Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
I want to start this review by saying that I am a huge fan of the novels by Suzanne Collins, the first of which is the basis for this film. I have been looking forward to seeing this for a long time, and so I saw it through a fan's eyes, rather than a film critics'. The first hour was very loyal to the source material, and this pleased me. In fact, the entire film was quite loyal, but I still had a few issues. Firstly, the way the film was shot. Some people might find the shaky, hand-held camera style interesting, but it just annoyed me and gave me a headache. I will admit, however, that it worked to their benefit when they tried to cover up the more graphic violence and keep a PG-13 certificate.
Secondly, the special effects, especially of fire, were very poor. With a budget over $80m, it can't be hard to make something so simple look realistic. I think Lionsgate spent too much on the promotion and having Steven Soderbergh as second unit director, and not enough on the CGI.