A step in the right direction for Hollywood fantasy movies for younger audiences

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2012)

After the overrated hypes around series such as "Twilight" and the last "Harry Potter" movies that are based on artificial special effects and rather mediocre acting I didn't expect too much from this new series that start with "The Hunger Games". To my surprise, this movie is easily better and plays in another league as "Twilight" or the last two "Harry Potter" movies.
This movie is also based on many special effects but they are visually truly beautiful and the strange future world is quite interesting to discover. The acting is also solid at many points I really appreciated the appearances of the charismatic Donald Sutherland, singer Lenny Kravitz and the very talented young actress Isabelle Fuhrman. The movie also contains some decent criticism about media and society but it could dig deeper at some points. The open ending makes you want to see the evolution of the characters and the addicting future world in the upcoming two movies. This movie is a solid Hollywood popcorn movie for teenagers but might also please to older fans of fantasy and science fiction movies even though I prefer the more mature "John Carter" that has been released a few weeks before this output. I was positively surprised by the high amount of brutality and raw killing scenes in the movie that make it more dramatic towards the end. After horrible adoptions from fantasy books such as the teeth-less "Eragon" in the past, this is definitely a step in the right direction even of worried parents, conservative Hollywood maniacs and too religious watchers might feel shocked about these tendencies.
On the other side, this movie offers nothing new after all. The dystopian context and the brutal games make me think of "Rollerball" and other classics and this movie has not enough originality and soul to come close to this masterpiece. It could though initiate a younger audience to this genre and make them discover further great dystopian movies such as "1984", "Equilibrium", "Fahrenheit 451", "Renaissance" and "V For Vendetta". In comparison to these movie this one we have here is rather forgettable and only worth to be watched once even though you get well entertained in over two hours of running time. I also disliked the choice of the main male character who lacks of charisma and guts in comparison to the convincing female lead role. Josh Hutcherson seems to be like a mixture of Justin Bieber and Robert Pattinson and seems only to be there to attract young girls to this movie. He might be a sweet guy for them but he honestly is a rather mediocre actor. The love story between him and the female lead role is simply not convincing in this movie and I'm looking forward to read the book to see if the whole thing is more authentic in the written version. The next time I wish the studios would chose an edgier and more unique actor or change the character of the book a little bit to make him more interesting. The soft guy simply feels out of place in this rather brutal survival movie towards the end.
In the end, it's worth to watch this movie once and to get out and watch the two sequels if their quality is as good or better than this movie. It's nothing groundbreaking though or something I would watch twice or purchase. A younger audience might though like it and overall the flick is well done and a step forward after the last rather mediocre Hollywood fantasy blockbusters with the exception of "John Carter" and "Super 8" that were approximatively as good or slightly better than this.