A decent adaptation of a teen fiction novel to movie

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2014)

When I first picked up a copy of The Hunger Games to read, Mockingjay had yet to be released. There wasn't as huge of hype about the movie at the time. What made me interesting in reading the novel was Stephen king's review of it.
I picked up the novel and had a lot of trouble putting it down. I figured, "this would make a good movie". A month or two later, the announcement was made that the series would become a movie.
Not nearly as many people spend time reading these days, at least in Alberta. The book wasn't extremely long. Adults seem more used to easier reads. I read this book in two sittings because I forced myself to take a break half an hour into the first sitting due to work. I read the entire rest of the book on a weekend evening in about 5 hours, which is still somewhat slow in my opinion.
The book series is written with the intention of showing how horrible war actually is. Its designed for teens to enjoy. There's a lot that a teen can legally read which they cannot actually see in a motion picture.
I believe it was a good decision to make this fit for pg-13. The movie wouldn't have been so successful as an R rated movie. It wasn't necessary to make into an R rated movie. The book didn't have curses, nor sex scenes, so why go that far if it wasn't there in the first place? The book takes a lot of influence from an Asian gem, which we all know. I do not believe at all that it is a replica. Its quite similar, but follows its own storyline.
I'm not going to ruin anything in what happens in the movie or book, so pardon me for being vague.
I rate this movie a 7/10 because of the camera work. If it wasn't for the shaky camera, I'd rate it a 9/10.
Movies have never and will never be exactly the same as the books. While this isn't a perfect adaptation, its worth watching and enjoying throughout. There were some poor casting choices in my opinion, but the lead role was exactly how I pictured her, same with Peeta. I believe they were a little off on how they presented Gale's character, but this is the movie and not the book.
The sequel, Catching Fire, is a much better adaptation in my opinion. I believe there is a lot of potential in making two movies out of Mockingjay.
The book is entirely in first person point of view, while the movie shows other character's points of view. Mockingjay is a lot more complex with a lot more room to extend the length. It makes sense to me to make the third book into two movies because it would be hard to follow and miss too much of the book being in one movie made for teens and older.
The Hunger Games movie itself I enjoyed once through. I was not interested in re-watching after I saw it in theaters. However, I could take a younger nephew or niece to enjoy this movie.
Action movies have become a lot darker in modern times. People always enjoy violence on the screen, especially men and children. Its nice to have a movie like this where we can include a younger audience.
There's a ton of haters on the movie, but it does not deserve any rating below 6. Enjoy it for what it is, and rent or buy it for your kids.