The Hum-Drum Games

Rating: 6/10 (26 March 2012)

OK, firstly, I only jumped on board with the hype at the last minute, I read the first book about a week before the opening, and have yet to read the sequels and personally I do not care if adaptations stray from the source material. That's fine. It's good, it means that the script- writers, directors, actors etc. are not completely brain dead, so any review comparing the two materials is just redundant as literature and film are two different mediums that cannot be compared.
The film:
Acting: 7/10 I don't get the hype over Jennifer Lawrence. She was good, but not amazing. They could have done worse; she held her own over the show and I must admit she didn't screw up so credit is due there, most of the other actors were sub par, but again, didn't screw up too badly. Little Rue held her own and her death scene was quite powerful, but was ruined by the lack of violence (I'll explain my problem with the whole lack of violence on it's own later), Josh Hutcherson was alright. Not as strong as Jennifer, but not as weak as Liam Hemsworth. The adult actors were not dreadful; but not amazing enough for merit.
Story: 9/10 The film's story was interesting, especially how they managed to explain every aspect fully and successfully so the film was clear and well done. It's not an original story by far, but the plot is great and it's expressed in a very universal way.
Direction: 3/10 Awfully directed in my opinion. I hate hand held camera's and the shaky- cam in this film was over used to death. My biggest hang up of this film over all is the lack of violence. Yes, I understand that to appeal to the wider audience they had to cut back on the gore, violence etc. But in my opinion they went too far. Rue's death wasn't half as impacting as it should have been, neither Cloves', Cato's, Marvel's or even Peeta's injury. They held back and the film greatly suffered and lost the majority of it's impact, stunting the story and the cohesion of the film as a whole. The directing wasn't a one because when the directer finally put away the shaky-cam for a moment the shots were nice and decent, but most of the action, albeit had to be re framed made little or no sense- case in point- Clove tackling Katniss, the actress Jenifer Lawrence had a good six inches from the angle of the camera over Clove, and with the obnoxious unrelenting of the camera movement I can give no reasonable explanation to how that little girl over powered Katniss. And when Thresh killed Clove I had roll my eyes at the blatant awfulness of the death itself. I'm not a gore hound, I admit, I might be biased: I like violence, but this film's sequences are barely coherent and sadly really ruined the viewing experience.
Overall I give this a six. Not an awful film by any standards. And maybe a re-viewing of the film again with more attentiveness on my part it could be better, or it could just be the sheer audacity of the producers to cut away much of the impact of violence ( a huge theme, I might add) for more profit revenue. Thank you Hollywood. But hey, the sets were pretty and the effects were good, well, all except Katniss' barely flaming costume.
Over and out.