So, Everyone's Pretty Much Team Peeta, Right?

So, it's been a minute since I blogged last. Sorry about that. It's been a combination of major computer problems, a busy life and better things to do...better things like seeing the HUNGER GAMES!

A group of us went Friday night opening weekend, 9:50pm showing. Which I should mention is WAY past the usual cut off point in any given evening that I would typically agree to be starting any type of festivities. In fact, I'm usually in bed by then. But you know what? I thought, what the heck, Emily. Throw caution to the wind. Go crazy. Stay out past midnight, you party animal. It IS the Hunger Games after all.

(Did I mention how much I loved these books and have been nerding out over this movie for months? Did I mention how I bought the tickets two weeks in advance? Yeeeeaaaahhhh.) So being the fanboy/girls we are, we got there super early to make sure we got good seats and could all sit together. We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time to beat the crowds, until we walked in and saw this.

and we were like, "Oh, Noooooooooo!!!!!"

and then we realized that wasn't the line for our movie.

this was our line.

like five people and only one Katniss braid.

so yeah, we were really early.

so then we just took crappy self photos and exchanged messages with my old boss via my facebook app for 45 minutes.

(by the way, I took a braid count on the people leaving the theater from the showing before ours. Only five Katniss braids total. Such a disappointment.)

Anyway, the movie was great! I kind of loved it. But like any good superfan I must compare the book to the movie and vice versa whilst compiling a list of gripes and theatrical missteps in true "the books are soooo much better than the movie" fashion.

#1. That Liam Hemsworth (I had to imdb his name fyi) is far too handsome to be playing Gale. A little too GQ for District 12 if you ask me. In fact, Jennifer Lawrence is mighty curvy and good looking herself. In fact, I'm not too sure about the cast in general. Sure, they're great actors and all but none of these people look to have ever missed a meal or facial or pilates session in their lives. Come on hollywood, if we can't count on you to deliver an underweight, emaciated actress/actor then who can we count on?

#2. Buttercup was an orange cat dammit!

#3. President Snow. Um, sorry Donald Sutherland. You're great and all but you look far too much like Santa Claus and don't have nearly enough botox (if any!) to be Snow. Not creepy enough at all. Not even close. (Although, did anyone else think he was so channeling Jack Bauer in the end there? No? Just me?)

#4. The capitol's sterile, minimalistic architecture/design was not cohesive with the flamboyant, suess-like dress of it's residents.

#5. I wanted to see some mutts walking around on their hind legs being all people-like and some crazy genetically engineered super scary tracker jackers. But, they all just looked normal. womp womp.

There were other things, like Katniss and Peeta not being nearly banged up enough at the end. Like, Peeta, dude, you're supposed to need a fake leg after all of this - limp around a little or something for chrissakes! Then there was the changing of the origin of the mockingjay pin and the complete lack of acknowledgement for Katniss's prep team - the usual type of changes and omissions that go along with squeezing an entire book into a two hour movie. Those things are all okay. I get those. What I do think is that if they just would have upped the creepy factor it could have been really amazing. In the end though, I did like it overall. I even bought Lenny Kravitz as Cinna and that's something, now isn't it?!

So, what say you? Have you seen the movie? What did you think of it compared to the book? Are you feeling my gripe list or am I way off base here? Or are you sick of hearing about the Hunger Games and want me to just shut up about it already? Sound off in the comment section, I'm looking forward to hearing your point of view!