Fantastic concept, lackluster execution.

Rating: 4/10 (2 November 2013)

The Hunger Games is a movie about the authoritarian rule of a corrupt government that sponsors an annual reality-TV death-match between innocent kids. Sounds horrific right? Repulsive? Inhuman? You'd think so. Yet the only horror here is that the film plays out like a shallow, run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster complete with an obligatory love plot and green screens galore.
Seriously, talk about wasted potential. The source material is definitely there. The themes take nods from classics like George Orwell's 1984, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, laying the groundwork for a film that could've been a deep, disturbing philosophical examination of human nature and the dangers of government. I'm honestly upset that I didn't read the novel before seeing the film. In the hands of a capable and talented director, I truly feel that this story could've made for a fantastically effective, provocative film.
This is what ultimately makes the end result so frustrating to watch. It's basically like gearing up to lift an 800 lb dumbbell only to have your arms swing effortlessly upward as you realize the weights are made of Styrofoam. What should've been an excruciatingly weighty, stimulating affair ended up being about as heavy as a dollop of whipped cream, and just as sweet. And that is true hypocrisy of the film as well: we're supposed to be condemning of government and the characters that put on the Hunger Games, and yet the film itself falls into the same category of glamorizing and diluting what should be portrayed as an atrocity. The action is stylized, the grit and violence is subdued, the CG-sheen is blinding, and the love plot is ham-fisted. The true meat of this story, the implications of such a horrific form of entertainment and the underlying themes of how it could've come to be, are almost swept completely under the rug.
And don't get me wrong here. I'm not just condemning this movie because it wasn't what I thought it should've been. I love stylized action and I there's nothing wrong with an entertaining blockbuster. But the problem is this movie fails on that level as well. The action sequences are uninspired and just plain boring, which is probably a consequence of the fact that the movie never worked to make me emotionally invested. How can I possibly care about these kids fighting for their lives when 90% of them don't have more than four lines in the film and are portrayed as one-dimensional villains? To me, the majority of these characters were as expendable as they were to the citizens of the Capitol. They ended up feeling more like willing, eager participants than desperate, victimized innocents.
The bottom line here is a movie that could've been a deep, provocative, disturbing look at human nature ending up being a shallow Hollywood affair that barely scratched the surface of the underlying themes of its source material. The movie simply felt as manufactured as the Hunger Games themselves, directly catering to the audience rather than challenging it. If you like your government-sponsored child death- matches sugarcoated and served with a large bag of buttery popcorn, by all means. If you're looking for a film willing to dig a little deeper, search elsewhere.