Movie Review #16 - "The Hunger Games (2012)"

Movie Review #16 - "The Hunger Games (2012)"

 

So ... Before I start writing my review of the second installment of "The Hunger Games" that I saw this weekend, I felt obligated to write my review of the first movie in the series ...

On IMDB:  "The Hunger Games (2012)"

Benny's Tabasco Rating:  4 / 10 Tabasco Peppers

Synopsis:  Society has fallen apart.  There was a big war with 13 factions.  One was victorious.  The other twelve were basically slaves to the "Capital".  Every year, each of the twelve districts has to offer up a male and female to participate in a fight to the death.  The victor, in turn, gets a life of luxury, freedom ... yawn ... and whatever ...

The story focused on Katniss Everdeen and her relationships to her sort-of boyfriend, Gale, and her pretend boyfriend, Peeta.  Katniss and Peeta are eventually the chosen people to represent District 12.  

There are long drawn out story lines about the battle, the fight to the death, the inhumanity, yawn ... and so on ...

They fight with the participants from the other 11 districts ... (I won't go any further.  Just in case you want to see it, it's similar to a much better Japanese film, "Battle Royale (2000)".

Cast:  The casting director did a fantastic job casting Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen.  Katniss's character is a strong, versatile, and quite lonely girl from District 12.  She hunts and knows how to use a bow.  Jennifer Lawrence makes you actually believe that she is Katniss incarnate.  She's really brilliant in this role.  Even though the writing is (in my opinion, weak and unoriginal), she works well within the framework of the film.

One of my all-time favorite actors is Donald Sutherland.  Everything from "Kelly's Heroes (1970)" to "Without Limits (1998)" to "The Italian Job (2003) -- The remake", I have truly enjoyed his work ... Except for this movie ... Mr. Sutherland is getting old ... And this movie, it appears that he has "called his performance in" (meaning just showed up and read the lines).   He's not especially believable in this film as a bad guy.

The rest of the cast was OK at best ... I've seen other film work with Liam Hemsworth that I enjoyed more. He plays Katniss's true love interest, Gale.

Writing:  Since this series of films is based on a book, I am wondering how the writer got away with the amount of stolen ideas from "Battle Royale".  Yes, teenagers kill other teenagers ... Some of my friends were appalled by that.  Just go to South Central Los Angeles or Detroit, there's more of that than 23 people killed in this film for the entertainment of the people in the Capital.  

My opinion is that the writing is terrible.  While I haven't read the books, I doubt seriously that I would even consider reading them now ...

Cinematograpy:  This is one of the highlights of the film.  There's a lot of CGI / Green Screen used in the film.  However, most of the CGI is done well.  I really enjoyed the expansive shots in the film to depict the loneliness and isolation of the Districts as compared to the Capital.  

Editing:  Did I ever mention that I hate "shaky cam" work.  There are a couple of scenes were this tunnel vision and shakiness are used to convey Katniss being disoriented and confused.  I didn't care for that approach.  If you are going to do a "first person perspective", please stick with the perspective until the screen fades to black.  The back and forth between first person perspective and third person perspective gave me a headache.

Direction:  I wouldn't say that the director, Gary Ross, did a bad job.  However, I wasn't overly impressed with some of the characters.  The over the top view of the people that live in the Capital was too much ... He should have rethought that approach.  A little bit of difference between the Districts and the Capital would have been more acceptable.  However, he goes to the extreme.  I felt as though I was watching an old "Duran Duran" video at times with the costuming ... Maybe, A Flock of Seagulls would be a better example ...

Overall Review:  It's not a horrible movie.  Yes, there is a lot of violence and blood.  There's a fine line between using camera techniques and dialog that I feel were missed.  I don't recommend this film for anyone under the age of 12 up to 14.  Your kids have probably seen worse on "The Walking Dead", "CSI", or even "NCIS" ...

It's free to watch on Netflix right now ... If you are going to see the second film in the series, I would watch this first to understand what is going on ...