I want to preface this review by saying that I have not so much as glanced at the Hunger Games Trilogy, and will be reviewing the film on its own merits.

The hype surrounding this film has been insane, and as a result it has already made over 150 million dollars, having the third best opening weekend ever. The series seems to be the newest young adult craze, hot on the heels of the Harry Potter films and (shudder) the Twilight ones. While the new Hunger Games film is better than Twilight, it is by no means a very good, or even very above-average film.

The story is ripped right from a dozen dystopian sci-fi stories. In a future where a pseudo-fascist Capitol dominates 12 outlying impoverished districts, said districts have to repent for one of their own (a 13th district that doesn’t seem to exist anymore) attempting a rebellion against the Capitol by sacrificing one young man and woman from each district between the ages of 12 and 18 in a gladiator-style fight to the death called the hunger games. Out of the 24 kids participating, only one can survive. Of course, the entire event is televised.

The plot follows a young woman named Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers as a tribute for the games after her younger sister’s name is drawn. Her, along with the not-so-lucky eventual love interest Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are shuttled to the Capitol in preparation for the games. The most interesting section of the film is here, as we are shown a stark contrast between the dilapidated, almost 19th century-esque look of the districts and the futuristic, strange, colorful world of the Capitol, which reminded me a bit of sci-fi classics like Logan’s Run and parts of Strange Days. There are some very good performances here, from the drunkard Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) who mentors the tributes as a former survivor of the games himself, and Stanley Tucci as a very charismatic TV personality whose name I don’t remember.

Right from the start of this movie I caught a lot of warning signs. The cinematography is very generic and flat, employing mostly shaky-cam and lacking any resemblance of composition or coherence, and while Jennifer Lawrence does a great job portraying our heroine, none of the other characters seem like real people at all. Before we have any chance of learning about life in the districts, we’re whisked away to the Capitol, where the film itself really begins. This is where the film seemed to be turning around, employing better cinematography and more interesting, if derivative, art and costume design. I actually found myself investing into the story somewhat and eagerly anticipating the hunger games themselves. Alas, that is when the movie drops almost jarringly in quality.

Almost anyone could agree that the most pivotal section of the film is the entire second half of the 2 and a half hour runtime, in which the hunger games themselves are portrayed. The entire plot revolves around them, and the entire first half is just building up to them. However, after an exciting first 20 minutes or so, it gets entirely dull, predictable and boring. The cinematographer goes right back to crappy shaky-cam, causing every action scene to be nearly incomprehensible. Due to the PG-13 rating, we don’t really see much of the horrific violence taking place entirely off-screen. As a result of this, in combination with the fact that the rules of the games themselves are not explained very well/at all, there is a shocking lack of tension and suspense throughout the entire thing. I found myself liking the main character, but since I didn’t really care about anything happening in the film around her, I just disconnected entirely from the movie. There were some character deaths that happened that I’m sure were supposed to be heart-wrenching, but I found myself not caring in the slightest.

In the end, The Hunger Games is a generic and forgettable and predictable young adult sci-fi action film that completely fails as a movie because they completely dropped the ball on the most important element of the story. The film is mostly watchable, and is far better than any of the Twilight movies, and there are a few quite good ideas and scenes here and there, but the film itself just does not work.