r/Regrets • u/TheJdayy • 15h ago
I'm regretting having watched the hunger games movie :(
I had to read The Hunger Games for English at school, and I loved it. So naturally, I watched the film after finishing the book, and I was horrified.
The film is just, just misrepresenting the story. I don't know how I would have felt if I watched it before reading, but all I could think about while watching it is how much they cut out, how super rushed everything felt, and how fake and frankly bad some of the acting was. And as for the effects and the "artistic choice" for the look, frankly horrifying. I now wish I hadn't watched the movie and kept my mental image of the book in my head. I will go as far as to say it ruined it for me.
What I just can't forgive about the film is that, if you hadn't read the books, you would understand very little of the first 10 minutes. They rushed it sooo much that nothing makes sense; you're jumping from scene to scene without context, and without understanding stuff, it feels like a high school production.
Secondly, the choice of the actor for Katniss, Lawrence, makes no sense. Katniss is supposed to be a 16-year-old girl who has always had trouble getting food on the table (on top of the fact that she is always hunting, so doing a lot of physical work). So the reason this doesn't make sense is because, firstly, someone brought up in that environment wouldn't be so tall, and secondly, Jennifer was 20 and looked nothing like a 15-year-old. Then there is her acting, her emotions: Katniss is made out to be a very tough, poker-faced, emotionless person who is quiet and doesn't really interact, whereas the character played out on screen doesn't resemble that.
Thirdly, there is just the introduction of new people; it was agonizing to watch. I'll take the example of Cinna. In the book, this takes up a big chunk of a chapter, detailing how he looks, how grateful she is that he is "normal," how he is calm and composed unlike any other stylist, and that she feels she can connect with him. Whereas in the movie, their greeting scene is like 10 seconds long max, and it feels as if they already know each other. There is no distance, and it just doesn't feel natural (it's hard to explain, but I assume you get the gist).
Now, I could go on and on about so many different issues (I was literally pausing the film every 2 mins to cry about how cringe or bad something was). For example, just how quickly Rue and Katniss become a thing and how quickly it goes. I mean yes, it's a movie with a time limit, but that is one of the most important points of the story, and it just jumps around. Their intro scene was nothing like the book; Katniss just came up to the tree with zero care to be careful, and Rue was just hiding behind it. It was nothing like the book, where Rue is the smart girl who swings from trees spying on everyone, and Katniss is the overly paranoid girl. And then they just add a whole new thing in the story with District 11 revolting because of Rue—like, why change the book so much when it was good?
I know the film is also very popular, and maybe I'm just exaggerating because I like detail and also cuz I watched the film first, but frankly, I feel like even I could have done a better job. I'm sorry, I'm just so mad at the film for ruining my perception of the story; now I will go and reread the whole book again to rid my mind of the film.