The Hunger Games has the right ingredients for a solid blockbuster: a strong heroine, her harrowing battle against the odds and a budding love-story blooming over the horizon. Aesthetic brilliance aside, everything here spells box-office gold.Our heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) with her mother (Paula Malcomson) and sister Primrose (Willow Shields) live in district 12 in the Country of Panem. It is a place sunk deep in starvation and despair in a post-apocalyptic future. To survive, Katniss hunts in the restricted forest with her bow and arrows.

Regardless of starvation, there’s a hint of romance in the air. As befitting any good-looking girl, she also has a hunky childhood friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) to sit on scenic hills with. Things turn bleak, however, when the selection for tribute players (a fancy tag for gladiatorial contenders) for The Hunger Games start. The Games (as it is called) is an event mimicking the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Other than Katniss, children from the ages of 12 to 18 are selected from 11 other districts in a game of imminent death.

Prim is picked as a tribute (by the sophisticated way of pulling names out of a fish bowl), but Katniss volunteers instead. Besides her the other contestant from district 12 is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a baker’s boy. The two are taken to the grandiose Capitol where a former winner, Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), prepares them for the game. As pseudo celebrities, they have a life of fake leisure. They have a sterile-looking, minimally designed, apartment floor at their disposal and are chaperoned by the garishly makeup-ed Effie (Elizabeth Banks) and stylized by Cinna (Lenny Kravitz sporting golden eyeliner).

The Games has 24 players, with the last one living declared as the winner. The spectacle is broadcast live to the districts—and the elite of the society—in the guise of a reality show. As with any reality show, ratings make the difference. If a tribute gets good rating, sponsors will help during the Games.

Suzanne Collins, the author of the book, adapted the film with Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) and Gary Ross (Pleasantville and Seabiscuit), who has also directed it. Despite Collins’ inclusion in the screenwriting team, the screenplay still comes off without confidence, or emotional magnetism. It often loses the chance to create adept turmoil, before and during The Games—which take up about 50 per cent of the film.

There’s one scene that hits the nail on the head. In it Katniss is getting ready for the start of The Games and we see her shivering with nerves. Such subtle emotional releases were a necessity that the film lacked. On the other hand, an empathic score from James Newton Howard is anything but emotionally detached.

Lawrence, present almost in every scene of The Hunger Games, gives an inspiring performance only when she’s in a ‘Winters Bone’ like environment. Otherwise she looks impassive and apathetic, leaving only Harrelson with any ounce of emotional baggage.

The gore is almost non-existent, however, the film does frighten from an unlikely corner. Armed with an unsympathetic, hair-raisingly fake laugh, an electric blue wig and a devilish, plastic, smile on his face, Stanley Tucci gets full marks as the villain-looking host of the show presenting the Games.

The second devil with a Satan-inspired beard is Wes Bentley. He plays Seneca, the keep of the games. Donald Sutherland, the despot ruling this totalitarian future, hams up his screen-time.

Unlike Twilight saga, whose star-crossed longing takes its toll on a person’s senses, The Hunger Games does well enough on its theme of suppression of youth and society. I just hope its sequels won’t be as detached as this one.

Released by Lionsgate, The Hunger Games is rated PG-13. Many children die gruesome deaths for sake of television ratings, and the need for sustained monarchy.