Good CGI, music and acting, but some important things were missing

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2013)

I finally managed to catch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with my sister and her friend last night. My sister and I are avid fans of the books and unfortunately after the movie ended, we could not help but discover many missing things which were rather important in helping the viewers, especially those that didn't read the books, understand the movie better.
Here are some important things which we discovered were missing from the books which I felt were quite important to the plot of the movie: 1. No mention of Bonnie and Twill, the two citizens from District 8, who Katniss meets upon going to her late father's cottage in the woods. These 2 characters were paramount in explaining to the viewers that there was indeed a District 13 as the two of them were heading for it.
2. No mention of Katniss and Peeta watching videos of the old games to strategize for this 75th Quarter Quell. I mean, the book explicitly mentions that Haymitch, their mentor, won the 50th Quarter Quell by making use of a force field at the bottom of a cliff to kill the last tribute, making him the winner that year. It'll have been better if they showed say, a flash-black of a young Haymitch (maybe cast a younger actor to play young Haymitch?) winning the 50th Hunger Games? 3. Where was the Avox, Darius? 4. No mention of Mags being Finnick's mentor when he won the 65th Hunger Games. I feel that Mags's death was so unjustified. She didn't exactly teach Katniss how to make fish hooks either, since she didn't apply in it the arena.
5. The movie only shows Katniss receiving the spile from Haymitch but not the bread from District 3, which is clearly mentioned in the book where they split the bread amongst themselves (Katniss, Peeta, Johanna, Finnick, Beetee) to eat. The bread was also important in letting the viewers know exactly when the hovercraft was going to pick up Katniss and the rest. (The first number of bread the day, the second number of bread the hour etc) No mention of that! Despite all that has been said, the movie had good CGI, music and acting. The fog, monkeys and lightning were thrilling and suspenseful to watch. Most of the dialogue and scenes stayed true to the book except for some important things that were missing.
Hence, I give it a 7/10.