Poor Adaptation

Rating: 4/10 (16 April 2012)

The Hunger Games was a very poor adaptation of an excellent young adult novel. Too many crucial plot elements were short cut or skipped entirely to make the movie a coherent representation. Most importantly, you don't understand WHY the districts hold still for having their children taken to the arena to be murdered, as the thirteenth district and its fate are skipped over, as it the detail that film of the rubble of 13 is shown every year at reaping. That is but one of the plot holes big enough to drive a train through that has been left in the adaptation from source material to film.
No time is devoted to the strong character development that the author included in her books. The characters on the screen are one dimensional shadows of the characters you got to know in the book, in particular, Peeta, who is far more nuanced than the marshmallow fluff boy they turn him into on screen, and Katniss, who is not represented particularly well physically by Jennifer Lawrence, nor played with the toughness and emotional damage present in the original written form of the character.
Important plot and character development that occurred on the train trip to the Capitol and during training was completely skipped over, and Katniss' prep team was practically non-existent in the film, as was the Avox. Considering the importance these characters will come to play, this lapse is a major flaw. Katniss and Peeta's reactions and relationship to the luscious and plentiful food is completely gone from the movie version, as is any real indications of the pinching hunger of the districts. An important scene that should have happened on the rooftop happens indoors, leaving us without explanation of the "bounceback" force field that again going to be a major flaw going forward in the series. It is really not possible to list completely the important information that they missed conveying to the audience in this film.
Katniss' exciting scene in which she gains the attention of the game maker and sponsors with her bow skills and cheek in shooting at them actually manages to come across as very boring, and with absolutely no pop at all on screen. I'm not sure how it was possible to make what should have been one of the most dramatic scenes in the movie fall so completely flat.
Good attention was spent on getting the backgrounds of District 12 and the Arena correct, but the Capitol, which came off as bland and gray, completely at odds with its portrayal in the original material.
I would have rated this movie even lower if it hadn't been for two standout performances, that must be particularly praised considering the poor script they had to work with, and the overall quality of the rest of the film. One is that of Stanly Tucci, who was pure perfection as Caesar Flickerman, and the other is Woody Harrelson as the cranky, sodden Haymitch Abernathy.
To wrap up how I felt about this movie in a few words, it was a poor adaptation, poorly cast, unsatisfying, and I'm extremely unlikely to bother going to see any more of the series.