Great Hype, Disappointing attempt

Rating: 5/10 (30 May 2012)

The Hunger Games seemed a very exciting project to start with all the hype around its starcast, book trilogy and fast paced trailers. But the end result disappoints big time. There has been a lot of fuss around the fact that it's an excellent adaptation from the original books and that it has lots of similar moments to Battle Royale. Well coming from a person without any pre-conceived notions (neither watched the Battle royale nor read the books)this movie came across as a very poor attempt of film making as well as the story telling.
Performance:- Jennifer Lawrence is pleasing to the eyes and acts decently promising a good future, But Josh Hutcherson is a misfit. Liam Hemsworth's role is next to nothing. Woody Harrelson does provide some lighter moments though.
Cinematography:- The Shaky camera approach to almost every action scene takes the sting out of this so called action thriller. Where is the fun if you can't see what's happening.
Screenplay:- Unaware of the book details I would say the events unfolding in the movie are predictable to say the least. The struggle of the protagonist doesn't seem challenging or real enough and the cheesy end doesn't help its case either.
Direction:- One word - Poor.
The healthy premise of a promising subject was executed badly. Hope they improve over this ordinary effort in the sequels to come (which seems quite unlikely with the same technical team around and the amount of mad money the film has made) as I definitely felt my hard earned money was wasted in its ticket.