Apparently Suzanne Collins (the author of The Hunger Games) had never seen Battle Royale....hmmmm. However, I'll judge the film on its own merits and it had many.
Dark and gritty in parts, at times a little too sanitised and sweet but on the whole gripping. Jennifer Lawrence turns in a great performance and does the "bad-ass" but vulnerable and likeable heroine role perfectly. All support was great too and the whole 2 and a bit hours were very watchable and entertaining. PLUS Lenny Kravitz looking fine!
Score: 7/10
This really surprised me in its grittiness, (slight over)use of steadicam and lack of exposition to carry it along. It seemed a very un-hollywood adaptation and bodes well for the rest of the films because box-office proves you can do something interesting with teen source material.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Lawrence is fab and having seen her in three roles now she's got a lot of fixture promise.
I thought the violence hit the right note without being OTT and you never felt comfortable watching, what is essentially, loads of children killing each other.
Great stuff
Score 8/10