After staying up to watch the midnight premier of The Hunger Games, I definitely think it could have waited and I should have taken the chance to get more sleep.

Fascinated by the novel, I like many others, was amped up for the release of the first movie in the trilogy. Waiting on the edge of my seat for hours, I couldn’t wait for the movie to finally begin. Yet from the beginning, the movie seemed flat and rushed.

I understand there was a lot of novel to fit into a two hour film, but I felt if someone watching the movie, that didn’t read the book, would be very confused. Things that should have been played up were just skimmed over and barely touched on. There were many miss opportunities that if taken, would have made the movie spectacular.

The unclear story line makes the film fall short. Shaky from the beginning, the viewer is almost forced to piece clues together to find out more and more about each character, their relationship with others and each district . If more time were spent in developing the characters, then the film would have been much more cohesive.

Jennifer Lawrence is the star of the movie playing te heroine Katniss Everdeen and does a wonderful job portraying her role. She shows all the right emotions and makes you feel her pain, joy and triumph right along with her.

However you only saw one side of many of the other characters, and it would have been nice to see a bit more from Peeta Mellark played by Josh Hutcherson. Peeta holds a lot more power than was portrayed on screen and if added in would have made his character much more developed.

Despite the negativity, I found The Hunger Games to still be good entertainment. I was never bored or wishing  for the movie to end, I just simply was expecting more of a wow factor from the film.

It held mostly true to the novel, which will be very satisfying to all the readers out there.

Another plus is that the movie packed in a variety of emotions for the audience to grasp. More than once my theater laughed, cried and grew angry with the characters on the screen. That was very pleasing and definitely added to the enjoyment of the film.

With all that said, I think it is obvious I was left with mixed emotions about the movie as a whole. I would not say the movie was a bust, but I also wouldn’t say it was a smash hit. It is worth checking out for yourself and making your own opinion for sure.

I will anticipate the next film, Catching Fire, with hopes that the studio can take the story line and characters deeper and add the missing wow factor to the film.