Reviews

I really didn't like this movie. Perhaps because I am unfamiliar with the myth it is based upon, perhaps because my Latin culture is so different from that from the Nordics. The acting seemed flat to me; the responses to climatic moments are emotionless and stiff. Both the male actors gave dull performances. On the other hand, the FX are quite good for a shoestring budget and the photography and lighting are quite well done.

The movie starts with an interesting gory tone. And it has some classic elements of suspense, horror and fiction movies. But it sadly never reaches neither a suspense nor a scary climax. Yes, there is a tale about a mythical creature, but her purpose in the plot is nowhere to be seen. I felt no bond to any character in the film. They seemed to be just a couple of actors reciting lines which most of the times were cut short before actually saying something. The plot made little sense to me.

Go smell a flower instead, take a walk. Spend your time on something else; don't waste your time on this. Unless you are Norwegian; perhaps then this will click for you.

An interesting idea mash-up of 1984, Lord of the Flies, Logan's Run, reality shows in general, with (good) special effects, albeit the ones you see all the time from Sci-Fi films realised in the US.

The plot: in the future, the Government holds a yearly contest among forcibly chosen youngsters from different conquered towns. They are shortly trained and later released in a small woods area with minimum equipment, letting them kill each other. The whole series of events is transmitted to the population on TV. The winner will take... well, I think nobody knows what he or she will win. I am not even sure if it is food, given the obscure name of the movie.

Even though the plot has some freshness to it, the movie stumbles constantly with horrendous clichés. It takes only three seconds from some scenes to know who the bad guys and the heroes/heroines will be and who are going to be only cannon-fodder. Lots of coarsely sketched characters, with whom you don't feel related to at all.

The mix between digital and real is confusing: digital monsters which can be harmed with real weapons? Digital fire which can burn the skin? Meh...

There's also plot loopholes a plenty, as well as illogical, poorly- explained or hard-to-believe situations: the inhabitants of a starving town seem to be completely attentive facing TV screens, even though they've been running then for several days, instead of working in order for them to get food. At the mere signal of the heroine on the screen, they start fighting the guards, even though they didn't lift a finger when the kids were taken away to be slaughtered. -_-

The film is not particularly bad, but it's also no big deal. As an additional frustrating detail, this seems to be only the first part of many. Go watch it only if you don't have anything better to do. If you are into WOW, THOSE ARE INCREDIBLE SPECIAL FX and that's what you normally care about from the movies, then you're in for a treat.