So pedestrian I was tempted to buy it a bus timetable.

Rating: 3/10 (7 April 2012)

I had heard so much hype about Hunger Games, I admit I was a little bit blind sided. I decided to go into this with an open mind - Hollywood/U.S Film & T.V industry, whatever you want to call it have been snapping up the book to movie adaptations & much to their credit, they're getting much better at it. I can see why, it's immensely profitable. Say what you will about Twilight but those movies sold books, and Edward's face (whatever his name is) sells teen girl magazines. The Harry Potter series as very decent, and I haven't met many people who have had a bad word to say about Game of Thrones. So I must concede I was surprised at how bland Hunger Games is.
Katniss is your typical diamond in the rough, volunteering to save her sister from the barbarian spectacle that is the Hunger Games. She is swept away to the "Capitol" to participate in these Hunger Games where she is given every bit of assistance to becoming the most successful candidate, which she does. This character is carved from "strong woman" clichés.
The problem I have with this movie is that it is so very pedestrian - there is no tension, Katniss is never really in doubt as to the being the superior contestant, everything she needs, sponsors, and such, come along simply as a matter of course. There's no tension & every possible source of tension or complication is quickly smoothed aside. Might Katniss have to kill the guy who's in love with her? No, because the powers that be decide that "young love" might pacify the Districts, so they decide to let a couple from both districts win.
The context is supposed to be the 74th Hunger Games yet for some reason none of these behind the scenes power players like the President, or Seneca Crane had ever planned for the contingency that her district might win? Apparently this is linked tenuously to upheaval in another District (I must admit I really had stopped caring) - again I found myself wondering, "Wow, you've been killing these people's children for nearly a century, and now one of them gets mad?"
Again even the premise stretched credulity - the Capitol kept the Districts in line by killing their children? I'm no politician from an art deco future but I'm fairly certain that taking children by force and then forcing them to compete in a gladiatorial contest will not ensure their allegiance.
The movie meanders from point A to point B, with nary a complication or tension. I found Katniss and Peeter's performances wooden in the first half of the movie and average in the second. The romantic angle was yet another example of how /pedestrian/ this movie really is. I'm supposed to feel something for Katniss, but it seems she was given most of the advantages out of everyone.
The movie just ambles from one point to the next, the result never really in doubt. Finishing this was a real chore. If you are a serious film goer, I wouldn't expect too much from the Hunger Games. Pedestrian is the word that keeps coming to mind.