Watch out Twilight, The Hunger Games is here!

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2012)

I thought nothing could be better than the Harry Potter series until I read the Hunger Games. I am definitely one of the biggest fans of the Hunger Games and I was so excited when I found out they were making a movie. I was lucky enough to go to an early screening of it a week before it opened. There must have been a lot of pressure on everyone involved in making this movie and the actors because of the fans' expectations, but I can tell you you will not be disappointed.
I understand how you could compare the Twilight or Harry Potter series to The Hunger Games without knowing much about them, but the Hunger Games is a completely different story. Although Twilight and The Hunger Games both have a love triangle involved, The Hunger Games is more focused on Katniss's story and on the actual games.
When I found out Jennifer Lawrence was casted as Katniss, I wasn't happy because I thought she was too old. I'm sure many people felt this way too, but she did a phenomenal job with the role and she lead me to believe that she was sixteen years old. Josh Hutcherson (who is my favorite actor and future husband) was a remarkable Peeta. When I read the books before they casted the roles, I actually pictured him playing Peeta and he did not disappoint me at all. Willow Shields (Primrose) and Amandla Stenberg (Rue) are both young and new actors, and I thought they both did outstanding jobs even though they had small roles. I am not going to review all of the actors, but I thought all of them were casted perfectly for who they played.
In the beginning, the camera was very shaky and a little bit hard to follow, but later it improves a lot and the shakiness adds a real element to it. I thought Gale (Liam Hemsworth) had a very small part in this movie, and only had about five minutes of screen time in the very beginning in the woods and saying goodbye to Katniss. Hemsworth is in most of the interviews with Hutcherson and Lawrence, but I don't think his character is significant enough. He played a much more of an important part in the book than in the movie. The violence in the movie was not as bad as it was in the book because it had to have a PG-13 rating. The camera blurred out most of the gore, but there was still enough violence to make the movie. There were some minor flaws in this, but it is hard not to be a little bit disappointed when a movie is so highly anticipated, but overall it did not take away from the movie at all. I highly recommend the books and the movies, so bring a lot of tissues and go see The Hunger Games!