Hunger Games Fans Celebrate Movie Premiere

Like the book, “The Hunger Games’’ doesn’t end so much as open the door to the next installment; it’s frustrating, but you’ll probably feel you’ve gotten your money’s worth. Somewhere in here, though, is a bigger, more resonant movie that could have brushed against the story’s allegorical anxieties: how the grown-up world pits youth against itself; how the entertainment industry pushes violence and death for profit; how the world beyond high school can be a killing field - pick your paranoia.

What we’ve been given instead is a very reasonable facsimile aimed at upsetting the fewest people while making the biggest amount of money.