a loyal and thrilling adaptation that will excite current fans and bring in new ones

Rating: 9/10 (23 March 2012)

It is incredibly rare to find a film that is adapted from a book without some changes and differences. And with franchises such as "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" there are always the uber fans that won't be able to get over some of the changes made to a story when being adapted for a film format. This should be remembered for all the huge fans of "The Hunger Games," because the adaptation (directed by Gary Ross and starring Jennifer Lawrence) is an incredible creation of Suzanne Collins popular book that hits the bulls-eye twice by being a loyal spiritual telling of the original story and living up to its blockbuster hype.
If you have been living under a rock for the past few months, or you haven't been able to put everything together from a trailer or your excited teenager trying to explain the story, "The Hunger Games" is the tale of a 16 year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers to fight instead of her sister, Prim, in a bloody and tragic sporting event known as The Hunger Games. Set in the future world of Panem, a country divided into twelve districts that are governed by a chief district known as The Capitol, The Hunger Games pair a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the twelve districts to fight to the death in an arena on a nationally televised scale. Bloody, ruthless, and heartbreaking, the games claim 23 victims, leaving only one victor.
Read the rest of this review (does not fit IMDb form) at: http://custodianfilmcritic.com/the-hunger-games/