Joan of Arc Meets The 5th Element

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 2012)

Note: I didn't read the books and saw this as a stand-alone movie. I also may be the only non-shill who actually liked this film.
If you check your left brain at the door and view this as a dystopian fairy tale, then you should enjoy this movie pretty well. It features simply fantastic cinematography, a trite but believable premise, a heroine you find yourself rooting for, and good acting from the primary cast.
If you check your right brain at the door and ignore the fantasy aspect of the movie, then you will see some extremely exaggerated plot elements, some bizarre inconsistencies, and a lot of rip-offs from other movies and literary stories, and generally will find yourself giggling a lot.
I chose to see the movie from a right-brained perspective and, hence, found it quite enjoyable, maybe even something I'd watch again or consider buying on DVD. The acting of lead actress Jennifer Lawrence was pure gold to watch. She was able to believably convey a great range of emotions and fully immersed in the character, giving a excellent performance.
Dwayne Boyd, as the uncreatively named "Peacekeeper #1" was also extremely believable, as was the performance of the characters' acerbic and wayward 'mentor', Woody Harelson. The supporting cast did OK, but I kept having the feeling I was watching a WB Network teenie-bopper-demographic type show whenever they were showcased. Anyone familiar with the shows "One Tree HIll" or "Gilmore Girls" (or even the extremely-ridiculous "Secret Life of The American Teenager") will dig what I am saying here.
From a critical standpoint, the film does tend to rip off a lot of concepts from other sources such as: William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies', Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', the character of 'The Architect' (eg. Donald Sutherland's character) from the 'Matrix Reloaded', 'The Truman Show', the story of Joan of Arc, and others. While this practice is not very original, it works well in the movie. The costumes of the 'city people' are a bit over-the-top, and look like they were stolen from the props storage of 'The 5th Element'; the city sets also have a very '5th Element' feel to them.
With the exception of the wasp scene, most of the violence in the film is handled in a relatively non-graphic but believable way, and the hand-held camera shots lended a gritty realistic aspect to certain pursuit scenes. Pretty much everyone else seems to think this sucked, but I completely disagree.
I did think it was hilarious & bizarre that, while having all this amazing technology, the city people only thought to arm their guards with knives and sticks. Surely they could do better than that. I'm tempted to think that might have been a deliberate move to lend a Biblical feel to the film, but honestly I think it was just a dumb oversight.
Also, it's unclear who the Robert-Smith-looking-freak-woman is who hosts the "Reaping" and what exactly her role is in the film. An investor? A district governor? Who knows?
From a story perspective, when you get to the end, nothing was actually solved and it's a wee-bit anti-climatic. Also, the very last scene in the film should have been cut because it adds absolutely nothing and left me laughing out loud saying, "That's the end....??!" It was a really dumb way to end this film.
I also found it hard to believe that simply *everybody* in the cities condoned the games and that there was no opposition and/or protest of it. From a fairy tale perspective it works (in the same way we believe the 'Wicked Witch of the West' from Wizard of Oz is evil), but from a realism perspective, it's oversimplification at it's most extreme.
The 'point' the movie is trying to make seems to be a Kmer Rouge propaganda statement: City people are evil & decadent, but the common folks are A-OK. Or, perhaps more generally, the implied moral advice to avoid excess and hedonism for the sake of hedonism.
Finally, it's good to see a strong, believable female lead in a tween movie. Despite all the nay-sayers, I think this movie could definitely be empowering to young females. Overall, the film was enjoyable (if just a tad bit silly) and something I would watch again.