The book was solid , not great , but solid . Coming in with the extra character development in mind I think really helped in the enjoyment of the movie . The story itself was good and it for sure was entertaining. You wanted to finish , you felt nervous at the appropriate parts and you were cheering for the right people . It fits into the Hunger Games world well , the same feel , same cinematography, and an appropriate number of references to make it all work and for fans to get excited about. I liked it - if you don't think too hard about it - you like it .

Rachel Zegler is so talented , she really does have an incredible voice and a natural charisma. The singing at times felt a bit forced , but she is good enough to make it worth it .

My main complaints here come in with the chemistry and relationship development between not only Gray and Snow , but between everyone . The first third did a good job of helping the audience see and understand people's actions and relationships to each other , but come the second part and all the sudden it's all very murky - and not in a "people are complicated " type of way , but in a way where things seem to happens only to move a plot along and not for any other seemingly good reason . You are confused by motivations and romanticism and you go from point A to Z but missed at least L-P.

It's fine , they did a fine job and I did enjoy it , just not great writing.

I think it stayed as true to the book as the length of the movie would allow. There had to be a lot of adapting to fit 500+ pages in a 2.5 hour movie.

That being said, I don't think they did a great job of conveying Snow's internal struggle. Love vs His Future. Human Decency vs Power. His Past vs His Present. He was CONSTANTLY torn in the book.

Throughout the book, you wondered how he would eventually turn "bad". His journey and eventual decision makes sense and doesn't seem quick and sudden. There doesn't seem to be an obvious character arc in the movie that shows his change.

At the end of the movie, Snow's "betrayal" and reaction towards Lucy may seem confusing and rushed if you don't have background from reading the book. You don't really know how much Lucy means to him and how shocking that ending should be.

It's a good adaptation, but it's definitely not the best Hunger Games movie!

I watched this in the cinema with my younger sisters yesterday, all of us having reasonably enjoyed the Hunger Games books and bits of the movie series before this.

I think there were a lot of nice points about this movie - the setting felt pretty believable, the acting was generally good... but I think the story itself was a bit weak, and for some reason I was really turned off by all the singing bits.

In terms of the story, it was fascinating seeing the main character grapple with his concepts of what he knew was right and wrong, and what FELT right and wrong to him, but I think the female lead didn't really have any real development or much actual likeability - she felt like a pasted classic "good folk girl" kind of character, except for setting snakes on people?? I didn't really sense much chemistry with her and Snow's characters, because it didn't seem like they even any notable spent time together, and her disappearance at the end, leaving the snake to attack him, felt so strange. Why did she waste time setting up a nasty trick like that, if it wasn't going to kill him, and serve just to slow her escape down, and also make him hate her? Was she just trying to make some kind of risky point? I don't know, it just didn't really make sense to me.

And the singing... I can't say exactly what bothered me about it, but it just felt weird. I found the singing scenes long and kind of painful - I guess it didn't feel like someone in that setting sincerely singing, but someone from 2023 singing for a 2023 movie and pretending to add a folk kind of twang to it. She's a great singer, I'm not denying that, but it didn't feel like it fit with the setting somehow.

Overall, I guess the movie was somewhat interesting, though I wouldn't say "enjoyable". I wouldn't recommend it to friends, but maybe the book's pacing is better? I don't expect I'll be reading it though, unfortunately.