Amazing and Deeper Than Expected

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2012)

Collins wrote, and a very talented of professionals have turned into an experience, a film that combines both spectacle and very piercing social insight about what societies have been, are, and could eventually become.
In this oppressive universe, humans have been degraded in more than one way, and every year, as punishment their precious children are subjected to savagery than we can hardly fathom, but in the end it's just a reflection of what society already does, feasting upon the misery of many, and sometimes, it's broadcast in order to appease the despair and negative that otherwise would overcome us if people actually opened their eyes.
Our heroine discovers she must fight hard to get to the end in one piece; wondering at various time where she stands, and when she will lose her humanity, her ability to value her and others human life. Others have phrases expressing than hunting a person is no different from hunting an animal, but she refuses to agree with that.
Much more effective than her turn in "Winter's Tale", Jennifer Lawrence is perfect as the young woman who conveys through her expressions and actions what her world has become. With some impressive production design, we are also able to witness and evoke our own reactions to a world where excess is part of the luckier classes' lifestyle.
The suspense is sometimes so intense, one can barely hang in there. With some very good editing, we are spared some graphic moments, but these don't lose any of their impact because we still "see" clearly what is going on. The film works really well as a unit, but the smooth set up and transition is in place for what promises to be a very interesting turn of events in the upcoming two thirds of the trilogy.
"Hunger Games" is a magnificent film.