Less intelligent Hunger Games

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2014)

A movie series, based on a book by Veronica Roth, which both try to ride the coattails of The Hunger Games franchise, with extremely limited success. The basic premise is the same. The world as we know it has ended and in the ruins of what used to be USA there exists a society where people are held under an iron fist, all in the name of keeping order. And of course it's up to a teenage girl to fight against this oppression.
Granted, in this series there doesn't exist any kind of elite class that keeps the rest as slaves or as lower class, which is different enough that you don't feel like watching the exact same movie, but the themes, mood and the general feeling are very, very similar.
So yeah, zero points for originality. That being said, the movie is not without value. The technical aspects of movie making are more than fine to please, the two main leads are not without talent and have chemistry together. And while the plot is predictable, it's paced well and doesn't overstay its welcome. The scenes dealing with mindscapes and subconscious fears are the most interesting thing in the movie and offer some creative visuals.
In the end I cannot really recommend this film. It's too similar to The Hunger Games, so you should watch those if post-apocalyptic teenage survival interests you. It's not a bad film, per se, just much more average, less ambitious and lacking in scope than its predecessor and source of inspiration.