Hunger Games Movie Review (with spoilers)

I am a Hunger Games fanatic. I love the books so much. If you have read my review on Article 5, you know my views on dystopia and what it means to me and yadda yadda yadda. I love The Hunger Games so much, I've even reread it. I never reread books. 

Never. 

Anyways, I went to the midnight premiere of the movie and I have to say, I was kind of disappointed. 

Let me explain; I am a very by-the-book person. 

I think this is why I loved the Harry Potter movies, because they did everything so close to the book, keeping all the fans and the author in mind. 

I mean, The Hunger Games movie was close to the book, but there were too many things that bothered me. 

First thing that bothered me (and probably the most major)

The mockingjay pin. 

I mean come on, you took out three characters right there! 

1. The mayor 

2. The mayor's wife 

3. Madge

In the book, Madge was the one who gave the pin to Katniss. Madge pretty much started the revolutions (without meaning to). Madge was also Katniss's only friend other than Gale. How do you take her out? 

 Taking out the mayor was also major to me. In the first book, it talked about how Katniss and Gale would sell him strawberries.  He came in the story more in the second book, but I'm still frustrated that he wasn't there. 

The mayor's wife wasn't very major in the books, so I can see why they didn't even consider putting her in. She did though, have an interesting back story and was disappointed that we won't get to see it in the other movies. 

Secondly, 

The Capitol. It's not what I imagined. I pictured it more like New York City, and this is way too tiny. It's also way too natural. I thought the Capitol was supposed to be more extravagant. 

I hated the Capitol people. I pictured them way more extreme. They don't look weird enough.  In the book, it describes people having green skin, cat whiskers, and tails. I was looking forward to seeing these details. Yet another detail overlooked, unfortunately. 

Okay, this is a big one. I was disappointed in how the relationships of Katniss and the other characters were portrayed. The movie could have used another 5-10 minutes making the relationships more dramatic. 

Katniss and Rue's relationship, I felt, was cut off. Katniss thought of Rue as her sister in the arena and I didn't get that from the movie. 

Katniss and Peeta's relationship was definitely ruined. The movie did nothing to explain how Katniss and Peeta's relationship was a fake. It needed more time. 

Speaking of Peeta, I missed the bread scene. I wish they would have filmed the scene where Peeta talks about the different types of bread with Katniss. In the movie, you couldn't tell that District 11 sent Katniss bread. That was a really touching part in the book that was super symbolic of the revolution.

Lastly, I wanted to see the scene where Katniss was dying of dehydration. It showed the characteristics of Haymitch (and Katniss). I thought that was a major part in the book as well and it needed to be shown. 

I'm kind of nit-picking at the movie, I'm sorry, but I was really looking forward to seeing these things. 

***.8