A little worse than the source material would have suggested

Rating: 4/10 (2 February 2016)

The book upon which the film is based would suggest the film version should have been been a little above average but yet Neil Burger turns in a little below average adaptation. The main culprit springs out of an uninspired cast nearly top to bottom. Lead Shailene Woodley deeps lacks the Jennifer Lawrence's big screen charisma and the viewer's eye frequently loses attention on what she's saying in favor of some interesting CGI work on post-apocalyptic Chicago. English thespian Theo James has the gravitas of someone in their early thirties which ramps up the ick factor when you dwell on the problematic plot point of a male teacher starting a romance with his 16 year old female charge. Most of the rest of the cast is indistinguishable although some of that is a side effect of the book which struggled to distinguish the male characters. Ashley Judd and Kate Winslet could have easily swapped parts between the criminally under-used mother character and the villain with the least evil name ever - Jeanine without any diminishment. The boring cast does play the plot close to the book although the necessarily condensing accelerates as the movie goes on until an ending that is just a quick greatest hits of the last dozen chapters of the book. In short, given a mediocre Hunger Games and Harry Potter band wagon jumper as the source material this wasn't going to be great but it could have been much better.