I watched this film shortly after reading the book, and I thought the book was fantastic so i was really excited about seeing the film. I saw it with someone who had not read the book which helped to gauge the viewing from a different perspective.
The film was good but i felt it a little shallow. What it could not do was bring the depth of the story that the book can, the thought process of Katniss and her life story. When my friend watched it he felt it was a little disjointed and confused and i explained some of the missing elements from the story that were not including in the film.
However, this makes a really good visual accompaniment to the book. I felt that they had captured most elements well and kept most of the important aspects into the film. I could see why they missed out some points (for timing reasons, or because they could not translate it visually). I also like that some key aspects were kept in but explained in a different way than in the book. Ie some of the explanation of the world during the games - as presented by the commentators. Although the actors were slightly more mature and Americanised, Katniss was represented well.
The story/plot was really interesting and kept me gripped the whole way through. Visually it was a stunning film, and although their was a lot of dark elements in the book this was played well on screen, (i.e. nothing was too graphic or insensitive.). The kept to the book as well as they could and kept some important elements in. I think with this film, its better to read the book first so you can enjoy it to its full degree. However i can also see this being a good film without the book (you just get it on a lesser scale.) Great Film.
