The Hunger Games Movie: Four Big Concerns

We’ve seen multiple official trailers for the “Hunger Games” film, which so far looks like it should be a huge hit at the box office.  The buzz is definitely heating up for the movie, but there are definitely some concerns that it might not live up to the standards of the book.Jennifer Lawrence will be too old for this series by the time it comes to shoot for ‘Mockingjay.’ While the ‘Hunger Games’ is a trilogy in book form, Lionsgate has decided to make it FOUR films. (splitting one of ‘Catching Fire’ or ‘Mockingjay’ into two parts).  ‘Catching Fire’ doesn’t even begin shooting until later this year, and the film is set for release in November 2013.  Unless they shoot the remaining three films at the same time (‘Catching Fire,’ ‘Mockingjay Part I,’ ‘Mockingjay Part II’), we’re talking a long time until this series is completed.  And it isn’t likely that they’ll shoot all of those movies at once. Even if ‘Mockingjay’ gets the ‘Harry Potter’ treatment, where they release Part I and Part II films 6 months apart (instead of the typical 12 months), we’re still talking Summer of 2014.  Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence will be in her mid-20s playing a character in her mid-teens.  How believable will that be?  She already seems much older than the character, and we’ve only seen the trailers.Can the films replicate the futuristic world of the books?  The initial budget for ‘Hunger Games’ was about $60 million dollars.  It has since ballooned to close to $100 million, but the question is: will that be enough?  We’re talking about a futuristic world that will require a lot of CGI: monsters, Hovercrafts, and other special effects.  Will these things be able to translate to the screen without a significant budget to drive them?  This will be more of an issue with the 2nd and 3rd books, as those will require larger budgets.  However, if Lionsgate wants casual, non-trilogy reading audiences to come back for ‘Catching Fire’ and ‘Mockingjay,’ they have to get the futuristic portion down pat.Will Katniss be grumpy enough?  Sure, we’ve only seen Katniss in a couple of trailers for the film, but my first thought was that Jennifer Lawrence might be playing Katniss as a nicer version of the character.  Cause let’s face it: Katniss isn’t the most happy-go-lucky person in the books.  She’s been beaten down by a hard (albeit young) life, and she wants to do one thing: take care of herself and her family. She’s not overly emotional, and from what I’ve seen in the trailers, she seems to show a lot more outward emotion than in the books.Will we see major changes in the films?  We’ve already seen how the film has changed the origin of the Mockingjay pin.  Originally, that pin was given to Katniss by Madge.  Yet in the trailer, Katniss gives it to Prim.  I assume that Prim gives it back to Katniss prior to Katniss leaving for the Games, but I could be wrong.  And while this isn’t a huge change from the book, it certainly makes you wonder what else will change in the film.  How true will the writer and director stay to the trilogy, especially when the 2nd and 3rd books have a huge amount of incredibly important material that needs to go to the silver screen?I hope that my concerns are unfounded, but I fear they aren’t.  So what do you think?  Let us know in the comments below.