I loved this. Some people may disagree with me, but I thought it was an excellent tribute to Suzanne Collin's series. The first time I watched it, I thought that there were several mistakes, that the movie wasn't similar to the book - that some scenes were deleted or added and that ruined the movie.
The second time I watched it, however, it finally opened my eyes. The Hunger Games is the one true thing I obsess about, and when watched the second time I realized the wit of Gary Ross and the added and/or deleted scenes. It really was a tribute to THG. Since I read the books, I know what scene comes next or what scene should've came, or what happens in the scene. I thought Gary Ross did an excellent job of explaining to viewers who haven't read the books before what was happening, and connecting with the ones that did.
Another star feature was Jennifer Lawrence. A part of the action in the book and movie (SPOILER ALERT) is that Katniss has to fake being in love with Peeta. People who have read this part in the book knows what's happening - but those who haven't obviously don't. Jen's acting was so incredible (or maybe the script writing) that you could tell it was a bi-polar love without there being a voice-over in her head - which was the easy way out. Yes, there wasn't a lot of action - although you did feel like you experienced more than you actually saw. There isn't much character development, but I find that it's better this way - to have a story that's complete rather than interesting and intriguing characters. This movie is about two and half hours long - which tells you how complex the story must be in the book - but they did a great job on a low budget (and got nearly $500 million out of it!).
OVERALL:
I definitely recommend this - to the readers, or to people wishing to know more about the reasons behind my review ;)
