Adequate

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2012)

to start off, like the "Twilight" books, "The Hunger Games" is built for teens. After reading the books, I wasn't to excited that they were making a movie adaptation of it. This was based on the preconception of many movies based on books, but continuing. "The Hunger Games" does the book justice in the sense that many of the plot elements from the book are in the movie, but the main problem with this movie is that it's paced poorly. The beginning half of the movie could have been shorter in my opinion. There isn't much time spent on developing characters and even though the editing's intent is to speed up the history of the characters it doesn't work. The second half of the movie is to short. I'd rather suffer through the second half then the first half because it's really where the meat of the story is and spending time in the stadium with the characters would work because the camera is our eyes and I want to feel the anxiety in characters and I want to feel the fear that the "Hunger Games" are supposed to instill. The movie doesn't do this like the beginning it uses an odd pacing and it speeds the second half to much. The camera work is also something to complain about because instead of helping me enjoy the movie it gave me a headache with the constant shaking. Acting, Jennifer Lawrence did an OK job, but many of the other actors, especially Woody Harrelson didn't do well. The lines came out somewhat robotic. In the end the movie was an amateur adaptation of a fine book replicating to much and not taking advantage of it and improving it. The movie's adequate watch it if you want, but for those who don't want to sit in a crowded theater or pay unreasonable prices wait for it on DVD.