Great but room for improvement...

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2012)

I often try to watch the movies of a series first and then read the books as the books are often a lot better than the movie which it ruins it. Personally, I have not read the book, but several of my friends have and I can tell they are not able to enjoy it at the level I did.
The length of the movie is great, the first half keeps you hoping you haven't reached actually reached half way, and the second half is full of suspense and action. However, there were two major flaws, at least for me.
1: The first half of the movie more or less focused on the importance of getting sponsors. Everything they did was to make an impression, impress, and hope for the sponsors to help them in actual Hunger Games. Again, this was the WHOLE second half of the movie. What happened? They got TWO things from the sponsors. I would have thought based on half of the movie, the Hunger games would revolve a lot more around items from sponsors. And may I add, neither of them were vital. Some healing lotion for a burn wound, which sure, could have caused an infection later on, but it couldn't have been THAT bad since she was running a lot after she got it. And soup. Yes warm delicious soup. Just tasty soup that he had one sip of (though I guess they finished it, they just didn't show it?). But the point is, there wasn't really any real contribution from the sponsors, which is again, as I've said several times, was the plot of the first half of the movie.
2: The filming. Oh god the filming. It's like you're sitting on a roller-coaster sometimes. I felt nauseous, I actually thought I was because I was excited, but it turns out it was the filming causing it. I had to stand up and look away from the movie a couple of times and regain my status quo. I wasn't the only one that had to do this either might I add.
Despite these two flaws, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Perhaps not worth an eight, but from personal enjoyment, I'll give it an eight.