I was hoping for some light hearted entertainment and this delivered in style.
On the upside there's some good emotional moments when Katniss is being heroic, and she is a suitably reluctant hero. The love triangle storyline is much less annoying than the books.
On the downside it suffers slightly from being the first of a two parter, in that lots of the time is spend building things up and clumsily explaining the politics of Panem and Katniss' different colour super-arrows. There also seems to be a shortage of characters from District 13, so all of the main players from the other two films are drafted in to form an instant President's Council, with drunkard Haymitch advising on strategy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a general advisor specialising in whimsical filming.
Stanley Tucci has said in interviews that the Hunger Games premieres are a lot like the overblown parties they have at the Capitol, and there's a certain irony to the whole Hunger Games franchise becoming such a consumer hit. He said that Katniss is unaware of the political themes, but maybe becomes more aware during the trilogy, as will some of the teenage audience. However, the author Suzanne Collins is no Iain M Banks and the dystopian world she describes is not very well imagined. Still, it's lots of fun.
Suzanne Collins (author), Gale, Katniss, Peeta, Francis Lawrence (director)
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