Bringing Words to Life

My husband and I celebrated out 12th wedding anniversary yesterday and we celebrated by going out to dinner and a movie. We chose to see the Hunger Games. I love Suzanne Collins' first novel of the series and was eager to see the movie. I liked it. It kept my attention and it was a good movie to see, so I wondered why I didn't feel as excited about it as I did with the book. The actors and actresses were fantastic, let me acknowledge them for the roles that they played. There wasn't a character I didn't enjoy.  The scenery was great, the story line was energetic and fast moving, yes, it was dark, but they did a decent job in making the violence bearable to watch (I still wouldn't let my kids see it). So what was it? "It" was that they changed parts of the story. I can't help but wonder why, it wasn't that long of a book so I don't believe they had to make any changes to the story line.  My biggest disappointment was the history of the heroine's mocking jay pin.(don't worry, I am not going to give away any spoilers here!)  Also some parts of the movie would be very confusing if you hadn't already read the book (which everyone should anyway before seeing the movie!). But back to the pin, big deal where the pin came from, right? Wrong! It was significant enough to stay with me throughout the whole series. One of the books is even named after it. I wondered if Suzanne Collins had any say in the edits. In my own writing, I have been asked if there were certain things that I would hold firm ground on and not want to change, like a name or a scene, etc.  Yes, it's funny, but there are certain things that I would stand firm on. And if I were Suzanne Collins, the history of the pin would be one of those.