The Book Was Better discussion

Okay, time to start one about this move as well!

I want to start out with a positive, since it's so easy to find the negatives in a book to movie transition. Although it was a little different in the book, the scene where Katniss finally shoots her bow for the first time in the training room and everyone is watching was great! The digital targets made it much more exciting in a way, so I did not mind it was not launched clay targets. Such a wonderful moment when she turns and sees everyone is watching her and finally knows she really is a threat not just some lame girl in love!

plus when they all wanted to be alies and she had her pick! :)

Yes! So good!

I loved the actors who play nuts and volts! that was exactly how i pictured them! I loved the part too where Cinna was beat up and never seen again and how upset Katniss was. I tear up when i see it!

Yes, the casting was perfect in the movie!!! I was worried about a few of the actors both in Hunger Games as well as Catching Fire, but it was PERFECT!! I love Mags so much! Oh, and the scene where Cinna was taken was just so painful to watch. What gets me even more was that the scene when Katniss goes up into the area was not filmed right after the scene with Cinna was filmed so she had to draw on her emotions and really act her heart out to get across her conflicting emotions at that moment! So powerful!

I will say, I wish the moment when the girl morphilin dies was more like the book. It was this beautiful moment with her and Peeta and the conversation about painting a flower and all that. And I think that it was a moment that helped Katniss understand her real feelings for him even more!

wow i didn't know that! I love jennifer lawrence! she cracks me up. like when she fell at the oscars but she just got up and told everyone to sit down coz they only felt sorry for her and thats the only reason why everyone was giving her a standing ovation! haha

My thoughts exactly!!!!!! I wish JLaw and I could be best friends and go shopping together and hang out all the time....... She's just too fabulous! :D

I loved that in the book! coz he also spent more time with them in training! coz of that time he spent with them really showed why they would jump in front of the baboon like creature.

haha me too! some of the things JLaw says in interviews cracks me up... she recently at one of the awards red carpet moments said her dress was giving her arm pit vagina! hahaha plus when the same interviewer told her the ending of the most recent season of Homeland and she hadn't seen it yet!

I've only seen the movie once so far(so far), but I feel like they showed them together a little in training....but not much. It was a weird relationship, but important since they were people so broken by the games and the years to follow, yet they saw how important Katniss and Peeta were for the future of Panem. I think it was something that could have been brought out more in the movie, showing just how much everyone was counting on Katniss both right then, and also in the time and the book that would follow!

Sam wrote: "haha me too! some of the things JLaw says in interviews cracks me up... she recently at one of the awards red carpet moments said her dress was giving her arm pit vagina! hahaha plus when the same ..."

She is just amazing! I wish there were more celebrities like her in the world!

Dana wrote: "I've only seen the movie once so far(so far), but I feel like they showed them together a little in training....but not much. It was a weird relationship, but important since they were people so br..."

see I did see him with them during training but they were broken not just from their games but the abuse after. Don't we find out what would have been done to Katniss and Peeta after the tour of the districts if they hadn't been put back into the 75th games? like the prostitution etc.?

Okay, I could not remember how much of that they showed. I re-read the book right before seeing the movie, so since I have only seen it once I do not know what was different from the book and movie when it comes to little things like that.

And yes, we find out in the third book that they would have not had a happy life after the games no madder what. Even during Catching Fire we start to see that the reason for things like Haymitch drinking and the morphine for the other tributes is to cope with what the capitol continued to do to/with them after the games were over.

oh the third book... my bad! i remember Katniss and Peeta watching Haymitch's games (50th) with Madge's aunt in it and how Finnick was used but only really loved Annie...

Yeah, that is in Catching Fire. I feel like Catching Fire and Mocking Jay go right into on another so much that keeping the little things separate can be hard some time for sure!

I think they understand Haymitch for the most part after Catching Fire, and then they finally understand Finnick in Mocking Jay.

ahh! gotcha... i know both catching fire and Mocking Jay were pretty much one book in my mind coz i just kept reading because of where you are left hanging in Catching fire! i mean you find out about 13! I mean wow! haha

I told so many people to make sure they had Mocking Jay ready to go AS SOON as they finished Catching Fire! I had all three in one on my kindle so I went right into each one right after the previous. There is not a lot of passage of time between CF and MJ so it can be a little hard to remember what is from where and when and everything! I think that is a really good quality in a series. Makes it all more fluid and cohesive.

haha i hate when u finish a book and find out the next isn't out yet! that happened with The Lumatere Chronicles! I had to wait like a month till the final books was out! I thought i would die hahaha but i kept reading other books :)

I looked up Lumatere Chronicles, and it looks really good! I will for sure be reading that....eventually! haha

I like waiting until all the books are out before starting the series even. I thought I had done that with Divergent, but was off by about 4 months. It was torture waiting!!!!!

damn I hate waiting! haha I've got the hunt by Andrew Fukuda waiting to read as dont have the 3rd one yet... waiting for soft copy to come out and have 87 days to go. i'm sad i know :)

I just found out I have something like 8 months until the next in the Lost Olympian series comes out! It's the worst!

see my friend in NZ told me to read them but I've seen the movies and well they put me off. I know the books will be better but they really really turned me off haha. The only reason i saw the second movie is because my nephew made me :) I promise its on my to read list and i'll get to them just need the movie to fade from my memory haha

Yeah, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the books, but refuse to see the second movies yet thanks just to the first movie ruining the book so much! My friend and I watched the first one again a few weeks ago and our other friends were ready to kill us for talking and making comments the whole time!

I already started a feed about Lightning Thief on here, so once you read it you can also talk about how WONDERFUL it was compared to the movie! haha

I do like the actor Jake Abel! he reminds me of a young Kevin Bacon! :)

Yes!!!!!!!! I didn't love him in Lightning Thief just cause the movie was so bad, but he is wonderful! haha He does a much better job in The Host despite it's shortcomings also!

AND OMG!! I just looked him up on IMDB, and he was born in Canton, Ohio which is like an hour from where I was born! It's a small work after all! :D

1. They cut out watching Haymitch's games.
2. They cout out Bonnie and Twill.
3. They added a line at the end.
4. They added in 10 seconds of Katniss making faces ta the end.

But apart from that, they got everything PEFECT.

I have to say, I was shocked they took Haymitch's games out! I was really looking forward to seeing that scene, so the fact that it was gone made me pretty bummed. As for Bonnie and Twill, it's a little annoying, but understandable since they did not do much but hint that the rebellion was starting elsewhere...

I still do't know how I feel about her spiking the camera at the end..... I still have only seen the movie once, so maybe when I see it again I will feel more strongly one way or the other.... hmmm

Yay I just bought the DVD today!!! So watching this weekend! :D

I agree...I was so upset when they took Haymitch's games out. It is so integral to understanding who he is and why he has become the person we see. It's not like he's a minor character...

Marika wrote: "I agree...I was so upset when they took Haymitch's games out. It is so integral to understanding who he is and why he has become the person we see. It's not like he's a minor character..."

Exactly!! And sure, it was good they had nuts and volts show Katniss how to see the field and all that, but having Haymitch's games in her head also helped her know about shooting the field. I think it was good to continue to show that he was in a way always taking care of her and protecting her. Really, he was the closest thing she had to a dad....even if he was a crazy drunk guy.... :/ (not gunna cry...NOT GUUNA CRY!)

I know!!! I love how in the book Hunger Games she runs straight for Haymitch at the end of the games…It was such a sweet moment for them. Haymitch would have been such a great dad if he ever had the chance.

Good movie, great book, but awesome series. I think this is the weakest of the trilogy. I want to see how they handle the whole Prim with the sick kids scene in the third movie. Minds will be blown.

I so want more Haymitch, period. He's a fabulous character portrayed by an awesome AWESOME actor.

I agree with Dana and Isabel about missing Haymitch's games because u also miss his explanation of the gamers not being "happy" with him and seeing a brief glimpse of how he was "dealt" with when he won. Which explains his drinking. Also missed the reason the morphlings turned to drugs by not seeing their games. Does anyone remember who's games it was for the reason the bodies are picked up after they die? Will read again but just can't think of them right now. Do they mention it in the first movie or second?

But totally agree with this being my all time favourite book to movie series. :D

It's my favorite from the trilogy also.

J wrote: "Good movie, great book, but awesome series. I think this is the weakest of the trilogy. I want to see how they handle the whole Prim with the sick kids scene in the third movie. Minds will be blown."

I am a really emotional reader, like I cry more reading then watching sad movies(and I cry a LOT at sad movies). I don't know how I am going to get through the next two movies.... It's gunna be BAD!

Isabel wrote: "I think that movie is one of the best book to movie adaptations that I've ever seen! Is so similar to the book and the casting is nearly perfect. I loved Jena Malone as Johanna! I cracked up so bad..."

The elevator scene was fantastic!!! Everything about it...I'm so glad the movie had some comic relief because the books didn't offer much and well, while they are awesome, they are also pretty serious and depressing. I loved basically everything Johanna in the movie. In fact I think I might love her more in the movie than in the books.

I agree with Marika, I loved Johanna more in the movie than the book :) I didn't like her until I got to know more about her in the 3rd book. Can't Wait for next movies. Like u Dana I'm gonna cry :)

I loved the funny bits thrown in as well, but I do not like the actress that plays Johanna based on previous work she has done, so that tainted my view of her in the movies. She did a really good job, don't get me wrong, but I just don't care for her much. I think she was a good fit, but in the next book when her and Katniss are closer, I hope I can get past it and like her more since she really is a good character and adds a lot to the story!

I will have to look up her previous movies coz I didn't recognise her from anything I've seen... And I always thought I was good at picking that up in movies haha

Same here! In the books I didn't like her until Mockingjay; but I loved this humorous twist on her in the movie.

That's a bummer, Dana! I hate it when an actor I don't like plays a role I do like...or maybe its not that i don't like them...its just weird for me to reconcile their previous roles. Like Liam Neeson played Qui Gon Jinn in Star Wars, and then I saw him in a super creepy role in a horror movie, and then he was the voice of Aslan in the Narnia movies and I have SUCH a hard time with that!!! I wish a random/new actor played Aslan's voice so it would have been unique to Aslan.

I loved his Voice as Aslan! So deep and commanding! What was the horror movie with him in it?

The movie I did not like her in is called Saved. It is with her and Mandy Moore(who I also lost a TUN of respect for thanks to the movie). Basically the whole movie is making fun of Christians.... I saw it in theaters with some friends who were not really Christians and would have walked out if they were not the ones who drove me. Kind of wish I would have at least gone to sit in the lobby though... Ever since then I just see scenes in that movie when I see her. Again, she did good as Johanna, but I just don't have respect for her as an actor after that movie...so...

I haven't heard of the movie saved but don't think I will watch it :)

It was really hard to not only watch the movie make fun of my faith, but also to hear the audience cracking up about it...

In a way I never liked Johanna as a character a tun, so it was a little ironic when they cast her in the role! haha

He played in The Haunting. Ugh.

Actually he also did an AMAZING job as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List but that movie is so seperate in my mind.

Yeah I never saw Saved but it looked awful. That's a real shame about Mandy Moore...especially considering she played Jaimie in A Walk to Remember

I totally saw The Haunting, but do not remember him in it off hand...and I think I've seen it a few times...clearly not recently!

Yeah, it is a shame when actors play role that are so different. I think as a viewer I see them become their character a little, and want them to be like that person.... Oh well...tis life I guess! :/

I see them becoming that character a little too! I do understand that to choose a role the actor has to understand the character. Also u should be able to play horrible people well and still like them as an actor! Like in Devil wears Prada, Merryl Streep does an awesome job but I still like her. Well she is a pro so maybe I shouldn't use her as an example haha

She is soooo a pro! And fabulous even in that role!! I love that movie a little too much! I might need to take some time and re-read that book again soon, not to mention maybe watch the movie....again! ;)

Have u seen her in August: Osage County? Didn't like the movie that much as was depressing but she was still amazing!