From The Eyes Of Someone Who Has Not Read The Book

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2012)

I wasn't really sure what to expect from The Hunger Games. I had heard of the books, but I never read them nor did I know anything about how much of a fan base it has until recently. As for the trailers, they didn't seem to really excite me; they didn't look bad, but it didn't really get me hyped up to see the movie. I'm glad I gave the film a chance, because honestly, this is probably my favorite film of 2012 so far.
Now this film is directed by Gary Ross, director of Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, and while he hasn't directed many movies (he has written quite a few though), when he does direct he's actually really good. And same goes for The Hunger Games; he really did a good job of bringing this story to the screen. And he's also one of the writers of the story, along with Suzanne Collins (the book's author), and they both turn in a great script here, with great dialog, great story, and great characters. And this movie really gets you involved with what's going on, even for the minor characters. When a person dies in this movie, even if they've had less than five minutes of screen time, it was kind of shocking.
Speaking of the characters, let's get to the actors. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely amazing in this film, and not just in beauty (my future wife, ladies and gentlemen), she really can act. Now I've only seen her in X-Men: First Class and in this film (haven't seen her in Winter's Bone), but this is probably the best I've seen of her. She is outstanding. And while I'm not the biggest fan of Josh Hutcherson in the few films that I've seen him in (mostly kids movies so maybe that's why, he was never really given a chance to act ever), but here he does a really good job, and he's sort of like the underdog of the story. There are also some great secondary performances by Woody Harrelson, Wes Bently, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, and Stanley Tucci. All of them do a great job, in fact there is probably not a single weak role in this film.
And the action sequences are just fantastic in this film. There's been a few complaints about the use of shaky cam in the movie, but I think it actually made the scenes better because it really showed the intensity of the situation and the chaos of it all. And this movie is violent for PG-13, in fact there are a lot of bloody moments. This isn't something you should take your kids to see, young ones anyway. The pacing was also really good, and for a movie clocking in at almost two and a half hours, it felt neither too long or too short; it felt just right.
The funny thing was that I thought this movie would get boring after the first half had passed through, because I was so wrapped up in just getting to know the characters and wasn't really interested in seeing the actually Hunger Games section of the story. But it caught me off guard; not only did the second half keep me interested, it got even more and more better as the film went along. It has been a while since I've seen a movie that did that to me. In fact this is so good, that I can't really say anything wrong about it. It just succeeds in every way that it should have. Check this movie out if you haven't already. Don't worry if you haven't read the books at all, you will enjoy this movie as well. I never read them, but I may now after watching this. And yes, this is my favorite movie of the year so far.
I give The Hunger Games a 9/10.