A Fantastic Adabtation

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2012)

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I said to myself, "yeah, that looks interesting, might check it out on DVD." Over the next few months the hype exploded for this film, and then for my birthday I got the first book. And after reading it, it completely lived up to the hype. It had everything, action, romance, drama, gore, political satire, the only thing it might have needed more of is comedy.
So by the time I got to chapter five, I knew I wanted to see this movie as soon as possible, and I just watched it, so it's fresh in my mind.
This could very well rank up as one of the best adaptations I've ever seen. This ranks up there with the Harry Potter series, and is actually better than a few of those. Every thing the book has, this film has, action, drama, romance, it doesn't have too much gore, but it is a PG-13. There are some things left out, and some things were changed, but that's just necessary.
The book is in first person, so the fact that this movie obviously can't be, both works for the film, and against it. I liked the fact that they showed inside the control room, and really liked when District 11 began to fight back. But since we can't read Kaniss' thoughts, we have to rely on flashbacks and dialog. Most of the time it works, but sometimes I feel that if you haven't read the book you may be lost.
I just hated the capitol, the fact that they can show private conversations just makes them even more unlikable.
I love the way the people in the Capitol dress, it's so over the top that it's hilarious. And the film also really made me hate the girl from District 1, Glimmer. As well as a few others from the alliance. The rest kill because they want to live. But it just seems like these people do it for the fun of it.
The acting is great, the special effects are well done, and There are a few things I didn't like, the shaky cam did get annoying at times. It seemed that the last twenty minutes were kind of rushed. And did I miss a few tributes deaths, because it seems they went from 24-11-10-6... Also, and this is personal, because I just finished the book a couple days ago, I knew exactly what was going to happen, so there wasn't much suspense. But that isn't a problem with the film, and I chose to read it.
Overall, I was very pleased with this movie. I couldn't decide if it was better than Chronicle or not, but in the end I put it ahead. Meaning this is my favorite movie of the year so far. I will definitely be getting this movie when it comes out on DVD/blu-ray, and I can't wait to read the next two books, and if those are good, then I can't wait to see the next two movies.