Doesn't stand alone from the book.

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2013)

I hadn't read any of the books when I watched the movie, then around 6months later I read the books and rewatched the movie. I have to say that the adaptation was pretty mediocre. For a film to reach a wide audience it's important that they make sure to add in relevant material from the books so that people know what's going on. The first time I saw the movie I was a bit lost, I liked the characters but there wasn't a whole lot of backstory and I didn't understand some of the motivations properly. I'll break down the main differences from book to movie.
-Checking in to the reaping with a blood test. Completely unnecessary, wasn't in the book, didn't add much to the story aside from taking up a minute that could have been put towards explaining something else.
-Tertiary? I think it was called in the books. They didn't properly explain how horrific it was that her sister was called out, because every year kids can put their names in multiple times for more food the following year. Prim only had the 1 ticket. Gale who didn't get picked, had his name in there over 40 times.
-Mockingjay pin. The character that was lost didn't add too much, so that was an acceptable cut. But I think by not explaining the origin of the mockingjay bird and how it's mocking the empire, takes away a small bit of the defiance that she's showing by wearing it, and how much it inspires people and later becomes a symbol of the resistance. Perhaps this will be in the next movie.
-Katniss's internalizations. The entire first book is carried by Katniss's thoughts and experiences. It's very hard without having her voice-over her thoughts, to portray this in a movie, and so we missed a lot of story and her motivations at different times. This is my main issue with the movie and the reason it doesn't stand alone to someone that didn't read the story first.
-Peeta teaming up with the careers. Katniss never even asks him why he was with them, they never discuss it. In fact in the movie he is telling them where she was going because he tracked her snares. This is the opposite of the book, where he does it to mislead them and keep her safe, downplaying what her skills are. He doesn't lead them to her on purpose.
-A lot of people complain that you don't know most of the other tributes names. This is somewhat better explained in the book because you are following Katniss and she is just keeping a low profile during training, and doesn't talk to anyone or show what she can do. She doesn't learn their names because it makes them harder to kill.
-One thing you definitely don't realize if you watch it first - Katniss is internally preparing to kill Peeta the second they get on the train. She doesn't want to talk to him or get to know him in anyway whatsoever. In the movies it looks like she does slowly return his love and the end looks promising for them. But in reality, what makes her such a strong character in the books is that she literally has no second of time to think about Gale or Peeta or dresses or who she likes. She's 100% geared towards survival and getting food to her family. She breaks Peetas heart at the end of the first book by telling him she just went along with it to win, and she damn well means it at that time.
-The district riot did not make a lot of sense to me after I watched the books. When Rue dies, district 11 gathers money and buys her a loaf of bread to send into the games as a thank you. It's much much later in book 2 when she is actually visiting district 11 that a riot starts there. A district riot does start after the games in the first book, but it wasn't in district 11.
Overall to recap, I thought it was pretty mediocre the first time I saw it. The books held my interest a bit better, and I found myself liking the movie a lot more the second time after reading it, but only because I finally had all those gaps filled in. To make a movie impossible to understand for someone that didn't read the book is simply inexcusable.