The movie's deep meaning was very important to it's success. Showing that we, as a culture, are becoming more and more desensitized to violence. And what would be a good way to show that? Showing violence you don't want to cheer for. In too many movies today we start cheering on the hero (who is normally gunned) to blast away his baddies. By doing this we start to loose our grip on morals, and they end up falling to the floor, shattering. This movie creates a world where violence is completely wrong, and no death is cheered on unless you want to be a part of psychotic and evil capital.
This helps us try to find that one piece that slid under the fridge, out of reach of the vacuum.
But what everyone really is thinking is, "Should I be taking my kid to this?" and "Kids killing kids? Are you crazy?" Let me first say this, whoever says "That movie is evil because of the teen-kill-teen thing" has obviously never read the book. There is a whole other layer to it that would take rewriting the book to explain. The movie isn't cheering it on, it's doing the opposite in fact.
Now, with the kid part. It was on the more violent end of the movie spectrum. In fact, a bit too much for my taste. Speaking of taste, they did the violence quite tastefully. With quick cutaways and the more violent parts of the book skipped over, the movie delivers the book without the book's blood. But that doesn't stop a few splatters here and there. Hey, who's going to get the film's message if there aren't a few shocking moments to slap some sense into people? Another problem for kids is that there are about four swear words in the movie (D's and H's) and that more than anything turns me off to a movie. The words are so out of place that it seems like they finished the movie and said "Oh no! We forgot the swearing!" and then dubbed some right then and there. I would not recommend this film for anyone under 15.
This film also gives us a "On the edge of your seat and on the tip of your toes" feeling. Causing you to stuff as much popcorn in your face as you can just to keep up your energy.
For a movie that was 2 hours and 22 minutes long it kept it's interest going until the credits, giving us a movie that kept feeding us, not just dangling a carrot. That takes skill and great story telling (two things that this movie owns)
My only problem with it is that, if you have not read the book, prepare to be lost. The movie has a strong "If you want to understand what's going on, read the book" mentality, leaving the boyfriend who was dragged there by his girl friend at a complete loss. But, for those of us (let me rephrase that) The majority of us who saw it because the books gave us (as Melvin the Martian said) "All a tingle!" it was a great cinematic experience that did honor to the book and tipped it's hat at the fans along the way.
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