Near as perfect a book to movie transition as is possible...

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2012)

In my opinion, The Hunger Games more than deserves its rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While the movie stumbled a few times trying to deliver the heavy messages and themes from the books, the transition was smooth to a large extent and the scenes necessary for setting up the next three films were, for the most part well-crafted. However, I feel that the success of this movie was due in large part to the fantastic source material and not so much to the film-making itself.
Where the film really shines is in the performances of its actors and their delivery of the simple, straight-forward script. While I felt one or two characters could have used more screen time and development, there wasn't a single bad performance anywhere within the movie, and quite a few wonderful, memorable ones. Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in particular stands out.
All-in-all the only complaints I have with the film all have to do with the direction. The gratuitous usage of shaky camera techniques especially, were difficult even for me, a devoted fan of the series, to sit through without being sick. I also felt that Gary Ross may have dropped the ball with the last third of the movie, delivering a climax that was good, but uninspired and very by-the-numbers.