Movie vs Book (Which Do You Think Is The Best?)

We would all like to think that the movie would be the same as the book in keeping with the story line and main points. Unfortunately this is not the case and the Hunger Games book and movie show many differences but also similarities.

A noticeable difference between the movie and the book is the scenes shown of Seneca Crane, the head game maker, and President Snow. These characters are not mentioned in the book much to hardly at all yet they are some of the important characters in the film. We see many scenes in the film of Seneca and President Snow talking about the games and how they can become more interesting and even how to run the games. Most scenes with Seneca Crane involve him in a room with other game makers changing the arena. He and the other game makers see when tributes are far away and try to drive them towards other tributes in order to keep the games moving along and interesting. In the film, we get to see the technology of the Capitol and get to see how they control the arena. Overall, the film did not really add or remove any of the modifications made to the arena except the rain and drying of the stream. Allowing us to see the inner workings of the Capitol during the games gives viewers a look into why and how the Capitol does what they do and how the games are all just for entertainment and to keep the districts from rebelling (even though in the film we see that does not exactly work).

One of the differences that really makes me upset is how Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin. In the books, Madge, the mayor of District 12's daughter, gives it to Katniss when she goes to see Katniss before she leaves for the Capitol. The film shows Katniss finding the pin in the Hob at a vendor's station and the vendor gives it to her for free. Madge is not even a character in the film! I think that she is a good character to have as Katniss almost sees Madge as one of her only friends at school.

Similarities between the film and book are fairly easy to find but when I went to think about it I had to actually really think about it because it was not as easy as I thought it was. The reaping is the same as in the book for the most part (the checking in part with the blood sample was not in the book), but also the way characters act in the book is exactly as they are in the film. The main similarity I want to focus on is the portrayal of district 12. In the book and the film, District 12 is one of the poorer districts and the part that Katniss lives in is called the Seam. It is the poorest part of the district and it is described in the book and very dull and full of grey and black colors due to the coal dust from the mines. In the film, we see those colors and it seems to be a very depressing as most of the people in the Seam are poor. Even when they go to the reaping, there are some colors like in their clothes but even then they are very dull colors and reflects the feeling overall in the district.

Overall, I thought the book was much better than the film. The book goes into much more detail about the characters, the pre-Hunger Games preparation, and the games themselves. The film did a fairly good job of showing the main points of the book but there is more that could be added in order to make it better and give a better view of the Hunger Games.




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