Once you suspend disbelief the film is quite good

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2012)

I will preface by saying I am not a kid, and also, I am a science fiction fan. That means that on the one hand, I would not be entranced by the "youth-oriented" aspects of the film but on the other hand, I am open to fantasy story lines. On that note, I would say that the whole setup is preposterous to the "nth degree" and seems to be a pretext for mayhem. In that sense it is like all the post-apocalypse films which essentially use that as an excuse for all sorts of fantasy exploits. For example, in the first Mad Max it was never explained as to what the heck had happened to Australia to allow for the anarchic situation. Hunger Games, too, is unsatisfyingly sketchy and non-credible in attempting to explain its setup. Once we accept it, however, and can "get on with it," I felt the movie was extremely well-done. The casting of Katness was perfect, as she could carry the weight of the role, and since I figured that it would not be *******SPOILER***********possible for the sympathetic heroine to cold-bloodedly kill the other youngsters I kept trying to figure out how it would resolve given the directed for only one survivor. The futuristic sets, costumes, etc. were very well done, as was the whole "steam punk" look to it. It does end ****spoiler***with a lot of unfinished business so I'm looking forward to the sequel.