A mildly entertaining cinematic take on a mildly entertaining book.

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2013)

Suzanne Collins monster hit series based largely on the collected writings of horror-writer Stephen King comes to the big scream with a can't miss fan base. Thus, the director Gary Ross's only true challenge is to just not screw it up. He succeeds. To be fair, Ross does take the extra step to clean up numerous shaky plot points (such as the torture porn death of Kato that mars the end of the book) and devices most especially the first person narrative which limits the development of backstory and B plots (realistically, once Katniss enters the Hunger Game arena all we should have known is her quest for food and water). Ross also does a nice job of peppering the cast with real actors including Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tucci as well as Jennifer Lawrence herself. Given that the core 12 year female audience lacks any interest in such matters must have represented a temptation to hire cheaper talent. Ross adequately captures the brutal action in the book and smartly drops out before the long, meandering final section. However, the CGI very much comes across like CGI and two often the film feels like a car commercial. The cimenatographic slickness undercuts some of the emotional scenes quickly jumping away before Katniss' emotion can fully land. It blunts the viciousness found in the book without papering over it but still results in a non-recommendation for those younger than fully in the pre-tween ranks. In short, the mediocre King- homage (or ripoff depending on how much of his stuff you've read) makes for a somewhat entertaining book that wears is 2 hour 22 minute running time well.