The Hunger Games: a review from a spectator

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2012)

I wanted to read the book first before going to see the movie. I enjoyed the book with a few complaints here and there but overall I enjoyed it. As for the movie it was a great adaptation. While a few things were changed from the book it didn't really bother me as much. One scene that was altered for instance:
SPOILERS: The character of Madge was removed completely from the story and originally it was written that Katniss received the Mockingjay pin from her. In the film they made an interesting change and switched it so that Katniss had given the pin to Prim and then later Prim returns the pin to Katniss as they say their farewells. To me it made it all the more poignant and I preferred this as opposed to the way the Mockingjay pin was introduced in the book. So that was a good change.
END OF SPOILER.
The casting choices I thought were great. Jennifer Lawrence plays a terrific independent,headstrong, Katniss. What I liked about her character is that she is strong but its almost to the point where she is cold but with good reason. She is first and foremost a protector, provider, and survivor. You get that she has to be hard,she guards herself from emotion and doesn't attach to people easily because to her its a weakness. Because she's such a hardened character it can be difficult to like her at times.
SPOILERS:
Josh Hutcherson was great as Peeta. The romantic aspect between him and Katniss was taken down a notch and I appreciate that because in the books I felt it was just too much. As the saying goes "Less is more." Simple a lot of the time is usually better. We don't need the director making these two kiss each other every few minutes just to show the audience just how much in love these two are, fake or not, Which is what I felt Suzanne Collins was doing in the books. In the film their relationship felt pretty ambiguous you couldn't really make heads or tails of it was it real? was it for show? For those who read the books already know the truth but I'm glad they left it the way they did
Woody Harrelson great Haymitch. Almost exactly how I picture him in the book.
Stanley Tucci, loved him as Caesar Flickerman. I swear every time that man cracked one of those exaggerated smiles showing all 32 of those big white teeth I just burst out laughing. Loved him.
Now for some negatives
I liked the character Rue, unfortunately I wasn't able to get invested enough in her character to feel sad when she died. It was sad but not THAT sad. I will say though that I like her chemistry with Katniss just by the simple gestures you could tell how Katniss was reminded of her twelve year old sister. But I knew the role of Rue's character before I even read the hunger games. She's the character you kill off to let everyone know how sick this game is and how evil the capital is, but just to make it worse lets make it a twelve year old. Almost as if Suzanne is saying are you angry now? But after she died the scene that followed was awesome, Katniss doing the 3 finger salute to the people of District 11 (Rue's hometown) and then the revolt that followed was simply moving and I did about 10 fist pumps when that happened.
And lastly,fire the cameraman because honestly what the hell was going on? was he having a seizure? That camera was all over the place even when the shot didn't require any action that stupid camera was moving. It was awfully distracting.
Overall I say go see this movie. Its enjoyable. Though the camera might be distracting the story is good. I also don't get this comparison between the Hunger Games and Twilight they're not the same. This movie had a plot and I would pass up Twilight to see the Hunger Games any day.