I read the book and then watched the movie

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2012)

I read the book and then watched the movie. Was very pleased to see that they stayed very true to the story in the book. If anything, the scenes added in the movie only enhance the story line instead of taking away from it, like Haymitch talking to sponsors and talking the Gamemaker out of killing Katriss, but the best scene added was President Snow talking to the Gamemaker about hope.
The actress that played Rue captured the girl's wide eyed innocence, made me fall in love with her. When she died I cried like my own little girl had died. Even though in the book you think Cinna is white, I can't imagine another actor portraying Cinna the way Lenny Cratz did. He captured Cinna's aloffness perfectly.
The only criticism I have is with the styling. I was so confused. The peacekeeper's white protective gear reminded me of stormtroopers from Star Wars, District 12 reminded me of America in the Great Depression, right down to the grimy coal miners, and the heavy, stone buildings and lettering reminded me of communist Russia.
And the futuristic styling of the Capital and the people's makeup reminded me of I don't know what, but all together it was not cohesive, seemed like you were watching three different movies instead of one. I know they had to contrast the richness of the Capital with the poor worker districts, but still, there are other ways they could have done it. I mean, they could have had the people in District 12 dressed in clothes that look like the clothes people in the capital wore, only faded, worn and patched.
But the story stayed very close to what was in the book. So much of the dialogue in the movie kept almost word for word what was said in the book, that I forgave the bits that were left out. And I like that while this could have been a very violent movie, it was not over the top with blood and gore.