The Hunger Games - Am I Hungry For More??

First off, I know I am a few weeks late seeing The Hunger Games.  In my defense, I HATE seeing movies when they are first released {especially a "teenage" movie} due to the fact that the theater is STUFFED and the ratio of people under the age of 18 compared to those over 18 is NOT in my favor.

With Titanic 3D opening this weekend, I thought Gary & I could easily see The Hunger Games in a theater all to ourselves {or even with a few people closer to our age}.  How wrong was I?!?!  Even after being out 2 weeks, our theater was PACKED!!    Please note: Gary & I do not go to the movies very often. We rent movies like crazy, but are extremely picky about what movies to spend about $10 a person on.

It must be hard for writers to convert such an utterly wonderful, detailed book into a movie just shy of 2.5 hours.  Honestly, I don't think they could have done a better job telling the story.

Before I gush even more about my love for this book series, now movie series, I have to say one negative thing - I do NOT like how Donald Sutherland portrayed President Snow.  In the book, there were scenes between Katniss and President Snow that made my skin tingle with fear for her.  In the movie, he just seems like a classic movie political dictator who knows how to keep everyone in check.  

Here are a few of my favorite things about The Hunger Games movie:

~The Capitol - Definitely just as beautiful and over-the-top as I imagined while reading the book.  I found this laugh and had to share:

~ The way they shot the movie - In order to keep the movie PG-13 they had to make some pretty detailed death scenes NOT so detailed.  I do not like blood and gore, so this was nice for me.  

~ Cinna, Haymitch, Effie & Caesar - The casting for these characters was SPOT on!!  

Lenny Kravitz is so cool to begin with, he only needed gold eyeliner to perfect Cinna

Nobody could play the almost always drunk, but caring Haymitch like Woody Harrelson

I LOVE Elizabeth Banks and she did a great job playing the uptight Effie

and my personal favorite:

My love and obsession for Stanley Tucci is a blog post {or two} on its own, but he gave 120% playing the SUPER smarmy Caesar

~The 3-finger salute - Was I the only one in tears when after Rue died Katniss dressed her in flowers, looked at the cameras and did the District 12 3-finger salute?  Then {unknowing to Katniss} District 11 gave her the same respect before starting an uprising in their own district?  I am tearing up again just thinking about that scene!

So, in answer to my post title, YES, I AM hungry for more!  Rarely do I think a movie does its book justice, but The Hunger Games is high on that short list!

***For those of you who have seen The Hunger Games, what did you think?***