The Hunger Games

It only took me about a month longer than everyone else to see the new teeny bopper flavour of the moment, but I finally got there. Comparisons between The Hunger Games and the Japanese film Battle Royale are inevitable considering they have the same basic premise. Of course, Suzanne Collins, author of the novel, claims she had never even heard of Battle Royale when writing it.... let's give her the benefit of the doubt. There are more than enough point of differences between the two, however, to hopefully not have people bang on about it too much. Firstly, Hunger Games spends about the first half of the movie looking at the lead up to the tournament of death, whereas Battle Royale thrusts us almost immediately into the action. Secondly, the thematic elements are pretty different. Whereas Battle Royale was effectively a study of the issues surrounding teenagers and the way they were treated by people in authority, Hunger Games is more of a satire of political dictatorships and oppression of the lower class etc. So enough on that.

So yeah, I think everyone is familiar with the story, teenagers battling to the death for a televised reality show, which was set up as punishment due for a failed coup against the government by the different "districts". Jennifer Lawrence's character volunteers in place of her younger sister. There's a love triangle thrown in for good measure.

The set up to the actual tournament feels like it goes for about half the movie, and it's all fairly mundane stuff. There are some attempts made at character development but it all falls a bit flat and didn't really make this viewer care about what was to come. Then the tournament starts and things do kick up a notch, but not all that much. There are a couple of nice action scenes, a descent side story involving our heroine and her relationship with a young girl she tries to work with, but the love triangle that is apparently supposed to be a big part of the story goes nowhere, and one third of the triangle hardly even appears in the movie. If it was, as I suspect, being set up for something bigger in the next movie then they didn't do a very good job.

 Jennifer Lawrence is a really fine actress and almost carries the movie on her own back, but at the end of the day it kinda feels like one of those fantasy/adventure kids shows they put on Saturday mornings or after school, just with a bit more violence. Verdict - Ok, but wait for DVD.

*** out of *****