How Was The Movie- Hunger Games

OK. My friends know that they can pretty much count on me to not like a movie if I love the book it's based on. I get very attached to silly things like story lines and characters and when they get 'cut' from the movie I tend to be a little critical.

There are exceptions. I was very pleased by The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, and the first two Harry Potter movies. I even enjoyed the Percy Jackson movie, although I thought it was a little racy considering the age group the books are intended for.

So please take that into consideration when I tell you that I saw the Hunger Games last night and, well...

It could have been worse

It could have been better, too

The books started out right up my alley. Fast paced and not overly descriptive. Science-fiction-y with strong main characters. I little like City of Ember, meets The Blue Sword, meets The Blending (Except much more well written then the Blending!).

I read the first book in one day... I read the next one, Catching Fire, in less then a day. They were well organized and well thought out and highly entertaining. Forcing teenagers from 12 different districts (like colonies) to enter into a drawing and if they are chosen they must travel to the capital city (that doesn't offer up any of it's children, by the way) and enter a playing field specifically designed to be lethal. Once there they must kill each other. The last kid breathing wins and doesn't have to work for the rest of his or her life.

You may have noticed that I didn't mention reading the third book, Mockingjay. I read it, but it took me a few days. It was very good, but the main characters were a little annoying to me in the third book.

So. The Movie.

Woody Harrelson was a pleasant surprise.

District 12 looked absolutely nothing like I imagined it, but we didn't spent much time there, so it wasn't a big deal. I liked all of the actors/actresses they picked for main parts except perhaps Gale. He's supposed to be a teenager!

I forgave them for that bit of bad judgement when I saw who they cast for the part of Cato. Even though his character is nasty, I was sad that he wouldn't be in the second movie... He would've been a great Gail, in my opinion.

Almost everything was created very similar to the way it was described. They really didn't play up the cuddly/kissy stuff enough to make the uncomfortable relationships believable for the next movie. So I'm interested in how they are going to pull it off. And some of the action/fight scenes were done with way too much shaky camera footage. Was so they didn't have to put a lot of effort into them??

The crazy dogs near the end were better then I imagined though. Just really cool.

The end result is that, surprisingly, I liked this movie. What did you think?