The Hunger Games: Matt’s Review
While Dave has already posted his excellent review for The Hunger Games I figured that since I also saw the movie this weekend I would chime in with my own review.  Unlike Dave I did not head to a midnight showing when the movie was released this week but instead waited until Saturday to make my way over to the theater to catch a matinee showing, and I was quite surprised to see a packed house for a morning showing.
When I first heard about The Hunger Games it was from friends talking about the book series written by Suzanne Collins.  Initially I was not too interested in reading the books as the plot seemed like a combo of the Twilight books and the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man, so I never bothered to give them a try.  A little while later another friend started talking to me about the books and lent them to me to read.  One day later I had finished the first book and I was hooked.
I went into the movie with my typical expectations that I have when a book I liked is made into a movie, hope for the best while fearing the worst.  I have learned over the years that it is difficult for filmmakers to translate everything that occurs in a book into a movie, and having this understanding it often helps me to enjoy the movie versions even when they make changes to the books plot, story and characters.  Thankfully The Hunger Games does a very good job of translating the book to the big screen, of course there are changes but overall I found the film to be a rather faithful adaptation.
The movie takes place in a future where the country has been divided up into 12 districts by the controlling Capital following a civil war.  As a punishment for their attempted uprising the Capitol each year hosts a completion where each district is required to send in a boy and a girl to compete in the Hunger Games, a completion where they will be required to fight to the death.  The main heroine of the movie is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) a teenage girl who lives in district 12 one of the poorer districts.  When her younger sister’s name is drawn in the lottery for the games Katniss volunteers herself, and soon finds herself fighting for her life in the Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games is a very well made movie.  Director Gary Ross does a good job bringing author Suzanne Collins novel to the big screen, and each of the actors and actresses successfully bring the books characters to life.    The movie gets so much of the book right, yet throughout the movie I felt like it was missing something.  To me the world of books was not fleshed out enough in the movie, and as a result something that felt grander in my head as I read the book seemed to feel a bit flat in the film.  Outside of Katniss and her fellow district 12 competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) I never felt like I knew any of the other competitors enough to care about them.  I just did not care who lived or died like I did in the book, in fact a big death that came like a gut punch in the book, just did not have the same impact in the movie because the movie never made me care about the character.
My issues with the movie did not prevent me from enjoying The Hunger Games; they simply kept a very good movie from becoming a great movie.
I give The Hunger Games 4 out of 5 popcorn buckets.