Versus: Mockingjay

Verses is where I put two mediums of the same story against each other 

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First Off: the spoiler free points

As soon as I sat down in my seat I remembered parts of the movie that gave me all the feels, and also decided where they would end the first half.  Unfortunately I was right and it was painful. This movie, was so just too much. I was all over the place and thankfully my sister has read the books, so she was right there with me.  So much happened, a lot of it I had forgotten about because it’s been so long since I read the book, well listened to it.  I made it through this book in 24 hours because I switched to the audio when I had to go to work and never stopped listening till it was over.

The Rounds:  this is where I put them head to head to see who the winner is, and warning there will be spoilers

Main Character- Katniss:  So honestly, I didn’t like Katniss much at the beginning of the book.  I know she had been through a lot of trama and had every right wallow and worry, and hid from the world, but reading about it as much as I had to was a bit much for me.  I’m not a reader that likes solely character driven stories, I like mine pretty balanced, and living inside Katniss’ head at the beginning was too much.  In the movie, I thought it was a much better balence.  You understood how traumatized she was and how she was struggling to hold herself together, but that understanding didn’t stop the story line from progressing.

The Story:  I’m always someone who says the book was better, and in a lot of ways I stand by that statement with Mockingjay.  There are so many back-stories that you never get to really know or understand, but this movie does a pretty good job of not only making up for what the other movies left out (such as the avox reference) but also for giving you a better feel of what was happening through all the districts.  What was just one or two sentences about a distract fighting in the rebellion became a whole scene showing you how they joined, something you can’t get from a first person story.

One thing I didn’t really like in the movie is that they changed Effie’s role in the story, I think, just to give her more face time in the movie.  Granted, I love Elizabeth Banks and think she does a fantastic job as Effie, but I feel like changing the fact she was a prisoner being poorly treated removes the underlying current of 13 not being that far away from becoming the Capital.  That juxtaposition I think is important to have as, the truth is, we are all a few bad decisions away from being the person we hate.

Something that can’t really be compared, is the movie soundtrack.  I loved the Hanging Tree song and am kind of bummed it’s not on the soundtrack.  I’m hoping a special edition might get released with Jennifer Lawrence version, and maybe a Lumineers version, since they wrote the music for it.  For Jennifer Lawrence hating singing so much, I thought she did fantastic.

Over all, I have to call it a tie, because I loved each for different reasons.  I thought it was a brilliant book to movie adaptation, because they each tell a different part of the same story without giving up the parts of the book everyone loves.  I’m hoping the movies end with as strong of a finish as Part 1 brought to the table.

And now a poem for those that stuck around to the end:

There are rebels in the Capital

There are birds in the trees

The movie’s called Mockingjay

Not Hunger Games Three