Did You See It?

Those of you who know me well know what a voracious reader I am. I read all the time. There's something wrong in my world if I don't have an open book nearby. I read the Twilight series while they were still in hardback because one of the high school girls told me she hated to read, but couldn't put it down. When my friend told me about this new series two summers ago called "The Hunger Games" I knew I had to read it too.

I don't usually like science-fiction, especially futuristic Americana. But this is so different. Suzanne Collins created an entirely different world from which we live in but made it believable. It seems familiar somehow. The characters, for the most part, are lovable; the situations, depressing. And of course, the heroine is vulnerable but courageous. I loved the book, and had to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay just as quickly as the first book.

So I've been very skeptical about seeing the movie. It is hard to take the creations in my head (the pictures that I formed while reading the book) and adapt them to what I'm seeing on the screen. Usually book-to-movie stories disappoint me. So imagine how excited I was to see the pictures in my head come to life on the big screen.

The producers did an amazing job of sticking (mostly) to the story line. The wardrobe and set designers used the images in my brain to create the characters. And, for the most part, the casting department chose actors who fit the characters. I really enjoyed seeing this book come to life on the big screen.

The one inconsistency from my mind has to be in the character of Haymitch. I saw him as more of a DeNiro character than a Woody Harrelson. You don't get a good sense of his motivation from the movie like you did in the book. He was a little too likeable. But Katniss and Peeta and all of the people in the capital looked so much like I knew they should. The author did a great job describing them, and the movie makers did a good job of listening.

If you haven't see it, or aren't sure you want to, read the book first. It starts out slowly as it sets the characters in the location and time, but quickly picks up so that you'll be wanting to read the other two books in the trilogy before you can put the first one back on the shelf. Or in my case, in the archived list on my Kindle!