Feast and famine in the Hunger Games

There's been so much hype about this movie that I was expecting a lot more. Yes, it's all beautifully made, full of amazing sets and quirky costumes that certainly are a feast for your eyes. Sadly, the rest of it (with the obvious exception of 21-year-old Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence in the lead) is pretty much famine.

Make the end come sooner

What starts as a delicious allegory about good, evil, the haves and the have-nots, soon becomes an overstuffed blockbuster, choking on unsurprising twists and turns. And by the time the movie approaches the two-hour mark, the cinema went from being hushed in suspense to writhing in the hopes that doing so would make the end come sooner.

Of course, none of this will stop the subsequent movies in the trilogy from being made and breaking box office records around the world. I just hope they won't be as emotionally or intellectually starved.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Running Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes
Age Restriction: 13 (boys and girls gone wild)