Hunger Games Impresses

I went to see the movie Hunger Games last night. Let me first say that I have not read the book(s) by Suzanne Collins. This is important because I believe your experience will greatly differ depending on whether you read the book first or not. For those who read the book, the movie will be judged by how well it relates to the book. I actually think a movie that is watched before reading the book will be more fairly reviewed because it is not a comparison, but is judged on its own merits and flaws.
I first became interested in watching the movie when I heard that it made $155 million in it first weekend. That is amazing for a movie that is released before the summer season. I new that was a record in that category, but it was also a record for a non-sequel as well. It was also the third highest amount for opening weekend all-time. It also shocked me that this movie was from Lionsgate. This little company is known for the Saw series as one of its greatest successes. I never expected Lionsgate to be able to get a movie of the caliber of the Hunger Games, but they did. Good for them.
I was not sure what to expect from the movie as I have not seen much about the movie, but I knew that with Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role, the movie had a chance of being good.

Jennifer is a academy award nominated actress for her role in Winter's Bone who lost to Sandra Bullock (why?). Jennifer did not let me down in her performance. She was brilliant with a cast that was equally impressive. The movie itself was engaging from the very beginning. I was tense and nervous for the characters early on as the movie was very dark in the beginning with the selection process for the Hunger Games. Dark moments stayed with the movie at times throughout. One of the real nervous moments is when the games began and the characters became very scared for their lives as they got ready for thier first action. The best thing about this movie is that it does not take the deaths of the characters lightly as in many movies of this type, and in that respect does an excellent job of delivering the message that I belive they were trying to send.
After watching the movie, I and my sister both said that we would have to read the book now. I think that I will not read the second book until the second movie comes out, so I can experience the movie the same way I did for the first one. A very good movie and a great cast lead by an excellent performance by Jennifer Lawrence, I give the Hunger Games an A+.

Have you seen the Hunger Games? What did you think? I would love to hear from someone who read the book first and explain what they thought of the movie.