Critiqued: The Hunger Games

With an opening weekend take of about $214 million (and counting), the film ranked as the third highest domestic (US) opening weekend in history behind only last summer's Harry Potter finale and The Dark Knight. The Hunger Games set records for highest opening of a non-sequel film and biggest debut outside the summer blockbuster season. And we are trying to figure out why.

Based on a Suzanne Collins novel, the film portrays a sort of post-apocalyptic scenario where survival is the name of the game. The ensemble cast was well put together and the performances convincing. Special mention goes out to Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson who basically carry the entire film. We thought the sets used in the film were very imaginative and creative. If they ever sold some of those items, we would definitely try and get our hands on some of them! Having never read the novel, we didn't know what to expect, the storyline was interesting yet predictable, but the film felt too needlessly drawn out on numerous occasions. In short, we felt bored at times. And we weren't the only ones that felt this way. The film was geared towards the teenage crowd and considering the fact there aren't any other earth shattering movies currently running at the theaters, it makes sense that the film had such a big opening weekend. We didn't realize there were so many Suzanne Collins fans out there! And by the looks of it, a trilogy is already in the works with the second part in the series slated for a release in November 2013.

The film has been receiving rave reviews from almost every film critic site. We might be in the minority here with our opinion. Either way, we are going to read the book and try to understand the appeal of this franchise. But we wouldn't recommend watching this in the theaters.