Does it live up to the hype?(Note: I have not read the books)

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2012)

The Hunger Games is the first in a series of Post-apocalyptic American novels written by Suzanne Collins starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. The film begins in a place called district 12 where we are introduced to Katniss(Lawerence) and her sister Primrose(Willow Sheilds) getting ready for ceremony in which the government chooses one male and female from each district to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Katniss' sister gets chosen, but she volunteers in her place and on the male side Peeta(Hutcherson) is chosen. They are then taken swiftly back the the extravagant capital and inevitably the games themselves, while developing a connection in the process.
The actors in the movie do a great job selling each characters, none really stands out as phenomenal. Now that doesn't mean somethings don't stand out, like for example Lawerence had to practice hundreds of times a day to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow, which is an impressive commitment to the role. The rest of the cast however, nothing really stands out as rememberable that someone else could have a hard time doing.
The production design for this film is outstanding, from the extravagant costumes and set pieces in the city. When we first see the city we see how superficial both the building designs and the clothing that people wear compared to that of district 12 which we have just seen and shows a complete disconnect between the citizens of the capital and the citizens of the districts. The best showcase of the design is the parade for those who are going to be in the games, in which it is hard to tell what is cgi and what is not. The best example of the costume design is when Kattnis is being interviewed by a late talk show host and she is wearing a lovely red dress the catches "fire" when she spins, although the effect is laughable it is still nice.
There are 2 big things that bring this movie down, which is the editing during fight scenes and lack characterization outside the main characters. Lets talk about the editing, good god, there were so many quick cuts that it became nauseating and made hard to tell exactly what was going on and quick moving camera when it is not being edited doesn't help much either. Now the lack of characterization would not have been too bad, if it wasn't for one character in particular whose death is played up like it is big and dramatic, but we only knew the character for less than a day, so it is hard to believe that Kattniss would develop such a connection only after sharing 2 scenes of dialogue. This movie would had benefited being 10-20 minutes longer to flesh out the character more. Several other nitpicks of mine include, what was the point of the mocking jay, since it is barely brought up in the story, what are the other districts like, because we really don't know, why was Peeta running around with the group from district 1 who were after Kattniss, but obviously didn't want to kill her and why didn't she bring that up when they caught up, they made a big deal out the sponsors, when she only got 2 drops anyway from their mentor, what was the point of the 3 finger salute, and how did the battlegrounds work other than "it is sci-fi."
Overall however I did enjoy this movie and was a fun time to watch, it just could used a bit more work to make it great, than just being just okay. 3.5/5 Rated PG-13 for intense violent thematic material and disturbing images.