A lot of wasted potential

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2013)

First of all I have seen Battle Royale. This probably alters my perspective on this film as I just can't help myself but compare the two films. Just a heads up.
Firstly, I feel as if this film is too slowly paced and is dragged a bit too long, what makes it worse is that in these two and a half hours there is very little character development so when a child dies within the film it isn't very emotionally impacting and both aspects are better handled in Battle Royale as many of the characters in it are sharply introduced and just as sharply cut off and the shock and horror within their introduction and demise make it all the more impacting.
However, the performances in The Hunger games are rather strong. Josh Hutcherson does a very good job as Peeta but is overshadowed a bit by the wonderful performance by Jennifer Lawrence. She manages to display a large variety of emotions with such ease and accuracy that it makes the film fill out some of it's potential but only a little. Nevertheless the performances by some of the supporting cast members are rather weak. The careers are prime examples...to me they seemed to overact their malevolent side and made it less emotionally impacting which was a major purpose of the film. After all they're children killing other children they're meant to represent innocence. Yet all they represented were heartless killers from a typical slasher film. Once again I think the performances in Battle Royale were far better than in this. Not only are the main cast amazing but so are the supporting cast. I can't think of a major character in that film who wasn't convincing at all.
The fight scenes. For me it didn't work. Why they used a jumpy camera all the over the place was beyond me. We weren't seeing from anyone's perspective, they made that clear. It also didn't make sense, one second Katniss is on her feet, a few seconds of the camera trembling horrendously and then she is on the floor and restrained with the viewer being none the wiser on how she got there. When compared to Battle Royale...well the fight scenes in it made it all the more tragic watching adolescents break down with fear and paranoia before your eyes make the horror in it stand out even more.
One thing I did like in this films were the visuals. The budget on that truly paid off.
So in conclusion, if you have the choice between Battle Royale and the hinger games, then choose Battle Royale, it is a very well made movie with plenty of positives which scold into your mind for a very long time. This just had far too much wasted potential.