Misses out on the most dire subject and becomes its originals opposite

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2015)

To sum things easily up, let me say that I was positively surprised by the books while the movie did fulfill my what I was afraid of – making something violent something easygoing. Therefor the movie becomes the very opposite of its original, making violence and killing entertainment which is exactly what the books wants us to question.
My biggest concern with the movie– as other reviewers also have pointed out – is that the Hunger Games seem to be some kind of "happy camp gone bad". The careers run around killing with laughter while the underdogs shiver in the bushes. The books much better describes how the games where really games of hunger and thirst and cold. How all tributes struggled against famine and how killing became the only way to get yourself a chance of getting out of the arena and back to where you could drink, eat and not be so cold any longer. As the struggle for pure survival is lost in the movie, all that remains is the killing.
Apart (if you can look apart from this) the movie is very true to its original with very few alterations. Most of the important scenes are there. But here comes my second concern – missing most important scenes are Peeta. In the books he's good through the heart from the beginning, making both Katniss and the reader question him, but very soon realizing that yes, he IS that pure. In the movie he seems rather ignorant in the beginning and you never get that warmth from him. You just don't like him! (And the stylist who was in charge of dying Josh Hutcherson's hair should look for another job. I couldn't help thinking that Peeta looks like he escaped from a 90's boy-band and not from the poor district 12.)
Overall, the whole movie has been given a light touch of a Hollywood- filter. Everything and everyone, has been made a bit lighter, easier, more friendly and more lovable. I guess it's something that feels needed today to make sure the movie becomes a blockbuster. A movie as dark and critical as the book might not have gotten as big audience (but may have raised a more important discussion).
This is a good movie, but don't expect it to be something that makes you stop and question what's going on in the world. It won't last in your thoughts too long. It will be like any other good movie, nothing more, nothing less. But – if you want to get something more, something bigger and something more important – do read the books as well.