by Sarah Walsh, staff writer

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is a heart wrenching, jaw dropping, nerve-wrecking movie that will leave everyone hungry for more.

The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen lives in a futuristic world where the country is divided up into 12 Districts within the nation of Panem. District 1 is the richest and 12 is the poorest.

Every year, the Capitol (the government) hosts the Hunger Games in which two tributes, (members of a draft, or reaping) one boy and one girl from each District, are chosen to compete in the games. The games are held in a large arena that is completely controlled by the the Capitol, so the climate or pace of the game can be changed at any second.

During the reaping in District 12, Katniss’s sister, Prim initially gets chosen to be in the Hunger Games. Immediately, Katniss volunteers to be tribute instead of her sister. The boy tribute that is chosen to be a part of the games with Katniss is Peeta Mellark.

The goal of the Hunger Games is simple: to be the last one standing. Having read the book, I thought casting of    Katniss was spot on. Jennifer Lawrence portrayed the character of Katniss to perfection with all of her different and honest emotions. She added a depth to the character that couldn’t be expressed in words in the book.

Because the book was so good, I was a bit worried the movie would completely destroy the book and make the movie seem fake, but it did just the opposite. In a way, the movie enhanced the book by putting words to action.  I was impressed that the movie lived up to all my expectations.

Director Gary Ross did an amazing job at portraying the characters and the settings in the correct manner from Collins’s book.  The differences between Districts 1 and 12 are made very clear in the movie with great effects.

Something that I really liked about the movie was that it didn’t make viewers pick sides with any particular character. It emphasized the deadly situation of the Hunger Games, and made viewers sympathize with every character.

The only negatives were the relationships between Katniss and Peeta and Katniss and Rue were not developed enough.

“The Hunger Games” is already the highest grossing movie in the history of Lionsgate after making $155 million the opening weekend.

I would definitely recommend that people go see it. The second movie of the trilogy series, “Catching Fire”, comes out Nov. 22, 2013. Grade: A