Its release has been perfectly built up through nearly half a dozen other Marvel titles and well-kept information. When it was announced that Joss Whedon would be directing, fans veritably freaked out, and justifiably so. His penchant for character development and snappy, pitch-perfect dialogue made him an excellent choice for bringing together these distinct and distinguished personalities. If you can’t tell already, I’m letting you know that the movie is good. More than, good, in fact; it’s incredible.

The film follows the eponymous Avengers, who, before this point, were mostly separate from each other. Each one was in a previous Marvel film (though Black Widow and Hawkeye were simply minor characters in the adaptations they were in), so it’s incredibly useful to have seen those movies before going into this new superhero-fest (oh, and there’ll be some spoilers for those movies if you haven’t seen them).

Anyway, the film starts in a SHIELD base, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) are studying the Tesseract, a powerful Norse artifact that Captain America retrieved at the end of the film he starred in. Subsequently, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) shows up and pretty much ruins everyone’s day by stealing the Tesseract and allowing a massive intergalactic portal to suck the SHIELD base underground.

It’s a flashy start and there’s even something I have to leave out of that description that the previews have been wonderful about not spoiling.

Also, you may have noticed this already, but this movie has a pretty phenomenal ensemble cast; I bet that you recognize two or three of the last six names I threw out there, and that’s without any official Avenger. That’s part of the fun of the movie; seeing each member of this substantial cast interact with one another and geeking out over even the smallest inclusions.

For any fans of NBC’s “Community” there is literally a 20 second long scene in which Lucca (played by Enver Gjokaj, who is probably better known as Victor from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, but I’m too big of a Community fan to recognize him from anything else) is a police officer who has exactly one line, and I just freaked out.

Arguably, the greatest thing about this film is its dialogue, and the way that it deftly solves the challenge of bringing all these dissimilar heroes together for the very first time. More than half of the movie is the Avengers (which, by the way, consists of Captain America, played by Chris Evans, Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr., Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson and Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner) being split apart or not getting along in the slightest.

In fact, some of the best fights in the film are simply Avenger on Avenger, but more on the action scenes later. Whedon’s trademark ability to brilliantly and subtly characterize his characters is at work here, and this makes every single line of dialogue memorable and profound in some way.

Thor and Loki’s relationship is sold so well that people who missed “Thor” should be able to pass on it (I wouldn’t recommend that course of action as I think it’s the best Marvel/Avengers lead-in film), which isn’t even taking into account how menacing and downright creepy Loki can be around any other character. This is probably the best incarnation of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in a film both due to the genuinely emotional impetus Bruce has to control the beast within him and due to the fact that his action scenes are the bomb.

Captain America and Tony Stark are the most frequent foils to each other, however, and it’s pretty clear from their general demeanors why this might occur. It makes it all the more satisfying in the final battle when each of these characters truly has to depend on one another as well as help each other out. It’s a wordless way of showing that the conflicts that once plagued the group have been overcome, and it’s a delightful thing to see unfold.

Now for the action. In regular conversation, I might just keep telling someone, “It’s so good. It’s so good. It’s so good,” all while giggling because I’m remembering all the scenes where Hulk smashes. The first time I saw the film, I was too shocked by all the crazy awesome stuff on screen to really pay attention to the truly excellent choreography in the two major action set pieces, but on the second viewing, it stood out exactly how well every single bit of action flowed.

There was an unbelievably cool one-camera shot during the final battle (which, I should mention, is the one you see in the previews with the alien monsters in Manhattan) which panned one-by-one to each Avenger as they were fighting aliens throughout the entire city.

As I already said, Hulk is probably the standout action-wise, but I was also pretty impressed by Hawkeye and Black Widow, mostly due to the fact that they seem a little underpowered when compared to their teammates, which include a scientifically enhanced super-soldier, a guy with a ridiculously-powerful robot suit, a giant green thing with indestructible underpants, and a demigod, but through the magic of Joss Whedon, even they feel important and entirely crucial in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the time, I can’t tell this early in the year if something is going to be an absolute favorite of mine, but for the time being, nothing is going to beat “The Avengers” in terms of sheer entertainment value and undeniably skillful execution.

I don’t have any problem with saying that this movie is as close to perfect as I imagine it can be. “Prometheus,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” and “The Hobbit” have their work cut out for them, and with a team like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if I dub this my Movie of the Year.

With the right nail polish color or design, the perfect “fairy-tale” Prom look can be achieved.

Firstly, a girl can never go wrong with a french manicure. They match any color, style or embellishment on a dress. Professional is the way to go when getting a french, because it’s so easy to mess up on your own nails when making those fine, white lines.

If your dress is black, try to match your nails with the color of your shoes or accessories.  In my opinion, gold or red looks great with black.  But if you want to try something more “out there,” try a deep green color on your nails.

With a white dress, it’s easy to make your nails stand out against the dress. However, you don’t want them to stand out too much, as the dress is still the main focus.  Really light or really dark hues work best with a white dress, not neon.

If your dress is multi-colored, try to match your nails to one of the less dominant colors of your dress.  Doing this will make sure that your nails still stand out among the variety of colors on the dress.

However, if your dress is one color, you can either go with that specific color to paint your nails with or pick one of its contrasting colors.

If you’re nails look good, that’s one less thing to worry about leading up to Prom night.

That is exactly what this month’s character breakfast recognized students for doing. The monthly character breakfast was held Thursday, April 12, 2012, up on the Shelf in the Commons.

Every month teachers pick students who they feel go above and beyond at showing the character word of the month. April’s character word is courage.

At the breakfast, students that were chosen sat down with friends and ate donuts while Assistant Principal Mandy Lewis and guest speakers shared stories and encouraging words. They also received a certificate for their accomplishment.

Colleen Fields was April’s guest speaker; she spoke with the chosen students about how proud she was of the effort they put through to be full of courage every day of the week.

As well as sharing encouraging words she told the students about two different fictional characters, Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the cowardly lion from “Wizard of Oz.” She described how much courage they put through and the lessons they taught in their stories by showing courage.

However, this character breakfast was a little strange in the way that the attendance was near none. In previous months tables were full of students, but this month only about 10 of the chosen students showed up.

I was one of the students that attended, and it was very strange to see so many open seats. In my opinion, if your teacher went out of the way to nominate you, you might as well show up.

To describe the lack of attendance, Lewis described that since the word was courage the students were picked for very individual reasons and personal stories were probably involved in the picking of students.

Therefore most students were likely embarrassed or afraid to show up.

Even though the reasons for their nomintaion were probably personal, no one else in the room knew why you were there besides Lewis.

In a crowd of people courage can be one of the hardest things to demonstrate, whether it’s not following the norm or doing what you know is right when everyone else believes it is wrong.

Courage takes a person to be brave, and have a mindset of what is right and wrong.

Whether or not the students showed up that were chosen or not, the whole Lafayette staff is very proud and thankful for what they did to show courage.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

That is what true courage is.

This event is a time when seniors get to eat lunch on the shelf (or in the courtyard, in this year’s case) which is brought from a restaurant in the community. It usually costs under $10, so it’s not very expensive. However, in past years the senior class has had more than just one of these opportunities.

The reason for this is, according to Assistant Principal Tim Jones, because there has been a lack of participation.  He said a lot of work goes into planning the event and the parents, along with the restaurants, don’t want to go to the work for just a few students.

I don’t see how they can judge whether there is enough participation just based on one day. Maybe that day just didn’t work out for very many seniors. They should try doing one more Lunch on the Shelf event and then decide whether they should hold more.

I am a junior and I want to have a lot of Lunch on the Shelf events next year when I am a senior, so I hope we get to have more than just one. I hope parents will give our class a chance with participating in this so that we can have as many chances to eat restaurant food at school as possible.

And if you’re like me, you had a hard time closing Mockingjay after reading the last page in the fast-paced, exciting series. I spent a lot of time researching for the next best dystopian young adult novel, and after taking many suggestions into consideration, I believe I have found the next Hunger Games.

Author Veronica Roth released the first novel in her planned trilogy, Divergent, in May 2011. Since its release, its popularity has grown fast. Summit Entertainment even picked up the series and has begun the movie adaption planned to be released in 2015.

The novel surrounds Tris, a sixteen year old girl living in a society in which its citizens are divided into five different factions. Each faction is focused on a different virtue: Candor (honesty), Abnegation (selflessness), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peacefulness), and Erudite (intelligence). In each faction, upon their sixteenth birthday, initiates must choose to continue to live life in the faction they were born into, or leave their family and transfer factions in order to become who they really are.

Tris chooses to leave Abnegation for Dauntless. She quickly learns that Dauntless life is not easy; she faces a number of physical tasks (combat, roof diving, human target practice and even death), and ultimately faces living life factionless, or homeless, if she fails initiation. During this process, Tris discovers a secret that unless she intervenes with, her family will die.

The young adult themes seep through the story early on the novel, addressing the issues of basic bullying. However, those storylines flourish into a more mature theme as the novel continues, with much hot and heavier stuff than Twilight.

If you hated the romance aspect of Hunger Games, be warned: Divergent has equally as much, if not more, forbidden romance.

Upon starting the novel, it took about 200 pages for me to buy in. I almost put Divergent down and walked away. But after walking through every book store with signs suggesting Divergent, I sucked it up and read some more.

After reading more, I was hooked once the story started unfolding. It’s almost like the entire Hunger Games series in one book; there is death, a government crisis, and even war. The novel is well developed, especially for being Roth’s first book. It makes me eager for the May 1 release of the sequel, Insurgent.

While Divergent sometimes felt long and dragging, it pays the reader back fully in the end for his or her time invested.

I highly recommend Roth’s trilogy to anyone who loved Hunger Games.

I started reading the first book (with the second one on its way at this moment) just hours before I was going to watch the movie, and I really found it to be very engrossing and compelling, which struck me as odd considering I couldn’t pay attention when reading other material if my life depended on it. I took a fan to go see the movie, and when we walked out, we both had the same two thoughts: that the film was incredible, and true to the source material.

I can say that alongside “The Godfather” (please don’t stop reading quite yet), “The Shawshank Redemption” (seriously, don’t stop), and whatever other novels-to-film I can think of, “The Hunger Games” is one of the most perfect adaptations of a piece of literature that I’ve ever seen. The first-person narration present in Suzanne Collins’ book is captured effortlessly with a wild and frenetic cinematography, and the deep-seated complexities in Katniss Everdeen’s character are portrayed with grace by Jennifer Lawrence, who is an early Oscar contender in my books (no, I’m not kidding). Fans of “The Hunger Games” will not be disappointed in the slightest, and may even hold up a three-central fingered salute for Gary Ross’ wonderful adaptation of a wonderful story.

“The Hunger Games” follows Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence), a 16-year-old resident of District 12, one of the twelve outlying districts of Panem, which is ruled over by the Capitol. Some have described the world that Katniss inhabits as a dystopian future, but considering that dystopian literally breaks down to mean “false utopia,” I contest that descriptor, as I don’t think anyone outside of the Capitol would say that it’s such, but I digress. The book also goes into more detail about how the Reaping works which the movie leaves out, but they don’t add much to the story in the end, so it’s a fair trade.

The love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta that has purportedly been a large part of the books is thankfully underplayed in the film, given the fact that all three characters are never in contact all at once since Gale isn’t present for the actual Games themselves. It’s pretty clear, however, that it will play an important role in the sequel (which this film not so elegantly nods to, but it’s forgivable considering there’s little doubt about its creation).

Before the Games take place, Katniss and Peeta are introduced to Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), who intend to make them presentable enough to gain sponsors before the Games begin. Through this segment, our heroes also meet the host of the Hunger Games, Caesar, played with a remarkable flair by Stanley Tucci, who is easily the most likeable Capitol member of the lot.

Following their training and interviews with Caesar, Katniss and the other tributes are placed in the arena to fight to death, and this is where the film goes from being intriguing to downright awesome. The action takes full advantage of the shaky cam (to some pretty wild degrees, which blurs most, if not all of the extremely violent content and makes for some dizzying sequences), and they pretty perfectly mirror Katniss’ actual perception of the battles that play out around her. We don’t see everything that the people watching from their homes in the Districts or in the Capitol see; everything is presented from the perspective of Katniss, endearing us to her even more when we know she is being hunted but we, like her, can’t tell where from. It’s all very effective at taking the narrated elements from the book and translating them to the big screen where Katniss isn’t narrating her each and every thought to the viewer.

In addressing the hype, I’ll say that I’m glad that fans have latched on to this series nearly to the extent that they have with the dreadful “Twilight” series, but the hype is a little out of control. I’m glad that a genuinely entertaining and thought-provoking story with a captivating, believable and strong central heroine will be refilling the void left by Bella Swan and her equally empty love interests. I’m less okay with the fact that a particularly large portion of the audience is going just because of the “hunks” that are portraying Peeta and Gale, but if it means that “The Hunger Games” gets some attention because of it, then it’s justifiable.

What struck me the most about the film, however, were the performances.  I rightfully expected Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson to bring a pitch-perfect charisma to their roles, but even the understated Lenny Kravitz managed to make an impression on me as Katniss’ stylist Cinna. I’ve already stated how great Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence was in the role, but Josh Hutcherson also did a good job of imbuing his character with the right amount of honesty and charm. For all of the buzz surrounding his part in the movie, Liam Hemsworth may have three to four minutes of screen time tops, and even less of that involves any dialogue, but I have a feeling he’ll make for a good Gale in the coming films.

As an attempt to adapt the original source material to film, Gary Ross’ “The Hunger Games” is phenomenal. It recaptures the essence of the book through impressive cinematography and an excellent lead performance by Jennifer Lawrence.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about Disney’s adaptation of it all. It’s been marketed to nearly no end, and it almost feels out of place in early March, this very much being a blockbuster kind of film, but it’s good to see that we can actually get these kinds of films any time of year.

The thing about these kinds of films, as usual, is that they often feel just a little vapid or mindless, but that’s kind of the reason we go to them: we just want to melt into the theater’s seat and watch a civil war of epic proportions go down on Mars (I mean Barsoom).

Thankfully, this is both a great action flick with some tense and awesome battle scenes, but it also feels rich with lore and has a sort of poetic beauty to it all. All told, these two elements combine to make Disney’s latest live-action movie a pretty interesting film indeed.

The film primarily follows John Carter, a 19^th century Civil War veteran played by “Friday Night Lights” star Taylor Kitsch, who, through a somewhat comical string of events, finds himself stranded in the middle of a red desert surrounded by skinny, 6-limbed green creatures known as the Green Martians.

It’s a romantic plot at its core, and does seem to be pretty cheesy at times, but it lends itself to some epic fight scenes and a wonderful pair of villains played by Dominic West and Mark Strong.

The visuals in this film are fantastic and wonderful to behold. It’s an excellent adaptation of Burroughs’ original work and captures the grandeur of the landscape of Barsoom effortlessly (well, aside from that massive budget of $250 million) and the fight scenes are all very well-choreographed, especially the one featured in the trailers with the Green Martian arena.

The Green Martians feel believable and they inhabit the world as if they were truly alive, making for oddly humane aliens. All of the Martian cities that John travels through during his adventure also feel very grandiose and epic.

Despite the best efforts of translating the nearly century old story to the big screen, the performance of the actors in this film just falls flat.

Taylor Kitsch does a fine job of playing the action hero except for those parts when he, talks. A lot of the time, his voice doesn’t fit the leaping killing machine that he was just minutes earlier.

 Bryan Cranston is in the movie for a total of ten minutes, and it really just goes to show that his acting chops are so unbelievable that they nearly steal the film in this regard.

I mentioned earlier that Mark Strong and Dominic West made for very good villains, but this is more a result of their actions and less how they’re portrayed.

Strong plays a pretty decent bad guy in nearly every movie he’s, and it’s really no different here; he just doesn’t stand out.

I loved Dominic West in “The Wire” and thought he was perfect for the part; it fits his antagonistic persona well. But if we want to talk about who takes the cake for the worst performance in the film, it has to be Lynn Collins as Dejah.

The relatively poor dialogue she’s given is delivered pretty badly overall, and I feel like I have no reason to believe she’s a great warrior when she appears on screen. Perhaps it was necessary to translate her character to film, but it was just too distracting to overlook.

If not for the pretty subpar acting in the film, I’d believe “John Carter” to be a pretty solid adaptation of the seminal sci-fi novel. As it stands, however, the performances bring down an otherwise beautiful (and far over budget) film that will likely not become Disney’s next cash cow like they clearly expect it to be.

Let’s Face It has its goals set on creating a smoke-free environment for all St. Louis area residents. While I admire the effort of keeping harmful drugs out of Rockwood Schools, I have a problem with the PSAs plastered around the school.

These posters are easily identifiable. They are hung up in high areas to prevent as much visual obstruction as possible, usually depicting lit cigarettes and clouds of smoke juxtaposed with images of death and violence, such as skulls and guns.

The first PSA I remember seeing depicted a lit cigarette and a smoking gun with the message “They’re both the same.”

The PSA told me that shooting myself is exactly the same as smoking. If I were to follow this string of logic, I could go to my local convenience store and buy a 20-pack of revolvers for $7. The content of this ad is wholly manipulative and misleading among the others scattered around the school. This is, by definition, propaganda.

This is my problem with scare campaigns such as the one I previously mentioned. They focus more time on telling kids that they’re going to die than actually reaching out and helping those who need help. There are possibly dozens of other ways to carry out this campaign, packaging it with a different message.

There is an English seatbelt ad from 2010. It shows a father sitting in a chair with his wife and daughter to his right. The happy father assumes a motion for driving, gripping his hands around an imaginary steering wheel while pressing down on an acceleration pedal.

His disposition fades as his expression implies an inevitable crash. The mother and daughter spring into action hugging him around his waist and chest, forming a seatbelt as the father acts out the impact, thrusting forward but not moving. This is implying that his life was saved by the seatbelt. This PSA example of how taking a different approach can make an effective impression.

I like this advertisement so much because it doesn’t threaten you with your own mortality; it focuses more on the people you would leave behind in the event of your untimely death.

It’s quite ingenious, really. There is probably someone in your life that you wouldn’t you want to leave behind if you died. These people can be your significant other, a sibling, your parents, anyone.

If I never wore a seatbelt and saw this PSA, you bet that I would be wearing one every time I stepped into my car. A campaign like this is immensely more effective than any scare campaign I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t try to manipulate or misinform you, but it makes an actual case to persuade the viewer to start wearing seatbelts.

Another notable issue with the smoking campaign is the lack of effort in encouraging students, who are already smoking, to quit. Very few of these posters have a number you could call or a website you could visit if you needed help quitting smoking (1-800-QUIT-NOW and smokefree.gov, just in case). If this campaign is dedicated to creating a smoke-free learning environment, they aren’t doing a very good job.

Then again, I may be missing the point entirely. There is a possibility that these posters are directed at students who are thinking about using drugs, persuading them to not even try it.

It makes sense, keeping drugs out of school by persuading students thinking about using drugs to not try them at all.

If this point were true, the campaign would imply that this school is not willing to help the students that need it by not making a helpful source available. Instead of trying to scare students into being drug-free, Let’s Face It and Rockwood should rethink how they make their PSAs.

Drug use is a problem in every school district, and it’s up to the district to take necessary measures to reduce the impact of drugs in its schools.

If you ask me to sign something that says the district should take more measures in reducing harmful drugs in schools, I’ll sign it. Put it to a vote, I’ll vote for it, but what I won’t do is accept what these PSAs are saying.

This is the quote that heads the official Invisible Children website.

On Monday March 5, 2012, the nonprofit organization released a 27 minute film highlighting a man by the name of Joseph Kony. The message of the video was to make Kony “famous,” and famous he is.

In a matter of days the video reached over 50 million views due to Facebook posts and world-wide trending topics on Twitter, among other social networking sites.

When I first heard of Invisible Children, I was 14. I saw the group’s first film that introduced the stories of thousands of young children who were being targeted as future soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA was and is notoriously known for the kidnapping of children and murder of thousands of people across Uganda and surrounding countries.

As a kid, that kind of thing just doesn’t seem real. Here I was sitting at my computer, watching in terror as these children sobbed over their siblings who had their throats slit right in front of them.  Imagining someone thrusting a gun in my hands and telling me to kill seemed impossible and unreal.

But here I was, watching it unfold before my eyes.

Then on March 5 I revisited all those memories.

The backlash that has begun to surface around the video mostly focuses on the funding of the project and the “band-wagon-ing” that people seem to have a problem with. Others have an issue with Invisible Children’s support of military action and subtle ”neo-colonialism” activism.

Yes, it’s been discovered that only about 32 percent of the money that Invisible Children receives directly goes to the Ugandan efforts. But also keep in mind that these people’s mission isn’t to steal and spend your money.

They want justice.

And donations make their efforts easier. By this funding, the group was able to film, travel and report Monday’s video and spread the word. The power of the Internet is absolutely astounding, in that an unheard of group by many can disseminate a message across the globe and even gain the support of the United States government.

I will fully support and donate to a group who is able to relay such unbelievable messages to the world. Raising global awareness is something that must be done before any change can be made.

In 2010, President Barack Obama appr0ved a motion that enlisted American advisers to travel to Uganda to track Joseph Kony and his army, in hopes of capturing or killing him.

This was the green light for Invisible Children to finally head out and seek national public support.

Personally, I greatly approve this movement. Kony should be stopped. He is labeled as public enemy number one by the International Criminal Court. He was indicted by the ICC and is being charged with crimes against humanity among several other atrocities. Justice must be met.

Many also aren’t satisfied with the new found publicity. Yes, this has been an existing problem within African countries. But its prevalence in the international spotlight has been overlooked. The majority of people before March 5 had no idea who Invisible Children was or their mission. But it doesn’t bother me that this uproar over such an issue has become famous in a matter of hours.

All in all, I’ll stand up for what I believe. I’ll fully support something or someone who fights for what they believe. And personally I think Kony 2012 is a phenomenon that must be met with the appropriate response and not judged superficially.

I am unmoved because I was addicted to The Hunger Games before it hit the silver screen—which explains my “numbness”, for lack of a better word. I expected to leave the theater itching for the sequel, unable to wait for Catching Fire’s arrival.

Instead, I feel robbed. Most likely, I entered the theater with too high of expectations; of course parts of the book wouldn’t make the movie—especially the gory details Collins doesn’t shy away from. However, what I think disappointed readers like myself was the steady, rushed pulse of the film.

Had I had been unfamiliar with The Hunger Games upon viewing the movie, I have a feeling I would be extremely confused right now. Besides Madge, one of District 12’s government official’s daughter and friend of Katniss (the main character sent to fight in the seventy-third Hunger Games), being the largest part cut from the film, other details left behind bothered me. Such as no explanation of the Avox’s, departure of bodies by hovercraft, or especially Glimmer’s eyes in the Capital mutts that we never see as an audience.

For instance, in the novel, all twenty-four tributes ride in a parade through the capital. This part of the book has several details that explain Peeta (District Twelve’s male tribute) and Katniss’ star-crossed-lovers-strategy for when they will enter the arena.

This scene lasts about twenty seconds in the movie. It was things like this—like the rushed unveiling of “The Girl On Fire,” which seem so vital to the novel’s meaning that made me feel robbed.

Throughout the movie, other scenes are cut down or replaced with new ones in order for the movie to flow. To me, this stole something very important away from The Hunger Games.

Relationships flourish so well in the novel, in my opinion, but seem so awkwardly developed in the movie. I wanted to see more interaction between Katniss and Peeta—especially when towards the end of the novel Peeta appears to be heart broken over Gale’s appeal to Katniss. But again, there was no time for that.

Aside from the negative, there are always positives. The characters fit their actors very well—Jennifer Lawrence plays the perfect Katniss. The controversial choice of Peeta, Josh Hutcherson, captures the very essence of the character; while Hutcherson might not be 6’1” and perfectly dreamy, is does have Peeta’s genuine persona. Plus, the people of Panem’s Capital are everything I’d hopped for—scary weird.

Spoiler alert.

Another element that will please readers is the death scene of Rue. It is executed exactly like the novel—right down to the lullaby.

The longer I reflect, the more I want to see The Hunger Games again in order to gain a better perspective of the movie: the details, the glazed over tributes, the annoying camera angles, the randomly placed scenes from Catching Fire to set up the second movie.

While I was pleased with the film, I cannot say I was excited about it. Because of the rushed pace, for a devoted reader of the series, it just left me wanting to re-read the books.

Which isn’t so bad, if you aren’t counting on just watching to fully understand the meaning of The Hunger Games.