Movie reviews for kids hunger games movie#

In summary, has its moments but very much lacking. Visually, only the set design impresses, the rest is too sloppy and frenetic. The action sequences are rushed through, lack tension and further spoilt by being shot and edited chaotically and incredibly fake looking effects. When it does finally get there, the scary intensity is still lacking, as well as any insight on social commentary or satirical edge, everything just feels rather tame and undernourished. The District 12 stuff at the beginning sets a promising tone, but it takes forever to get to when anything properly happens after over an hour of suffering through under-baked, repetitious and sometimes unnecessary exposition that amounts to little. Was expecting the story to be much more compelling too. The writing does feel under-cooked, with some cringe-worthy moments and lacks edge or any kind of emotion a lot of the time. Didn't find myself caring for the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, mainly because of Peeta being written and played so blandly but also the chemistry didn't seem to be there. The characters had a lot of meat to them before but here are pretty bland stereotypes with non-existent development or direction. Lack of character development and halfway-decent writing plays a large part here. Woody Harrelson is also too anaemic and somewhat annoying as a shady jaded sort of character which undermines any development or direction of the character, he tries to give a coolness but this feels completely wrong for the character. In the principal cast Josh Hutcheson (blaming the writing here because Hutcheson has shown, like in 'Bridge to Terabithia', that he can be good) gives a lifeless and charisma-free performance. Most of the cast actually don't really stand out all that much with underwritten characters and lacking dialogue. James Newton Howard's music score is thrilling and emotive. The dystopian setting is eerily evoked in the costumes and settings, and help the film start off well with a genuinely ominous depiction of District 12 which really give off a sense of dread. Some of the acting is good, with the standouts being a magnetic Jennifer Lawrence, a deliciously smarmy Stanley Tucci, a splendid Elizabeth Banks and an effective Donald Sutherland. This said, 'The Hunger Games' also fares problematically on its own terms, a fairer way to judge an adaptation from personal opinion and that's how it will be judged here.

The basic details are there as is the basic story and crucial characters, but spirit-wise it feels very watered-down and tame with little of the book's atmosphere and the characters nowhere near as interesting. As an adaptation, the film adaptation of 'The Hunger Games' is pretty poor. The book is very detail rich and is not an easy one to adapt (true for any literature featuring dystopian/totalitarian societies), but it is a thrilling, scary and moving one too with fascinating characters and relationships. However, despite the books being very popular with kids, I would think twice about bringing any kids younger than about 12 or 13.] All in all, a terrific film-well worth your time provided you don't mind the violence necessary to convey the story. In many ways it was like combining the original 'Rollerball' and, perhaps, 'Gladiator'! It was truly original and kept me riveted. I liked the story a lot-especially since I love dystopian sci-fi films. I cared about the characters I was supposed to care about and it tore my guts out when one of them was killed in the film-showing what a nice job they did and how well the director elicited the performances. Foremost, the acting was really, really nice. The film has already been out about 45 days when I saw it tonight, so I don't want to give a lengthy review.

Movie reviews for kids hunger games movie#

As I said, though, the shakiness of the film (especially at the beginning) was a problem-and I felt motion sick just watching the movie! The plot and movie have already been discussed in a bazillion reviews.

But apart from that and the god-awful 'shaky cam' (one of the WORST inventions in the history of filmmaking), the film was enjoyable and engrossing throughout. The only way I knew this was that my daughter sat next to me and explained this (and it helps that we both know sign language). However, one this that DID bother me is that despite the film's title, no one appeared to be all that hungry in the film and the way food was used to manipulate and control the masses was not explained well. In many cases, I have no idea where the book and film differ and my expectations were quite different from my daughter-who has read the series. I should tell you right up front that I have never read 'The Hunter Games'-so this review is more for this group of folks than the die-hard book lovers.