Details left out. Confusion.

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2012)

Here are things I had an issue with. (I LOVED the books. But the movie was choppy, leaving out too many details!!). 1. While they explain that tributes are a form of "punishment" or "remembrance" of previous revolt against the capital, they do NOT explain that the capital purposely starves the citizens to the point that children are forced to sign up for tesserae (thus getting more entries into the reaping. While Katniss does tell Gale during her goodbyes to not let her family starve, there's no explanation for the comment). There are several flashbacks to her sitting in the rain with Peeta throwing bread, but it doesn't explain that she is literally starving to death nor that he risked his hide to burn the bread to give it to her. She doesn't look hollow like a starving person, and the flashbacks would be/are confusing to those not familiar with the book. They do not show people starving to death daily, and the joy that they get out of having a bit of real meat (Gale gives her the bread in the meadow and she sniffs it like she hadn't had bread itself in years, but she by NO means appears starved!!). So when she and Peeta board the train and see the "fancy" food, it doesn't mean much. Her strange look at the food could simply be "How can they think I'd want food when they're sending me to die?" Perhaps if they'd shown them pigging out ravenously, wiping fingers on the cloth, etc- that'd show they were starving. But the way it was portrayed, it doesn't show that Katniss and Peeta have rarely, if ever, eaten a hearty meal a day in their lives. They also do not explain that it's illegal to hunt outside of or leave the territory one lives in, and that a person can be turned into an avox (also don't explain what an avox is) or even killed for doing such activities. 2. They leave out the hovercraft collecting bodies. That part grossed me out/scared me, and I was actually shocked it wasn't part of the movie. I thought it was important to set a scariness factor to it. 3. They don't explain the 3-fingered salute and the importance/risk of the people doing it. 5. Katniss did not give a pin to Prim for good luck in the book. It was Madge Undersee who gave Katniss that pin as District 12's token. And another thing the film doesn't explain- what the tokens are for. 6. Without reading the book, no one knows how conflicted Katniss is over Gale and Peeta. In the book, she pretends to love Peeta for the public, but secretly misses Gale. She tells Peeta she wants to forget and that she doesn't want anything from him. The movie only hints at the end that she MAY have feelings for Gale. It doesn't explain that she has to keep up appearances that she is "in love" with Peeta so President Snow doesn't kill their families. 7. When Katniss is getting ready to leave for the games, she tells her mother not to "tune out again." Doesn't state Katniss had to raise Prim for a bit while their mother lost her marbles over the death of her husband... 8. They never explain why Peeta joined the elite teams and "turned" against Katniss. Again- needed to read the book. 9. Katniss attacked Peeta after he announced his crush on her, but the movie leaves out the glass cut on the hand. That set him back a bit in the book. 10. Last, but not least- they do not explain that children from the capital are exempt from the reaping. Thus the look on Haymitch's face while watching the boy & girl playing in the capital.