Am I nitpicking? Probably...

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2012)

With The Hunger Games being one of my favorite (young adult) books ever, I pretty much hesitated to go to the first screening of the movie. In the end curiosity won and I did go and regretted it.
It's not that The Hunger Games is a bad movie. It isn't. It's actually a good, exciting and very entertaining one. But the ending let me down in a big way. And that puts a big (negative) mark on the overall experience.
I think Lionsgate did almost everything right with this movie adaptation. I love Gary Ross as a filmmaker. He wrote Big, Pleasantville and Dave and directed two of them. I love Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna and especially Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. When I read the book I even had Hutcherson in mind for that role, so casting director: well done! To avoid an inconvenient rating Ross uses a lot of shaky camera-work. This gives you some headache in the beginning of the film but once the action moves to the arena it works out fine. You hardly see any violence but you know it's there. Smart move. Ross also makes more use of presenter Caesar Flickerman (than in the book). He watches the action in the arena and gives his comments. He also explains (to the viewer) why certain situations are dangerous for the Tributes, making the stakes more understandable. Unfortunately Ross uses this trick one or two times too many. Great use of music and the singing of the Mockingjay birds is also very well done.
Ross also uses some elements of books 2 and 3 to give the viewer a hint at what lays ahead. For instance there is more president Snow (Donald Sutherland) in the film than in the book. He sees that Katniss can be a thread. The reason why suddenly two Tributes are allowed to win The Hunger Games is even better explained in the movie than in the book. And we also see the first uprisings in district 12 after the death of one of Katniss's friends. That's a moving scene. For all this Ross uses a lot of screen time, more than two hours and twenty minutes, paying much respect to the book. Thanks for that!
So what really let me down is the ending. That could have been more dramatic. The way Katniss survives The Hunger Games could use a lot more suspense ("What the hell is she doing? What is she doing?!") and the consequents that follow should have been more dark and menacing. That's a big miss.
With The Hunger Games Gary Ross delivered a solid, well made and very entertaining movie that hopefully rockets both Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson into stardom. But if you're a very very very big fan of the incredible first book – like me – you really should think twice before going. Because usually the best movie adaptations are made in your own mind.
8/10