The Empire Strikes Back

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2014)

8 of 10. A more realistic, less simplistic version of an empire striking back, including the storm trooper names ("peacekeeper"), even if the uniforms are clearly plagiarized from Star Wars. Then again, we are dealing with Earth in the future, so you'd expect some copying from famous films of the past given the nature of the work and watch TV society.
It's also a rare case of a sequel being better than the original. That's not to say it's perfect or the acting is good. The film essentially picks up immediately after the first, and as the result of the first is subject to a lot less cutting. Jennifer Lawrence looks less like someone from a well fed suburb and more like she's in a society of hunger than the first, but remains a poor selection for the lead of this film series. The film also started out by exploring some of the other districts, but cuts this off too short before it returns to another version of the games, which could have easily shortened a fog chase scene. Fortunately, we get more insight into the games along with a great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The characters and overall plot development are much better developed in this film than the first, which relied heavily on a good story idea but had clichÃ© problems.
There seems to be a promotion tour here for a 2000 Japanese film called Battle Royale. If it was a 1970s sci-fi B-movie, it would be a masterpiece. Compared to either Hunger Games film, it's like having to watch teen-TV melodrama with subtitles.