Terrifying

Rating: 9/10 (12 February 2013)

I have not read any of the books, so this movie will be judged solely on my interpretation of watching. Which, really, is the only way to watch a movie, unlike many reviewers here apparently think.
The Hunger Games is terrifying. Set in a bleak future where a totalitarian world state rules with an iron fist and class separations are absolute, every year two teens from each of the world's "districts" are chosen at random to compete to the death in a callous show called The Hunger Games. When a young girl is chosen from district 12, one of the poorest districts, her older sister Katniss volunteers in her stead. She thus is taken to the Capital, a city overflowing with riches and privilege (the very contrast to her coal mining home town), heralded as a celebrity. But the sick thing about it is that while she and the 23 other youngsters are cheered on by adoring fans, they and everybody else knows they are really being led to most of their deaths. But Katniss, while quickly gaining attention in the much-publicised pre-games televising, is not intent on playing by the rules any more than she had to.
Some fans of the books expected the movie to be more brutal. I found the callous attitude of the whole thing quite brutal as it was. The sick nature of leading random kids to their deaths, cheered on by adoring masses, is most difficult to stomach. The first half of the movie sets up the games, and the latter half is the games themselves, in the woods, where all the celebration and celebrity vanishes like smoke and the cruel fight for survival begins. Of course, they don't know that they're dealing with Katniss, who's already proficient at surviving in conditions not that far removed from the ones she finds herself in bar the teens trying to kill her. The movie knows how to build tension by giving us moments to breathe, not knowing what's gonna happen next and making us worry about the characters.
The acting is superb. Jennifer Lawrence gives a stunning performance as Katniss and you root for her from beginning to end. She is 100% believable as tough and yet so vulnerable. If the Academy had any sense, she should've been nominated for her powerhouse of a performance. Donald Sutherland is chilling as the maniacal President Snow.
It seems the books have such a high standard that they can't possibly be fulfilled on the big screen. Too bad. But for the uninitiated, The Hunger Games is a thrilling, stomach-churning action movie about surviving in hell.