Repugnant and unrelentingly stupid

Rating: 3/10 (16 January 2013)

One of the hallmarks of bad writing, and in particular bad science fiction, is the "As you know, Bob" speech, where characters explain to each other what they both already know. Here it's presented as though the main characters are completely ignorant of the central fact of their existence, an annual event that everyone watches. It's clumsy and annoying exposition, and it's the *best* written part of the film. From there it just gets worse, with contrived situations and deus ex machinas falling from the trees.
All this is set in a world that seems like a fifth-grader's concept of a centrally planned economy, a poorly conceived dystopia which makes no sense physically or economically. Nothing is ever fundamentally explained, except for an occasional "Oh, by the way, we forgot to tell you this exists and there's conveniently one nearby, or we'll whip something up through apparently magic." It's all frustrating and never coheres into anything resembling a believable world or society.
Worse yet, there's no story here. It's pure melodrama with a predetermined outcome. The cardboard characters have no arc, no growth, no anything but having survived. It's just an empty, morally repugnant spectacle, with no real point to any of it.
I imagine there are probably apologists who claim, much like the later Harry Potter films, that "Well, you have to have read the book to fully understand everything." If that's the case, then the film is still a failure. I shouldn't have to bring along supplementary material to fill in the gaps, inconsistencies, and just plain stupidity of a movie like this.
I gave three stars because the film was mostly professionally shot and produced. I just wish they'd spent some of that money on a professionally written script. This movie is a complete disaster and an utter waste of time.