Book vs. Movie: Catching Fire

So it's been only four days and the "Should I Make a Video Singing Other People's Blog Posts" poll has already gotten a solid seven votes. Oh and guess what the results are at the moment?

I don't know, I think I might post a video...
no obvious majority.

Now that we've established the inevitability of serenading all of you, let us dive into a world of dystopia and girls on fire. We're going to Panem.

Oh my goodness, well that's interesting... Guess I live in The Capitol!
Courtesy of The MessengerUTSC

  Ah yes, Panem, home to all the survivors of several apocolypses that impacted the world over thousands of years. Also home to an evil dictator, a stubborn young girl, a boy with bread, a friendzoned best bro, and oh yeah this giant freaking sacrificial ritual called the Hunger Games. 

Catching Fire the second book in the Hunger Games series, or the second film of the same series if you're a film junkie. Catching Fire happens to be my favorite fantasy book, although all the Divergent and Matched books are close seconds. Out of all the books in the series, Catching Fire was the most action-packed, emotionally intense, and mind-blowing out of the three. I started and finished the book in one night, taking breaks to cry and laugh, but mainly to cry. There was a lot of crying in this series, I must say.

Beautiful fan art
Courtesy of hungergamesfandom

Yet like many film adaptations, Catching Fire was a miss on several points. I know, I know, I can't have everything in a movie, but we deserve to have the same story as the book. In Catching Fire, Susanne Collins was not an author of screenplay, making it simple for the movie-makers to go a bit in their own direction. These were my reactions to the differences between the movie and the book:

• What happened to the year between the Quarter Quell? In the book Katniss spent nearly an entire year before being reaped into the Hunger Games for the second time while we spent only a few days in the movie. We found out about her new life, how things were changing in District 12, and how things were going with her family, friends, and others in the town.

• Gale was not whipped for being a kind hero, he was hunting turkeys. Oh my goodness, little details but come on, don't make him better than he needs to be! Oh and did I mention, his whipping forgot about Darius, the nice peacekeeper? Speaking of which...

• Where are the Avoxes? One of the most disturbing aspects of the book that was only described vaguely, the Avox(es/i) whose tongues were cut from their mouths so they could no longer speak. There were scenes dedicated to the Avoxes and the secrets they had to hide, especially those of The Capitol.

• Who is Haymitch and where did he come from? Before you start ranting, yes I know who he is, but do Peeta and Katniss ever find out? Do they ever watch several videos of the previous games on the train? Do they ever figure out how their mentor became their mentor?!? No they do not!

• Snow. Not that much different, still evil, corrupt, and malevolent, but several details were changed. He never had a granddaughter for one, his story wasn't a large element in the book, and the whole blood in the champagne bit? Weird and left unexplained until the third movie... DUN DUN DUN! (Happy now Julia?)

• Boy with the... What? Really little, but do we wever find out about Bonnie and Twill and their bread story? Nadda. Not to mention, we don't even hear about District 13 and how people believed that it was out there somewhere. Also, Madge is still not in the movie. Disappointment 2.0.

Hehe, these are the jokes!
Courtesy of fanpop

So as everyone rushes out to go see Divergent this weekend, a word to the wise, even the greatest books get snubbed of the details sometimes. Don't be surprised when they forget perhaps the biggest subtextual issue and make it vague for the screen. That's Hollywood for you. Remember, once you get tired of staying up till midnight to see a B+ movie of an A+ book you can always read the book again!


Let's start a revolution,

Girl on Fire