If I didn't read the book, it may have been better

Rating: 4/10 (8 July 2013)

I read the Hunger Games book and to my surprise it was pretty good, I didn't have high hopes for it.
I won't get into a summary, you can read that on IMDb.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Katniss in the book, she is a huge debbie downer. But that's one big thing they changed in the movie is make Katniss a stronger person, which I think was a good move.
That's almost the only change they made that was good in my opinion.
They took out characters in the movie that aren't the most important, but they do help share more inside to the type of person Katniss is. They are reflections of herself in the book. In the movie, I think she only talks to three people outside of the Hunger Games. So you don't get a lot of depth on Katniss, or her past. The book goes into her past and explains why she is the way she is, the movie spends a few seconds on it really.
Also, they don't explain certain things. You are given a brief history lesson about the Hunger Games and then you're thrown a lot of stuff quickly.
In the book you are told the significance of the people holding up their middle three fingers, in the movie you have no real idea why they do it.
Book explains the significance of why it's hard for Katniss to trust Peeta, her fellow person from her district. Then, the significance of them working together and always being together. This was one of my biggest problems with the movie. The book stresses from the beginning that they must be buddy-buddy even though in the Hunger Games Katniss knows she must kill him eventually. It's a tough thing she goes through that shows her real character at points and really shows her growth as the movie progresses. The movie makes no attempt what so ever to explain or show this. It's just mentioned for a second and that's about it. To me that was one of the most important things in the book.
They changed the ending around, a lot too. The ending in the book is very climatic and builds up well. The movie just disregards parts that are important and says they never happen.
Like I said, if I never read the book, I probably would of liked this movie more. I wasn't a big fan of the shaky camera during a lot of the beginning scenes but they worked better later on.
The movie stands well on its own and it's not bad, nothing amazing. For me it's more frustrating to know what it could of/should of been after reading a great book like the Hunger Games.