Film of the Book: Catching Fire

Please note this post may contain spoilers for The Hunger Games trilogy of books and films.

You can read my review of the book Catching Fire here, and my post about the first Hunger Games film here.

So far (at least) I think that The Hunger Games films have been really good adaptations. I have a tendency to be very critical of films which are based on books, especially when they are based on books which I love. The Hunger Games seem to adapt well however, maybe because Suzanne Collins has written for telly (most notably Clarissa Explains it All– which I loved when I was younger), she is used to that style of writing so it can easily translate. My sister even suggested that the film was better than the book, but although I enjoyed it a lot I’m not sure that I would go that far. Maybe on par with the book- and that says a lot!

There were, as always, things missed out, but there was nothing that I especially noticed, so it did keep fairly well to the book. There was just one moment which didn’t quite work on film, actually, no two. The first was when Katniss met Fenrick for the first time. He didn’t come across quite as seedy in the film as he did in the book. The second was when they realised that the arena was a clock, it felt like it was Katniss’ revelation in the film, when really it wasn’t.

Film of the Book: One Day

Please note this post contains spoilers for both the book and the film One Day.

You can read my review of the book One Day here.

I was rather underwhelmed by the book One Day. It had so much buzz around it that I expected it to be something a bit special- at least as far a chick-lit is concerned. Not liking the book was part of the reason that it took me so long to watch the film. Having said that I do tend to prefer to watch chick-flicks than read chick-lit so I thought I might enjoy the film all the same. Plus it was less than £3 from HMV, so worth the risk I think.

As far as chick-lit is concerned it wasn’t the best there is. Maybe because it wasn’t terribly romantic, or happy (not that chick-flicks are always happy, or romantic when it comes down to it). Maybe because I didn’t like Dex and Emma pretty much got the raw end of the deal. She deserved better than him, but maybe that’s the way love is? And then she went and [highlight for spoiler]got hit by a truck, I mean, things were actually good for her (even if it meant being with Dex) and that happens! So unfair.

 

I had completely forgotten that the story didn’t end there. Maybe it should have, but in a way that’s cruel. I suppose it shows that we care about Dex that that as an ending might have been too brutal.

Also I think Dex might have been more of an ass in the film….maybe I just blocked it out!

Oh and you could kind of tell what was going to happen from the start- because the story started at the end for some weird reason.

As an adaptation it is pretty good. As a film? Simply ok.

Buy…

The film:  DVD (£3.00) Blu-ray/Triple Play (£10.10) DVD with Charlie St. Cloud and Remember Me (£12.07)

The book: Paperback (£3.85) Kindle (£2.99)