Minor Spoilers: Budgeting Cheats

Rating: 3/10 (13 May 2012)

I saw the 1st adapted movie after reading the first Hunger Games book - they could have done better with this film. Many would interpret such this to mean I wanted more gore and death - but this is not the case. What was lacking from this the most was nudity (not sexuality per se) and a more sophisticated if not blasé attitude regarding life and life's value(including sexuality); the film needed a rawer, more somber tone. 3/10 is an extra-critical vote based on reducing a a pretty-good book to cinematic fluff.
The vexing teen angst that does bubble up from time to time in the Hunger Games book is thankfully overshadowed by a raw, pragmatic need for survival and all which that requires. The raw elements of illness and injury, and the sadness which accompanies the loss of loved ones through traumatic experience is refreshing. Ultimately the book is worth the read.
Unfortunately, the need for box-office profits sets a stage for adaptations to be razed of their quintessential value until most of what remains is a flimsy, teenage adventure epic. PG-13 might bring in more viewers, but it reduces any adaptation to trite and forgettable.
As others have pointed out, the character building is weak. One central character is 'The Arena' itself (the place where the contestants are corralled to kill each other). Like in the book, the Arena contains a wooded forest environment, unlike in the book - the movie Arena is devoid of a grassland, devoid of rocky slopes (where our protagonists' cave should have been), devoid of sloping ravines where creeks should flow and supply fish (and are later completed drained and dried by the Arena's controllers) and devoid of an ever-changing climate (hot and freezing) which lends to our protagonists suffering/starving more easily in the book. Because the film producers chose to make the forest ubiquitous in the Arena and the forest temperate (not even a drop of rain - let alone torrential) our heroine doesn't need a sleeping bag for warmth, and they leave out that book element. The directors also leave out night-vision glasses (?).
The severity of injuries and all that intones is also marginalized. In the book, Peeta is dying of an infection and blood poisoning for which ointment and an antibiotic is needed: ergo, the director reduces the severity of the injury, no shot is needed (which Katniss stabs into her partner in the book), instead launching the viewer into the final trial without any delay.
Although many movies are far too long, the brevity of this film leads to two-dimensional heroes we feel little connection to. The film feels rushed. Incidentally, while "The Games" are supposedly drawn out over a two-week period, I felt as though maybe only 4-5 days had elapsed in the film. If this was a non-adapted screenplay I might have given it a four, but for the disappointment this 'adaptation' brings - I give it a three.