By Daniel Bradley
A film is made out of a successful teen book trilogy and I'm already put off by the idea. It worked for Harry Potter, but this is not a light-hearted work of magical fantasy. I read about the plot and caught the trailer at another movie, and was completely, 100% put off the idea. And yet.
I was told to see this by some very good friends. I'd seen films with similar premises before and found them brutal and marginally entertaining. But, I relented, and it quickly became one of my favourite films on bluray, I bought the books and sung it's praises immediately.
It could have gone over the top, but was shot beautifully and carefully, with emphasis on character development, context and story rather than children killing one another. The 2 worlds, (the districts and the capital) are rendered believably with attention to detail, design and costume and the acting is spot on, not something one can say about other Teen classics.
Best bits: Depth, believable injuries, Lord of the flies politics.
Worst bits: The hounds at the close.
For fans of The Condemned, The Truman Show.
Rating: 8/10
