Could Have Been Better

Rating: 5/10 (29 March 2014)

It could have been better. The Hunger Games was in no way a terrible film, it had its good sides, but it could have been much better. I'd say the entire thing felt bland and unreal. Everything happened to quickly and you never really cared if a character lived or died. Can you honestly say you cried when the twelve year old girl, Rue, died? No. I'm willing to bet most people hardly even cared.
The writing felt boring and bland. Everything happened to quickly and you never quite knew what was going on unless you read the book, as I and many others have. The writing was possibly the biggest problem behind this film. Whilst it was quite faithful to the book, which is a rare occasion, it was way to fast and didn't go into detail about anything.
The directing is my other biggest problem with the film. It, again, felt awfully bland. Yes, at times we had nice shots and the occasional good scene, but overall it was pretty terrible. It helped the writing go along at times when we didn't know what was going on, with nice shots of facial expressions which tells us the thoughts of the characters in situations, but other than that it was bad directing from Gary Ross, who also co-wrote the film.
The acting certainly didn't help the film either. From knowing about Jennifer Lawrence's outgoing personality and how much everybody loves her, I expected a great performance from her as the main protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. Sadly, I didn't really get this. Most of the film's acting felt either bland or over the top. I felt that Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson gave the only great performances in the film. They felt real, unlike most of the two dimensional characters.
As an adaptation, The Hunger Games works well in some areas and badly in others. The same basic plot line is there, unlike most unlucky adaptations, but essential scenes were missing and the entire film felt rushed. The death scenes needed to be longer to have that lasting affect and some missing scenes were needed. It's in no way a bad adaptation, but it could have been much better.
I think what would have really helped this film is if it was made into two films, both of which being about two and a half/three hours. For this film to have had the impact it needed to have and feel real, it needed more time. We needed to see Katniss struggle to survive. We needed sad, long death scenes. We needed a growing Katniss/Peeta relationship. We needed explanations. We needed Madge. We needed so much that we didn't get to make this adaptation feel real and have the impact it needed.
Overall, I'd say that this was a bad film with some redeeming qualities, such as some of the shots and acting. In my opinion, the novel by Suzanne Collins was rather bland throughout, but this film made the book seem very real. I found this film enjoyable at times, but to be perfectly honest I was spending the entire two hours waiting for it to be over.