One Minute Reviews by Kenneth Shinozuka

The Hunger Games

Released: Friday, March 23, 2012 (Wide Release, also released in IMAX)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence (as Katniss Everdeen), Josh Hutcherson (as Peeta Mellark), Lenny Kravitz (as Cinna), Elizabeth Banks (as Effie Trinket), Donald Sutherland (as President Snow), Stanley Tucci (as Caesar Flickman), Amandla Stenberg (as Rue), Liam Hemsworth (as Gale), Willow Shields (as Primrose Everdeen), Wes Bentley (as Seneca Crane), 

Director: Gary Ross

Screenwriters: Billy Ray, Suzanne Collins, Gary Ross

Runtime: 142 minutes

Rated: PG-13

                 43

                                                     out of 100

                                             Hungry for Better

Thousands of eager fans. Box-office records shattered. One of the most popular science-fiction novels alive on screens across the globe. The games have indeed begun with the odds ever in the favor of Hollywood investors but unfortunately, not in the audience. While indubitably deluged in anticipation and commercial success, The Hunger Games is mired in dismaying paucity of the frissons of exhilaration and suspense that its engrossing source material offered. The unexceptional direction of Gary Ross, coupled with particularly lackluster visual effects for a multi-million dollar blockbuster, rarely highlight the dystopian quality of the uncivilized civilization Panem, offering only a narrow vision of the society so intricately pictured in the novel. By significantly subduing the monstrosity of children slaughtering one another for entertainment, the tension of the games evaporates into vacuous cavities where colorless scenes of forestry replace the stimulating action and wide spectrum of emotion of the novel. While Jennifer Lawrence superlatively embodies central character Katniss Everdeen, the substandard screenplay inhibits her from illustrating the dimensionality of her protagonist, too often exhibiting the skilled hunter rather than the fiercely independent yet compassionate heroine. The inferior portrayal, not performance, of this character reflects the caliber of The Hunger Games as a whole; an edible yet insipid dish of flavorless ingredients when more ambrosial ones are available just with the desire to explore out of the convention. 43/100