Ashvegas reader: ‘The Hunger Games’ shot true to book

Here’s a movie review sent in by loyal reader and The Hunger Games fan Kate Lindrum, 12, of Asheville:

As a 12-year-old, and a fan of the books that it was based on, I think that The Hunger Games movie was truly well done. It must make Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games book series, proud. So many things were as I pictured in the book, including the forest scenes, which were filmed just 30 minutes from Asheville in Dupont State Forest. (If you’ve ever seen Western North Carolina, the woods in the movie will look familiar.) The movie uses a ton of extras, and many were pulled from Asheville and the surrounding area! We saw a friend of ours, Bryce Lotz, who plays one of the citizens of District 12.

The movie was surprisingly true to the book, many of the lines directly taken from the book. I mean, they paid really close attention, right down to the gold eyeliner on Cinna, Katniss’s stylist. Most of the time when the film deviates from the book, it is because we can’t read Katniss’s mind, so we need to see what’s going on in her head. Some things were cut, or shortened, but that seemed to be because a movie just can’t be as long as a book.

The one truly disappointing thing is Katniss’s “girl on fire” outfit for the chariot ride at the opening of the games. Somehow, two-foot jets of flame coming from the back of the costume isn’t as impressive as what was described in the book. But really, what more could they do? They changed her dress for the interview too, but it wasn’t so bad, just a different costume altogether. Otherwise, liked it, loved it, can’t wait until the next one. Happy Hunger Games!