Didn't read the book - but ugh

Rating: 1/10 (1 April 2012)

If you are going to make a movie about children being forced to kill each other for the enjoyment of the public, I would think that the tone one would reach for would be something more along the lines of Shindler's List or at least a tone of some satirical value. And you would think that the angst, fear, disgust and overall awfulness for the main characters would be a focal point. You would think the blood lust of the watching masses would form a visceral sense of at least moderate horror that would serve as a backdrop to all of this. And most of all you would think that children, even children raised to expect that they might someday have to enter a tournament like this, would struggle with a conflict between fear, innocence, longing for some sense of decency and trying to sort through the confusion to survive.
It is something of a stretch to imagine a society in which everyone loves seeing children murder each other. That in itself is a plot line the brings a distorted feeling with it. The movie tries to hide that, or at least neglects to even attempt to address that, by layering this movie in and American Idol feeling. There is no sense of outrage. There is hardly a whiff of the sense of all of this in the time we spend with the characters. They are wooden and whitewashed. The most we get in the way of a sense of their overarching dilemma is a few shallow feeling comments and silent looks of stoic concern.
The movie seems to present the material in this fashion to make us forget that we are watching children kill each other. It is as though we are watching running man - only with 8 year olds. Who doesn't want to watch a movie where adorable little boys and girls snap each other necks? Or dogs run them down and eat them alive...?
If a movie like this is to be done it cannot avoid the moral content without seeming shallow and absently depraved. That is this movie. The core is not attempted. It is like red tails meets running man.
I found it absent, vapid and obviously lacking in any real value. It was also a little sick because it didn't even bother for tone whilst presenting the viewer with a mind bending plot.
In short, wooden acting, shallow presentation and not at all smart.