Seen without preconceptions, without reading the book - it was good.

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2012)

I have not read the book; my kids have them and I plan on reading after I finish what I'm reading now, so this perspective is from someone with little knowledge about what was supposed to happen.
It was intense. My emotional level was kept high nearly the entire movie, it didn't seem to let up. In many ways, this is less an action/sci-fi movie than it is a compelling tragedy, and I cannot wait to get reading the books because I simply do not want to wait until the next movie to see what happens.
We all know the premise - it's written in the IMDb summary; Katniss Primrose volunteers to take her younger sister's place after the younger sister is selected in a lottery to join the Hunger Games.
Each district must supply a boy and a girl, aged 12 to 16, to compete, chosen by lottery in a spectacle aptly called "the reaping." Out of the 24, there is only one winner and death for the others. The districts are essentially all impoverished, with hunger being rampant; each district supplies the "capitol" with it's resources, but they are all kept on the verge of starvation. The "winning" district is supplied more food, thus "the Hunger Games."
Like the spectacle of gladiators, the Hunger Games are the opiate of the masses in this dystopian future; more heinous considering kids as young as 12 are compelled to compete. The "tributes," as they are called, are dressed up, paraded around the city, and interviewed one by one on what we would call TV in a macabre display as odds are calculated for each one for betting. Here we get to meet the tributes, learn which ones we like, which ones we don't, all the while knowing only one can live.
The movie predictably moves on to the "games" themselves; very compelling and, after accepting the premise, very real. This movie doesn't do what the "masses" want it to do. I was on the verge of tears nearly the whole movie, and they weren't tears of joy. As a parent it may have affected me more than others. Still, by the end of the movie I was left wanting more, and so definitely am looking forward to the next installments, as well as reading them myself.