was by no means bad).

This movie is not without itʼs faults. It would appear that even the best of casts canʼt avoid at least one cringe-y moment in a book-to-film movie. Having said all that, I loved the movie over all and would recommend it to anyone without a second thought.