the movies fumbled both the exploitive media commentary and the love story SO TRUE like i think it would’ve been way less irritating had they focused explicitly on one, and i think they could’ve done so, but instead we got an awkward loveless romance plot AND no social commentary with any real substance. so frustrating!! and it just makes me think about how people misread/misremember thg and the love story, and i think so much of that is because the movies really failed to understand what made the love story compelling. but then people also forget so much of the social commentary on the exploitation of children and the beauty industry, because the movies cast fully grown adults and katniss never had to really go through the ordeal of “prep” because she was already beautified in the district 12 scenes. ugh im rambling but like. they couldn’t do EITHER one well and the entire story suffers for it
I get spicy like a hot sauce when I read complaints that the movie suffers because of the romance and I think “the romance is in the book and it’s important!” … but it’s not played right in the films (not least because the characters of Katniss and Peeta lose a lot of their equality in the name of “girlboss and simp” 🙄) and some of the depth is lost! The point is that the love is real, in spite of how so much of the Games and what Katniss and Peeta are forced to do is not real.
I don’t hate the movies completely and I certainly don’t think poorly of anyone who likes them! There’s things I like! But they’re quite a separate media from the book, and should be considered as such IMO.
