The Phenomenon that is The Hunger Games

So, there is this book, I think it's called The Hunger Games. Have you heard about it? The movie just came out this past weekend. Ohhhh, wait. I'm guessing ya'll knew that already since "The Games" are all the rage right now, right? Apparently the trilogy  has been out for quite sometime. I, however, just read them. I have to be honest, when I first heard about the books I thought they sounded super LAME. Who wants to read about some weird districts that force children to fight to death until only one person, the winner, is left standing? Not this girl. I had absolutely no desire to read them. But everyone and their mother was talking about them..."ooooooohhhhmygawd. Kristi. You HAVE to read them"...I just couldn't do it. One of my coworkers gave me her copy to read while Tommy and I went away for the weekend a couple of months ago. She said just READ IT. I gave in and started reading. I was hooked by page ten. Hooked. As in, could not put the darn book DOWN. As in, I have two children, work full time and still managed to read all three books in two weeks. (PS. I was incredibly impressed with myself, especially considering I hadn't read a single book since Gray was born.)  I could sit here and go on and on about how much I loved the books. The details. The love story. The adventure. The way Suzanne Collins left me hanging at the end of every chapter. I constantly found myself saying, "just one more chapter." The twist in the plot. But what I really want to talk about is the movie.

Typically, if a book I've read ends up being a movie as well, I don't see it. I'm always disappointed. I love Eat, Pray, Love but never saw the movie. I just don't do it. The movie is NEVER as good. EVER. And then, in my mind, the book is ruined. I broke this rule though with The Help. I saw the movie and loved it. It was JUST like the book. So, here I was having just read The Hunger Games and then the movie comes out. I recalled how much I loved the movie version of The Help, so I decided to go ahead and break my rule a second time. I went and saw the movie this past weekend. Uggggggggggggggggggggh. I was SO disappointed. 

So many details were left out. I kept saying to myself, that isn't how it happened in the book. *WARNING: spoiler alert coming*  In the book, when Rue dies, Katniss makes her what is described as a crown of flowers. In the movie, that doesn't happen. Katniss places a bouquet of flowers in her hands. I know, small silly details but I found myself thinking like this the entire movie. When Katniss and Peeta "win," they are separated and isolated to recover from their injuries. Their tracking devices are taken out. Peeta hurt his leg and I believe he gets some sort of prosthetic. Ummm...that didn't happen in the movie either. In the book, when the dogs attacked at the end, each dog was supposedly one of the tributes who had died. Glimmer, had green eyes, and the book described her dog SO CLEARLY. I saw nothing like that in the movie. Again, little details, but I really MISSED those details in the movie. Don't get me wrong. I didn't think it was a BAD movie. I guess I was just disappointed because I wanted it to be SO MUCH MORE and it wasn't. One of my besties knows how obsessed I became with the books and knew I went to see the movie. She asked what I thought and I shared my opinion. She said she always sees the movie FIRST and THEN reads the book. That way, the movie is never a disappointment. I thought that was an interesting perspective. 

What do you think? Did you see the movie? Did you like it? Let the comments commence!