A lot of games, but not a whole lot of hunger

Rating: 4/10 (5 February 2017)

The book is very detail rich and is not an easy one to adapt (true for any literature featuring dystopian/totalitarian societies), but it is a thrilling, scary and moving one too with fascinating characters and relationships.
As an adaptation, the film adaptation of 'The Hunger Games' is pretty poor. The basic details are there as is the basic story and crucial characters, but spirit-wise it feels very watered-down and tame with little of the book's atmosphere and the characters nowhere near as interesting. This said, 'The Hunger Games' also fares problematically on its own terms, a fairer way to judge an adaptation from personal opinion and that's how it will be judged here.
It is not all bad. Some of the acting is good, with the standouts being a magnetic Jennifer Lawrence, a deliciously smarmy Stanley Tucci, a splendid Elizabeth Banks and an effective Donald Sutherland. The dystopian setting is eerily evoked in the costumes and settings, and help the film start off well with a genuinely ominous depiction of District 12 which really give off a sense of dread. James Newton Howard's music score is thrilling and emotive.
Not all the acting is good however. Most of the cast actually don't really stand out all that much with underwritten characters and lacking dialogue. In the principal cast Josh Hutcheson (blaming the writing here because Hutcheson has shown, like in 'Bridge to Terabithia', that he can be good) gives a lifeless and charisma-free performance. Woody Harrelson is also too anaemic and somewhat annoying as a shady jaded sort of character which undermines any development or direction of the character, he tries to give a coolness but this feels completely wrong for the character.
Lack of character development and halfway-decent writing plays a large part here. The characters had a lot of meat to them before but here are pretty bland stereotypes with non-existent development or direction. Didn't find myself caring for the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, mainly because of Peeta being written and played so blandly but also the chemistry didn't seem to be there. The writing does feel under-cooked, with some cringe-worthy moments and lacks edge or any kind of emotion a lot of the time.
Was expecting the story to be much more compelling too. The District 12 stuff at the beginning sets a promising tone, but it takes forever to get to when anything properly happens after over an hour of suffering through under-baked, repetitious and sometimes unnecessary exposition that amounts to little. When it does finally get there, the scary intensity is still lacking, as well as any insight on social commentary or satirical edge, everything just feels rather tame and undernourished.
The action sequences are rushed through, lack tension and further spoilt by being shot and edited chaotically and incredibly fake looking effects. Visually, only the set design impresses, the rest is too sloppy and frenetic.
In summary, has its moments but very much lacking. 4/10 Bethany Cox