Stunning and effectively filmed.

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2012)

From the get go, you get the sense is film has a clear intention -- to make you think. Adaptations for me are always tricky because you can never really relay all the messages and moments that the book present and put them on the screen. The hunger games doesn't do that, but what it does, it does with effective subtlety and sublime attention.
I liked how the director kept the story in Katniss's point of view. This gave the film a sense of new discovery, but also the moments where it ventures away from Katniss and explores the other parts that the book doesn't elaborate on, the book is spot on.
It's certainly not the best adaptation of a book by far, but one thing i can say is that it is a really good one. The film moves from one point to the next with relative easy, but this could also be it's weakest point in that some of the moments are done too fast and we move on to the next before we have time to fully absorb some of the feelings the film presents.
Gary Ross does a phenomenal job, and certainly requires high marks, but i can honestly say, "don't expect any Oscar nominations" because for one thing the art direction was cool but very predictable, it was to reliable. The visual effects had a very hard and edge effect, but nothing we hadn't seen been done before. The acting was spot on, giving away the true and real emotions, but nothing saying Oscar because the performances didn't pop, they were just safe.
All in all, the film was enjoyable and i would like to go one but that would just bore, you, so i will live you with this. Go and watch it and see it for yourself, because there are moments that will shock you, make you cry, surprise you but there are also going to be uncomfortable moments where you think the film is just reaching and losing focus, but despite that, the film has merit and recommendation and that alone should be enough reason to watch it.
My score - 7.8 out of 10.