Rebecca Keegan captures many different angles on the film in the LATimes:
The juvenile slaughterfest depicted in the film and its source material, Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of bestselling young adult novels, may give audiences (particularly parents) pause — is this what contemporary entertainment has come to? But violence committed by and against children has a long, grisly tradition in literature — as an allegory for adult cruelty, a representation of the emotional volatility of adolescence and a tension-raiser for audiences.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-hunger-games-heritage-20120326,0,1569396.story