Half Rubbish/Decent

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2012)

The only shining light of this film was... Woody Harrelson. If not for him, The Hunger Games wouldn't have even achieved a barely mediocre 4/10 from me. Woody delivered a supporting role I expected from him.
The first half of the film was utter rubbish!... I'm not even British so when I say the term "rubbish", you know I am serious. Luckily, the second half wasn't all that bad, saving the film from a harsher rating. The action intensified and the plot gained some much needed momentum.
BUT!... The failure of this film critically comes down to the director and cinematographer. Seriously? I wonder if they have heard of throwing in a steady cam or wide shot here and there. The shaky camera works at times, but here it seemed to be used as an excuse for not being able to replicate the action on scene. An example of this would be... well, most of the film I suppose. And I understand the film wants to win an Oscar for cinematography, but that wont happen with 114 minutes of it being a portfolio of close up images. It is hard to tell the story to its full potential without ever stepping back to let the background play its role. Another thing that got to me was the lack of time spent on character development. My last note of criticism is the costumes of the futuristic people... My God! what were the filmmakers trying to achieve with those flamboyant abominations. I hope American fashion does not lead to that in the future or we are all doomed. Although, it could lead to a new series, The Fashion Games.
On a good note, the film did have its moments, predominately being in the second half and whenever Woody was on scene. The film had potential and a good plot, but was diminished by the filmmakers in this case.
By the way, where were the hungry children?