The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, 2012. A dystopian government forces teenagers to fight to the death on TV. Directed by Gary Ross. Written by Ross, Suzanne Collins & Billy Ray, based on a book by Collins. Starring Jennifer Lawrence & Josh Hutcherson.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 4/4 (Great)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad). Shakey shakey shake.
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Pretty great for the most part, but with some glaring exceptions.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Woody Harrelson is wasted. Liam Hemsworth is unintentionally hilarious (clearly someone in the casting department thought they were making "the next Twilight"). Lawrence is good of course, but in terms of acting opportunity, this script is no Winter's Bone.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). They could have done so much with the music, and did almost nothing.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). I didn't love it, but they did a pretty good job. It's a damn hard book to adapt; a strictly faithful film would be at least three hours long and R-rated. Rather than rushing and forcing everything into the movie Harry Potter style, they chose their priorities and just did what they had time for. What made the cut is plot, a few nice science fiction ideas, and overarching themes of the series. What did not make the cut are most of the character relationships, and any of the trauma. But that's okay; there'll be plenty of time for character development in part 2, and for trauma in part 3.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)