"And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2015)

Starting out, I'm not part of the target audience for this film so I approach it without knowing anything about it or having read the books on which the movie was based. There's obviously a political/social commentary being offered here in it's depiction of conflict between the haves and the have-nots. Had the principal characters been adults doing battle as representative champions of their districts, I think I would have been better satisfied. However the idea of kids killing each other for the entertainment of the masses speaks more to the hypocrisy of the American left and the liberal film industry than it does for telling a legitimate story. While promoting the legislation of strict gun control laws the same folks would argue that entertainment like this (if that's what we want to call it) does not in any way contribute to an increase in violence in the culture. Flash mobs anyone?
So with that out of the way I guess the rest is kind of moot for me. The film held my attention well enough but I had to call into question the motivations of the players once the Game got under way. Personally, I'd be wary of forming alliances with other gamers once I knew the objective was for them to kill me at some point. And the idea that the game controllers could take an active part in targeting players and change the rules back and forth took it's toll on this viewer after a while.
So maybe there was a point I missed in the set up to the story. What intrigued me more were the 'adult' concepts offered by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) when he warns Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) on the direction the Game is taking - 'Hope is the only thing stronger than Fear; a little is effective, a lot is dangerous'. Perhaps the sequels deal with this idea more effectively. I'll try to get to them in due time.