Poorly Presented

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2012)

After seeing a relatively high rating here at IMDb, I was surprised at how weak the film turned out.
Firstly, the camera work in this film is the absolute worst I've ever seen. The camera was frequently, and for no artistic reason that I can discern, zoomed in way past the point of comfort, was frequently focused on the wrong thing for no apparent reason, and most of all, was shaky shaky shaky! And I don't just mean for fight scenes which were ridiculous. Even when they are just sitting there are walking casually around, the camera shakes like crazy!
Secondly, while the story remains somewhat interesting and we feel for the characters, the director has chosen to focus so much on the kids who are fighting that we see hardly any cutbacks to the announcers or the folks at home. The announcers are shown only twice that I can remember, and audience reaction only once, when they went berserk and started ripping the place. I think much more could have been milked out of this story if it was portrayed better.
Third, while I haven't read the book and can't say how accurately it is truly portrayed, the story itself seems very unrealistic and weak. The way the games were finally played, and how they willy nilly changed the rules, and threw in fireballs and (seemingly) computer generated ferocious dogs, was just silly. The "alliances" formed by the kids was random and disconnected, and the sequence of events confusing.
Lots more to say, but I can't see how a film like this gets above a 4.