a movie, just a movie like the thousands of other bad movies.

Rating: 5/10 (22 September 2012)

Let me start by saying this: this was a decent movie. It is one of those movies which is just that: a movie. There is nothing special about it, and you can't REALLY complain.
But yes, yes you can. This movie has taken a book with a great message and turned it into a whole other thing - which it is really not. This is not some random book-nerd's rampage against the movie not being exactly like he imagined it, but I will tell you about the book to state my point.
The book is about how people live off fear, violence and gore. We love it. The more violence the better. DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA. We worship it. The book criticizes this part of us - by implicitly stating that it has once happened before (gladiator fights etc.) and by referring to the society we live in today. A society almost drowning in reality TV-shows which make the self-absorbed participants victims of our desire for "blood".
But the movie.. It doesn't show that at all. It is playing on the same boat that it was trying to sink.
To make something good out of something that is already good, is not an accomplishment. For an adaptation to be good it has to bring something new to the story, or at least casting a light on the book that will bring forth the best of it. This adaptation does nothing of the sort.
And I'm not saying the book is 100 % right and good and all that. But the movie.. it's bad - super bad! When all of that is said: it is entertaining to watch. It is not badly made and the costumes are rather great. It is just souless and empty. That's it. Another shallow Hollywood production, reminding us all, that money and art can't go together anymore.

And don't get me started on Jeniffer Lawrence. She is a great actress, but this role is not fit for her. She is too old, and (sorry) too fat, to play a starving teenager! - and even though she is doing a great job she is not entirely believable in this role. She was picked for the movie, so it would sell more tickets, and while that IS an honest motive, it is not the right motive, when what you are making is a criticism of just that same concept - the heartless capitalistic money-making focus that has surrounded the movie entertainment business. It would be like making a movie out of "The Catcher in the Rye", when Holden explicitly states in the book, that he hates movies.