Very faithful adaptation actually supplements the book.

Rating: 8/10 (19 July 2013)

"The Hunger Games" seemed a natural book for a movie. Written by Suzanne Collins, the book was already cinematic. Still, Hollywood is full of egos trying to one-up each other in creativity, and this usually spells doom for book adaptations.
Fortunately, director and screen writer Gary Ross was wise not to tamper with the book's winning formula. The plot: a female teen protagonist, Katniss Everdene (Jennifer Lawrence) living in an impoverished dystopia is forced to participate in an annual gladiatorial games against twenty-three other teens. It had vivid characters from Katniss on down, her ally, Peeta, their mentor, the disturbed but sympathetic Hamish and all the other characters minor and major. It had great action, it had depth, and had social commentary with the contestants having to gain sponsors while murdering each other on camera. The plot, the characters, are almost exactly what you find them in Collin's work. If you hadn't read it, you can pick up the story fresh from the movie and miss almost nothing.
Nevertheless, the movie isn't limited, as the book is, to Katniss' first person account. Ross takes advantage of this and shows you what's happening out of the Katniss' sight. All of his additions improve the story and give it a wider scope. You could vividly see this society operating around Katniss, and it is one of the best futuristic depictions I've seen since Blade Runner.
I did have a few small quibbles with it. The film started out a little too weepy.I thought of Katniss as more stoical and I don't remember the beginning being so wet. The movie needed make the audience like her as soon as possible, I guess, but it really does lessen the impact of the tears later on, when the character does have a real tragedy to cry about.
My other quibble was with President Snow (Donald Sutherland). There was nothing wrong with Sutherland's performance, but his character seemed more like Colonel Sanders than Josef Stalin. People didn't respond to him with the restrained terror that would have sent the message about him home.
I disagreed with those creative decisions, though it's probably only my preference. However, I highly recommend this movie. It's a rarity: well conceived and thoughtful action adventure.