A good adaptation

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2012)

I personally enjoyed this one, both as a regular moviegoer and as a person who has read the book. In my opinion this is surprisingly faithful adaptation, which manages to capture the essence of the original story yet still managing to stand on its own. Is it helpful to have read the book before the movie? Yes, as with most adaptations, but the movie does a good job providing us the backstory and exposition. Not perfectly, mind you, but I don't think that many people will be confused by the plot.
That being said, the best part of this movie are the actors. It is rather rare to see a movie starring young adult actors, who are as talented as this bunch. Jennifer Lawrence especially shined as the main protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, managing to portray both her tough, survivalist attitude and her fear for her life. Easily the best performance in the film. Though I have to commend both Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth for their roles as Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne, respectively.
The movie isn't without flaws, unfortunately. The biggest problem is the shaky cam that every reviewer is sure to mention. Rationally I can realize that it was used to maintain the rating, but it was still a bit annoying from time to time, though one grew used to it after a while. The other problem that I had with this movie was that while it is a faithful adaptation and a good story in its own right, there was that final spark that was missing. It's a good movie, but not something that I will surely see again in the future.
And that's this movie. It's good, but not great. Faithful to the source material and surely enjoyable to pretty much anyone, but not much more.