Hunger Games from the view of a person who read the books more than once

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2012)

I went to see this movie with my boyfriend who has not read the books. He loved it, I felt a bit let down but I was expecting it as the books were very good and nothing ever compares to the book, no matter how good the movie is... well maybe LOTR extended version but that's about it.
They did change some things, like how Katniss got the mockingjay pin or how Cato died so quickly etc. They also let some things very vague, like why was Gale's name in the lottery 42 times. I actually had to explain it to my boyfriend because he didn't understand it. They also didn't include Avoxes (which is weird as they will play a role in the last story) and also the rest of the prep team was missing (which again is strange as they are part of the 3rd story in the books).
Besides these quite minor details I found the movie quite entertaining. But it is definitely not a massive cult movie unfortunately. The capitol was quite well made but for example the flaming suits in the parade just seemed cheap to what I had imagined in my mind. The whole production actually seemed quite cheap, which is a shame because it had potential to be so much more.
But if I have to say some good things about this movie I have to mention the actors. I think the casting was extremely well done, a special mention to Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Elizabeth Banks as Effie, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta (so cute) and Donald Sutherland as president Snow. Also the music was pretty good.
Lets hope they learn from this 1st movie and make the next two less shaky and PLS make it rated 16 or something. We need to have blood in a movie where the whole idea is around people killing each other, jeez for once stop thinking about the kids and make a proper movie for the adults...
8 for a great story (thanks to the book) and for great actors. Unfortunately the director really should be fired.