THAR BE SPOILERS!
thar be spoilers ahead!
DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
Now, as far as the movie went - the things I worried about happened. The book is so full of internal struggle, and they didn't really externalize them. Katniss's confusion about her feelings for Peeta - at the end of the book its obvious she was only going along with the whole love thing for the game's sake and Peeta is devastated when he realizes this. That doesn't happen at all and its not even clear if she was just in it for the games or not. The people behind me were voicing their confusion about that. The jeopardy was also toned way the heck down. In the book, Katniss suffers from horrible dehydration the first couple days. That doesn't happen. Also, Peeta's injury is healed by a salve rather than a superdose of antibiotics - you never get the sense he is near death without intervention - and Katniss's head wound (in the book she passes out from blood loss) is nothing. The scenes in the cave fall way short of the emotional intensity in the book. You hardly see anything of the capital, Katniss's "prep team" and without the prep team, the self-indulgent attitude of the people in the capital isn't explored. Also, the muttations were not like in the book. It does show behind the scenes stuff not in the book - like the game control room where they unleash the fire and the muttations, and it shows Haymitch shmoozing the sponsors, even intervening with the gamemaker Seneca Crane, suggesting he was the one who had the "two winner" idea.
I totally cried at the reaping and when Rue died.
SO, the movie was ok. Not really worth braving the denizens of the night for..... but I'm glad I'm not wanting to go and see it again, like I did with several Harry Potter and Johnny Depp movies.... the movies are freaking expensive.