A faithful (but somewhat more family friendly) adaption

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2019)

I finally sat down and watched the much-acclaimed adaption of Suzanne Collins hugely popular book The Hunger Games. And I must say I quite enjoyed it.
The movie starts with explaining straight away the situation in North America - where North America is divided into 12 Districts, which are all run by the Capitol. There used to be a thirteenth, but it rebelled and was nuked by the Capitol. To punish the rest of the districts, and to try and quell and other rebellious notions, the Capitol have instigated the Hunger Games - a game which is basically like the Coliseum in Rome where 24 teenagers (two from each district) are gathered together to fight to the death until there is only one still alive. The film then goes to the Reaping, where Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), Katniss' sister Primrose (Willow Shields), Katniss and Prim's mother Mrs Everdeen (Paula Malcomson) and the rest of District 12's citizens all gather in the public square where their names are gathered together in two bowls - one for the females aged from 12-18 and the other for the males aged from 12-18 - and one is picked at random from each bowl by Citizen employee Effie Trinket.
Against Katniss' prayers, her little sister's name is picked, so she volunteers to take her place. Then the male tribute's name is picked and it's Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). They are then taken to the Capitol where they begin training for the Hunger Games as well as sussing out the competition and trying to win sponsors that will provide them with supplies during the Games to have a better chance at staying alive. Once the Games start, it is a race for survival. (Sorry for the bad plot description).
While I am no way a purist when it comes to book-to-film adaptions and am generally not bothered by changes (big or small) in film adaptions of books I really love, I really did appreciate this time around how the film is overall the same as the book. There are, of course, some minor changes here and there, but not glaring or in any way bad. One of the changes I rather appreciated was Katniss' hallucination scene when she is stung by multiple Trackerjackers. In the book, she had some rather disturbing hallucinations, but in the movie they change it to memories of her father's death, which actually added a thoughtful touch to the movie. Another change the movie made is with the timing of something in the climax (which I will not spoil). Trust me, you will truly appreciate that change if you've read the book, but haven't yet seen the movie. It makes it MUCH more watchable and enjoyable.
The camera work was certainly different. They did quite a lot of it with hand-held camera or "shaky" camera work as some have put it. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this, and while at times it certainly was "shaky", there were quite a few times where this type of camera technique really works - for this film, anyway. It really works for the first-person perspective scenes and generally just makes it feel more fraught and real (in some cases, anyway).
I also really liked how they didn't show much with regards to violence, blood and guts. They kept most of it off-camera, though they showed a little bit to let the viewer get an idea of what's happening, though don't think too much about the glimpse you get, otherwise you could find it a bit disturbing.
Jennifer Lawrence delivers an absolutely solid, emotional performance as the film's main protagonist Katniss Everdeen. She really brings Katniss to life and brings strength and sophistication to the character. I really loved her. Just as Robert Downey Jr. is the Iron Man/Tony Stark and Harrison Ford is the Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Jennifer Lawrence is the Katniss Everdeen. A real top-notch actress. Very talented.
Josh Hutcherson is absolutely brilliant as Peeta Mellark, the other District 12 tribute. Very talented actor and a solid performance.
Donald Sutherland is absolutely fabulous as the Capitol's leader President Snow. A really, really great and evil villain. While the film certainly has other "villains" that it focuses on, if you think about it, Snow is the villain of the movie as he is the leader of the Capitol and controls all the Hunger Games. Pity we didn't see as much of him as I would have liked, but that wasn't the point or focus of this movie. He was great in all the scenes he was in (as few as they were). But hopefully, he'll have more screen time/focus in the sequels!
Woody Harrelson is great as the drunken District 12 mentor Haymitch Abernethy, who just can't help but love. He brings a lot of sass, wit, and a devil-may-care attitude to the role - and I truly loved every minute he was on screen.
There are others I could mention, but these are the most notable and suffice to say that everyone does a great job in their roles - even if some didn't get as much screen time and focus as they possibly should have (such as the other tributes).
This film doesn't have many special effects, but when it does, they are very good, though some could use a little more polishing up.
I liked how the movie stayed true to the book's core values, themes, and messages and how thought-provoking the movie was. I also really enjoyed how The Hunger Games movie focused more on plot and character than action, though there was some awesome action scenes. The ending might be somewhat underwhelming, but it sets things up for the sequels in an excellent and intriguing way.
The Hunger Games is a overall faithful adaption of Suzanne Collins epic novel and is an awesome and enjoyable movie. Looking forward to watching the sequels!