The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrleson
Directed by: Gary Ross
Rating: I Liked It

As with a lot of movie adaptations (whether from novels, other films, short stories, etc.), I'm not familiar with the source material for this movie.  I am intrigued by the plot, though, maybe enough so to actually go buy the book and read it.  I'm not sure, yet.

I was familiar with the general plot already.  My first thought when hearing about this series was "oh, it's an Americanized Battle Royale", which I still think was a pretty accurate description.  Actually, it may have been an all-to-accurate description.  I wanted to see a more adult film, not something that draws in a teen crowd, too.  Think more Die Hard and less Stand By Me.

The Good:

• Lawrence was good as was her counterpart, Hutcherson.  Overall the casting was good, and we know how big I am on casting.  
• I'm always impressed by Harrleson.  His first impression on my viewing career was as the bartender who shared that actor's real first name on "Cheers".  He has done lots of different roles in lots of different genres, and he is always believable.  I don't think he gets enough credit.  
• The basic plot is a good one.  It reflects on our species in general very well.  I could go into depth about what I mean in the way of the social classes playing against one another or our survival instincts or several other areas of human nature and culture, but I think I'll just leave it as my first statement on this point.  
• I know this is part of a bigger series and story, and I'm really interested to see where it goes from here, but at the same time, I wanted more from the movie.  That's always a good place for a movie to leave you, especially one that has a planned sequel.  

The Bad: 

• I felt like the movie was kept to clean.  I know it's geared toward teens and only had a PG-13 rating, but I wanted to see an R-rated version of this film, gorier, grittier.  
• I'm sure the book goes into more detail, but I kind of felt lost on how society had gotten to the point it is at in the movie.  I wanted some more history on the events that lead up to the creation of the Hunger Games.  All we really get is the narrated film at the beginning of the movie.  I wanted more.  

The Ugly: 

• Why is it that when writers think of the future they always imagine some weird style of dress.  It's either the most extreme being the norm, or everyone wears matching jumpsuits.  Is it really going to be that strange in the future.  
• I like it when I can say that I hated a character that was intended for me to hate.  A lot of people will say they really liked a movie, except such-and-such character, "I really hated them."  If that's the case, the actor has done their job well.  I appreciate that.  Having said that, I hated the character of Effie Trinket too much.  She annoyed me to the point that I didn't want to watch any part of the movie with her in it.