Weak sauce

Rating: 4/10 (6 October 2014)

I'd forgotten much about the book before I finally got around to the movie, but wasn't the book a lot more brutal? That's what this thing needed, something to really show how dangerous the Games are rather than just one quick scene of watered-down violence and some low-rent CGI beasts. There's also a lack of character development here and there's nothing to really make me root for Katniss during the long stretches of screen time where nothing's happening. That's what was really disappointing about the movie version: it's ridiculously slow. And when there is an action scene, it's in a explosive splash of dizzying shaky cam.
Not a good start to a movie series.
4/10