Movie Break - The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games (2012) (Netflix) (in Edmonton)

So it's been about three years since I read the book, and details were a bit fuzzy but I absolutely loved the book and had been wanting to watch this movie since it came out.  My niece and I were alone for the evening so we picked this to watch on Netflix even though she had seen it already (she has read the book too).  It's a great movie; I really enjoyed it but they did leave out some important parts of the book.  The love triangle isn't fully explored; we really don't get a chance to know the participants well enough to really care for them and the games start way too soon that we don't get to understand this world they live in properly.  But at 2 1/2 hours they can't fit everything in and they did a decent job.  I'm just not sure people who haven't read the book will understand how much Peeta loves Katniss.  I absolutely loved Josh Hutcherson as Peeta though.  However I  was very surprised at seeing Woody Harrelson as Haymitch as I'd envisioned him as physically looking like Robbie Coltrain but Harrelson grew on me in the part by the end.  Enjoyable, but the book is better and in this case I'd recommend reading the book even if you've already seen the movie as you'll appreciate it even more.  Can't wait for "Catching Fire" to come out this year.