Movie review: ‘The Hunger Games’ lives up to the hype

PETE PAGUAGA — Sports Editor

It has finally arrived—The Hunger Games movie.

Everyone has been waiting for this movie since the first book of the trilogy came out in 2008 and it was as close to perfect as it could be.

First off, I was late to party with reading the books; I just started at the beginning of the month.

But once I started I couldn’t put them down. I completed all three of them in about four days. So I would consider myself a pretty big fan of The Hunger Games.

Now to the movie: Gary Ross, the director, did an amazing job with keeping the movie as close as the book as he could.

There were some things that were left out, like Katniss’s “friendship” with the District 12 mayor’s daughter, Madge, who gave Katniss the very important mockingjay pin in the book but not in the movie. They also left out the Lavinia the Avox from the capital who Katniss and Gale had seen captured by the capitol.

They also gave the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, a bigger role then they did in the book.

He was only mentioned on occasion in the book and same can be said with President Snow.

But I wonder if casting Donald Sutherland as Snow had any effect on why he got so much screen time.

The biggest part missing from the movie that really stood out and bothered me was how they ended the movie.

In the book Katniss and Peeta have a conversation on the train about how basically Katniss was just acting in regard to her feelings toward Peeta. Peeta was very hurt by hearing this from Katniss.

In the movie she just said that she wanted to just start to forget everything that happened. Now to the endless list of positives from this movie.

The way they were able to show how depressing and somewhat lesser the Districts were to the capitol by just the lighting and clothes that the people wore.

It was all exactly how I pictured it in my head.

But the cast was the best part of the movie.

Jennifer Lawrence was probably the best choice to portray Katniss. She nailed the part—the dark and independent character that Katniss is.

Josh Hutcherson was also a perfect choice for Peeta, even though he is a lot shorter than I pictured in my mind while reading the book. Hutcherson was able to capture the character of Peeta as I and many friends of mine who have read the books thought Peeta would have been portrayed.

Even though I pictured myself as Peeta—don’t tell anyone though.

The rest of the cast was just as perfect.

Granted I did not expect Lenny Kravitz to portray Cinna but he was right on and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was awesome.

I don’t think they could have found a better actor for that character.

Overall this movie is a must-see and I will definitely be seeing it again. Even if you haven’t read the book you do not feel lost when you watch the movie.

The acting is very good also, unlike any of the Twilight movies, and like I said before,the story was spot-on with the book.

5 out of 5 Owls