As good as can be expected given MPAA and time restrictions.

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2012)

Spoilers of book and movie ahead.
I enjoyed the books and I've been looking forward to this movie for some time. I'll go straight to the highlights (and relatively few lowlights), but overall, they did a damn good job given the forced constraints.
I can only imagine what it would be like to be the director (the very talented Gary Ross) in a pre-production meeting where the studio head says, "Gary, I need you to take this novel written in first person narrative about a futuristic society that has teenagers killing each other with swords, knives and arrows over a three week period and film it. It must be PG-13 and under two and a half hours. Plus, we're a small studio and can only fund it for 80 million dollars."
POSITIVES
-Everything up to the start of the Games was well done. The pacing was good and necessary decisions were made regarding characters (e.g. Madge omitted) and events. I would note that while it was clear how poor District 12 was, it was hard to see how hungry they were.
-The story of the Games was motivated well, especially using news room panels and historical footage of previous games.
-The Reaping was perfect, both Jennifer Lawrence's volunteer line and Prim's shrieking. Nice touches on the Capitol film, and how the crowd would not respond with enthusiasm to watching their children taken from them. The look of realization on Josh Hutcherson's face when he was picked was perfect.
-The Capitol was visualized wonderfully, and the Chariot entrance was almost as I imagined it.
-The training sequences (except for Katniss'individual interview that only had a bow and arrows in the room) were perfectly realized.
-The casting overall was excellent. Stanley Tucci was great as Cesar, and the interview scenes were perfect. Lenny Kravitz was awesome as Cinna, although they didn't have much time to talk. Foxface, although speaking only five words it seemed, really filled her role. Rue and Prim were also perfect, although they never had a chance to talk.
-The start of the games was so tense, the sound choices hit the mood perfectly. That they had the violence on shaky cam was probably wise, but you saw enough of kids dying in the Cornucopia to feel the depression.
-I liked that they had Game Control room sequences, as well as dialog between Snow and Crane. While not in the book, it was good to see how the Gamemaster would control it. I also thought using Cesar and other commentators to add notes (tracker-jackers, etc) helped explain the action well when the book had it in first person.
-Nice to introduce Katniss' father's explosion through the hallucination sequence.
-Some of the changes in dialog helped more than hurt (for example, Thresh saying only, "Just this once 12, for Rue" was much less awkward than the book).
NITPICKS
-The pacing made it hard to understand the passage of time during the Games. You never knew that Katniss was thirsty or hungry, none of them looked worse for wear except for the cuts. They were there for almost a month.
-Gale wasn't developed enough either, every shot was him upset with Katniss and Peeta, how about a reaction shot when she survives?
-There was very little development of Rue's character and the relationship between her and Katniss. It was hard to understand her grief with 2 minutes of screen time.
-I never saw any mention of Peeta getting injured, then Katniss is tracking him down and finds him with no explanation...there must be some film on the cutting room floor that would have made this more clear. This was probably the biggest goof.
-Haymitch was far too sympathetic, which I'm guessing was driven by test audience response. I was dying to hear his first advice, 'Stay Alive!' while laughing, then 'Stay Alive' in all seriousness.
-Why not explain that Cato tracked down Thresh for the backpack? They made it sound like Thresh was killed by mutts.
-The mutt sequence at the end was choppy, although I liked that they ended it for Cato quickly instead of dragging it on for a day.
Again, I really liked the movie. There is no way it could be made to the standards that you would have for the book, but given the imposed limitations they did a marvelous job. Looking forward to the sequels.