The Hunger Games Movie

First things first. I am not sure if I can give an unbiased review based on my attachment to the book. But I will try.

I love it. The beginning reminded of a World War 2 movie with the peoples clothing and being forced to go to the Reaping.  Showing us the controlled environment the citizens were forced to live in set the underlying tone. I think it added extra tension to whole thing. The movie was very intense and more graphic than I expected. We don't get a lot of blood splatter or anything like that but the violence is implied. Seeing what the kids were forced to endure was also a little sad.

Of course the seasoned professionals live up expectations. My favorite's were Josh Huthcherson as Peeta, his emotions were so real, I really felt his pain. I also love Woody Harrelson and the redeeming qualities of his character. All the actors filled their rolls well and if anyone ever questioned Jennifer's ability to portray Katniss...worry no more. She nailed it.

As a book to movie comparison...The movie followed the book very close. Of course it cannot be exactly the same, they never are, but we got all the main points. I purposely did not reread the book within the last year in efforts to keep the little details out of my mind. I learned that with Harry Potter. When the book is fresh I notice every little thing they leave out and get irritated. So I give my self lots of space in between and I think I enjoy the movies more because of it. We don't get as close to the characters as we do in the book but we gets lots of other things to make up for it. Like the visuals of the setting and the other character's.

I would of liked a little more Liam Hemsworth. Luckily his role will be bigger in the next installments.

This movie is defiantly worth the price of admission and I will see it again.


Spoiler alert !!!!!!!!!
Now for those of you that have already seen it and or read the book here are a few things that stood out to me.

When Peeta was riding in the car with Katniss on the way to the train after the Reaping... he was so distraught, you could tell he had just been crying. It broke my heart.

When Haymitch was watching the little boy playing with the sword and chasing the little girl, I'm assuming they were pretending to be Hunger Game participant's, you could see the anguish in his face. In my mind he was remembering when he was in the games and a little disgusted by the people's relaxed attitude toward the useless killing.

Then the entire scene with Rue. We all knew it was coming. I would of liked to have seen a deeper relationship between her and Katniss, like we get in the book. But after Katniss covered her with flowers and gave her salute to the camera...that was very powerful. The District 11 uprising really got to me too. I love the way they stood in silence, just before turning on the Peace Keepers and destroying the Capitol property. It showed us a group of under dogs who had taken enough. They took a stand.

What did you think or love? Do you know anyone that watched the movie and did not read the book? I would like to know what they thought about the film.