I am blogging some of my past years’ movie reviews on Facebook — this was what I thought of “The Hunger Games.”

*****

Yeah, okay.  As it turns out, “The Hunger Games” (2012) was actually a really good movie – I’d cheerfully give it an 8 out of 10.  I thought that this would be a sci-fi equivalent of a Twilight franchise, or a mainstreamed ripoff of “Battle Royale” (2000), but it was none of the former and only a little of the latter.

It took a decent story and populated it with fully realized, three-dimensional characters, then cast good actors across the board.  You know a movie works if you’re cheering for the main protagonist.  It was also a surprisingly dark story for a young adult book adaptation.

The pacing was a little off … characters and plot devices are raised and dropped a little abruptly, and you can tell they were included because they were elements of Suzanne Collins’ book that fans were expecting.  And the action directing wasn’t the best I’ve seen – the final standoff was a little awkwardly staged and anticlimactic.  Those are small quibbles, though.

If anyone really likes this, it might be fun to watch this and “Battle Royale” back-to-back on a rainy Saturday.