Hunger Games

It's been a while since I read this book, but I brushed up on it again for this post. The book features a dystopian world where this society has been broken up into 12 districts, each contributing something to the society. There is also a main city called the Capital, and it is the most wealthy area as well as where the Hunger Games are hosted. Because the districts tried to rise up and rebel once, the Capital subjected them to these games where each year every district has to submit two tributes, a boy and a girl, to fight to the death in an arena until only one remains. Katniss Everdeen is from District 12, the poorest district and the district of the coal miners. Her younger sister Prim is pulled from a drawing to participate in the games, so Katniss volunteers to take her place. While in the arena, Katniss and her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta have a strange budding romance, but she also has her best friend and somewhat boyfriend at home, Gale.


As far as the book adaptation to the big screen, I think that it was done fairly well. The film generally stick to the storyline of the book and only minor differences were made or excluded. There were a few things that changes, and maybe not for the best, but I understand that not all of the details can make it in.

One thing that I did notice that was excluded was the description and background of the Avoxes. The Avoxes are the people in the film dressed in red or black outfits with red hair who are used as servants. They are only ever briefly in the background to serve dinner in the film, but in the book it is a much deeper story. The Avoxes are traitors who have had their tongues cut out and must now serve the Capital. Katniss knows one of the girls who is a servant in their rooms in the Capital. She saw the girl and a boy trying to escape from her district while she was out hunting one day, and she finds out that they were captured. The girl ended up as an Avox and the boy was killed. I know this doesn't seem like a huge thing to leave out, but this is just one instance of a small background detail that is excluded, there are many other examples that are similar.


Another back story that was excluded was Madge and the Mayor. Madge was the mayor's daughter in District 12 and a classmate of Katniss's. Katniss and Madge were somewhat friends, but when Katniss receives her goodbyes before going to the Capital to be in the Hunger Games, Madge is actually the one who gives her the Mockingjay pin. SPOILER*** Madge later dies when the Capital destroys all of District 12, along with her father the Mayor.***

Also, when Madge is left out of the goodbyes said to Katniss before her departure, another character is too. Peeta's father goes to say goodbye to Katniss and gives her cookies that he baked at their family's bakery. This just shows a further connection between Katniss and the Malark family that is left out of the movie. I find it especially interesting that Peeta's father said goodbye to Katniss when his own son was also going to be in the Games.

In the Games, very few things were changed and I think that they were done for legitimate reasons. For one, in a few instances the timing of events is off, but this was simply done to speed up the movie. An example of this happening is when Katniss finds water. In the book it takes her a few days to find any drinkable water, but in the movie she finds it relatively quickly. This simply speeds up the time between the start of the Game and her finding water, which is basically just a lot of her wandering around. Another event that is sped up is Katniss and Rue's alliance. It actually takes place over a couple of days and Katniss protects Rue because she reminds her of her younger sister Prim. This is not mentioned in the movie and is again another instance of leaving out background details.


The last difference that I thought was influential to the story line was the rioting the occurred in District 11 when Rue is killed. People are fighting against the peacekeepers to show support for Katniss and her trying to protect Rue. The rioting happens from the point of Rue's death on through the film. In the book, because it is told from Katniss's point of view, the rioting is not known to the reader or to her until the very end of the book. This affects how she acts and feels about the Capital and what she does in the Games. I think that it just had to be handled differently in the film because it is no longer being told from a first-person perspective.

Overall, I would give the book to film adaptation a 4.5 out of 5 rating. The story stayed on track to the book and there were very few changes made. I think that most people who loved the books first would be fairly happy with the film.

Vampire Diaries

I know that this series was made into a show and not a movie, but I still think it is relevant for a book adaptation to an on-screen element. Anyways, the book is about Elena Gilbert, played by Nina Dobrev, who lives in a small town called Fell's Church, where all sorts of supernatural things are going on. For one, she finds out that the new guy who she starts dating, Stefan, is a vampire, and so is his brother Daemon. She also finds out that one of her best friends, Bonnie, is descended from ancient Druid witches. The book follows Elena as she deals with the loss of her parents, finding out what Stefan is and loving him anyway, and having to overcome Katherine, Daemon and Stefans' ex-lover who is bent on killing Elena, while also trying to not be killed by Daemon on his bad days. So far I have watched the first season of the show, and let me tell you that they only kept about the most basic premise of the book, including names and basic foundation of the book. Almost everything else was left out or changed in some way.



To start off, I have to point out one of the biggest fundamental differences in my opinion: the fact that Meredith doesn't exist. Meredith is Elena's other best friend in the book, but in the show they cut her character all together. She is Elena's best friend and confidante, as well as the strong one of the Bonnie Meredith duo, but instead they made Bonnie's character very headstrong and confident in the show. Meredith also ends up dating Alaric Saltzman, the new history teacher at the school after Mr. Tanner died. Leading to the next difference, Mr. Tanner was not the football coach and did not die at the football game in the book. He died at the Halloween party and was found on the witch sacrificing table in the high school gym.

Another huge change was that in the book Jeremy doesn't exist, and neither does Pearl, Anna, or even Emily. The show changes Elena's sibling from a four-year-old younger sister to a teenage brother. Her sister Margaret does not understand things that are happening yet, but Jeremy being older does, and keeping the truth from him is an added problem for Elena to handle in the show. Pearl, a friend of Katherine's from the show, and her daughter Anna whom Jeremy has a crush on, are nonexistent in the book. Emily, who is Bonnie's ancestor, possesses Bonnie to help destroy a crystal. This never happens in the book and Emily does not exist either.



Speaking of the crystal, the whole part where the crystal that Emily charmed in the 1800's is the key to opening the tomb under the church does not happen in the book. There is no crystal, and Katherine torments Elena and the Salvatore brothers using the tomb as a hiding place. Also, in the show there are 20-some other vampires in the tomb under the church, and that's why Emily does not want the tomb opened, and so destroys the crystal. They find out that Katherine was never under there and escaped a long time ago, but never cared enough for Daemon to come see him. This breaks his heart in the show because he has spent 142 years looking for a way to save her. There is only Katherine under the church in the book, and she is not trapped at all, but comes and goes as she pleases.

There is a difference in the reasoning for Elena's similar appearance to Katherine as well. In the book, it is never really explained why Elena looks so much like Katherine, just that she does. In the show, they make a whole adoption story up that Elena's mother gave her up when she was 16 and that her mother was actually Isobel, which was Alaric Saltzman's wife. In the book, Alaric's wife's history was never explored in depth, and Elena wasn't adopted.


Some other changes they made include Aunt Judith from the book was changed to Aunt Jenna, and she in the book she was engaged to Robert, where in the show she is dating a few people. Daemon is much more evil in the book, constantly trying to win Elena over and he often gets in fights with Stefan that end in one or both of them almost dying. Caroline, a side character and ex-friend of Elena's, teams up with Tyler in the book and hates Elena. In the show they are all still best friends and Caroline and Bonnie become even better friends as the show goes on. Vicki is never a vampire in the book and is not related to Matt. Stefan does stay in the old boarding house like in the book, but he lives in an upstairs room and stays with Mrs. Flowers, not Daemon and Zack. Lastly, there was not secret City Counsel that was out to kill vampires. The town is very ignorant of the vampire war that is feuding around them.



There were a few changes that were very small, but had many people upset over them. Elena was supposed to be blonde and very fair-skinned. Bonnie is supposed to be red-headed. The town name is changed to Mystic Falls in the show. Daemon and Stefan were born in the 1500's in Renaissance Italy in the book, not in the 1800's in Mystic Falls like the show says. There is no problem for vampires to travel over water in the show like there is in the book. Elena's living room and bedroom in the book are from an originally older house than the rest of her home, making it a safe area for her from Daemon because he wasn't invited in to the oder home. In the show, this stipulation doesn't exist, but then again, Daemon is much kinder in the show.

There are probably hundreds of other changes that could be listed, and this is all only from the first season of the show. Overall, I would give the book to show adaptation 2 stars, and again, I think I'm being generous. The show is not bad, I actually enjoy watching it a lot. However, the changes that they made are too many and too drastic for me to say that the adaptation is a good one.

Beautiful Creatures

The book Beautiful Creatures, written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, was converted into a movie in February 2013. The book is about teenager Ethan Wate, who is obsessed with his urge to finish high school and go on to college in order to leave behind the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina... until a mysterious girl begins to inhabit his dreams. When he meets Lena Duchannes, a newcomer who has just enrolled in his school, Ethan knows she is the girl in his dreams. Lena is rejected by the rest of her classmates for being the granddaughter of Macon Ravenwood, whom the town's superstitious residents consider to be a devil-worshipper. But Ethan gives her a ride anyway and they fall in love. Lena reveals to her new boyfriend that she is a witch, and that on her sixteenth birthday she will be claimed by either the forces of light or of darkness. She will remain in the light, but only if she does not remain in love with Ethan. To make matters worse, her evil mother, Sarafine, is casting spells to push Lena to the dark side. Ethan joins her in a search to find a magic spell to save their doomed love. I would give this movie a 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for a book to movie rating.



In the movie adaptation of the book, there were a number of differences, some minute and some so astronomical that it makes me wonder how they could ever make the sequel movie. I'll start with the biggest difference, the one that made it seem unfeasible for a sequel movie to ever exist, and I'll work down to the mildly irritating things.

In the book, the entire final scene of Lena being claimed on her sixteenth birthday is played out differently. This is where some spoilers will start! So in the film, Lena is also given a bit of extra information that she will have to kill someone that she loves in order to break the curse. That does not happen at all in the book, but there is a different stipulation. If she is claimed by the Dark, then all of the Light witches will die and vice versa. It wouldn't seem to matter if she was claimed by the Light and all of the Dark would die, but it also includes her Uncle Macon, because he is an Incubus.

Which brings me to my next point. In the film, they never tell you that Lena's Uncle Macon is an Incubus, which also means that he is claimed by the Dark without choice, as all Incubuses are, and that he feeds off of people's dreams. There is a scene in the movie where Ethan wakes up in his room one night and Macon Ravenwood is there,  gives Ethan a warning to leave Lena alone and jumps back out the window. In the book though, Macon is feeding off of Ethan's dreams, and that is how he gives him such a chilling and accurate warning to stay away from Lena -- he's been stealing Ethan's dreams for sometime.

A huge difference from the book to the film is the Kelting that Lena and Ethan do. They have an ability to sort of throw their thoughts to one another, but not necessarily read each other's minds -- more like a telepathic texting. This ability they have is never mentioned in the movie, it just seems as though Ethan is very tuned-in to Lena's emotions and thoughts. That is also how they communicate most of the time and how he knows to come to Lena's aid in the battle. Speaking of which...



The end battle scene came to the same ending that the book did (almost) but it got there in a very different way. In the book, Ethan misses most of the war reenactment and is stabbed by Lena's evil mother Sarafine. Lena uses the spell that cursed her whole family to save him, and her uncle dies because of it. Then Lena uses her ability over nature to block out the moon and she isn't claimed at all, but another song starts about her seventeenth birthday now. In the movie, Lena's Dark cousin Ridley seduces Ethan's best friend and makes him shoot Ethan during the war reenactment. However, Uncle Macon was using his shape-shifting abilities and was pretending to be Ethan, so Uncle Macon is the one who was shot and ends up dying.

The last big thing that changed, although it didn't influence a possible sequel, was the last scene of the movie. In the end of the book, it ends after the final battle with a warning song of Lena's now seventeenth birthday. The film adds in an extra couple of scenes at the end. After the battle, it shows Lena and Ethan outside of Ravenwood Manor, and Lena makes it "snow" with flowers. While this is happening, she erases his memories of her so that he can go on and live a normal life. But when Ethan runs into Lena in the library before leaving on a college visit to NYU, it jostles his memory of her. Once his memories of her come back (about 10 seconds later), he yells her name and the movie ends. In the book, Ethan just has to deal with having a cursed with girlfriend.

Other problems I had with the movie that didn't affect a sequel or the ending were the accents, Marian's role, Ethan's father's role, and Link and his mother's roles. First, for some reason the heavy southern accent drove me insane during this movie. Every character has it, but in the books they discuss how Ethan does not because his parents are professors, and Lena doesn't because she's not actually form the area. Lena's accent bothered me more because she was not supposed to have even close to a southern accent. Next, the lack of Marian's role was very disheartening to me. Amma in the movie covers both her own role as well as Marian's, kind of a two-for-one character. I wish they hadn't pushed the two together though because they both play such different and influential parts in the movie that I can't see how the sequel would work with this duel character role. Also, Ethan's father is never present in the movie, but I wish that they had included more how the lack of his presence impacts Ethan's life and choices, and how his being locked away in his study is like a looming cloud on Ethan's life. Lastly, Link is in the movie, but barely. Compared to his role in the book, Link's role in the film is basically killing off Ethan/Macon and being seduced. Really, he is another huge influencer on Ethan and is there for all of the shenanigans that Ethan gets up to. Link's mother's reveal as Sarafine came far too early in the movie in my opinion. In the book that reveal came toward the end of the book and I was disappointed that they felt that they had to spread out the action in the movie more in order to fill in some spaces.



There were a few other things, like Lena's driving a different car, that were different in the movie than they were in the book, but I wasn't as put out by these changes as I was about the big ones listed at the top. Overall, the movie was coherent and enjoyable, but I do wish that they hadn't changed so much toward the end. I think that the movie would have done better and that it would have made more sense to the sequel if they had kept the ending more true to the book. Still, the cast was excellent, special effects weren't anything to cry about, and the movie was a fun watch.