The Hunger Games

My Grade:  B-

I wanted to see this film for two reasons:  I know a handful of people that were involved in the production, and to see if it could live up to the hype.  It is, hands-down, the biggest film to be filmed in the Carolinas in a long time (possibly ever).  But also, the hype stems from the popularity of the Suzanne Collins’ novels, which are supposed to be bigger than Twilight (if that’s even possible).

So, with all that hype, the movie had better be epic! Right?? Wrong.  Before you get mad at me for “hating” on The Hunger Games, let me just say, I did thoroughly enjoy the film.  It simply wasn’t as good as it could have been; thus, it didn’t live up to the enormous amounts of hype it received.  It’s like when you get all excited about some restaurant, then you go there and the food is good, but you are let down because you had bigger-than-life expectations.

The story is good.  It’s dark and dramatic, but still touching.  And the romance works pretty well too.  There’s a reason that the novels were so well received.  Obviously, parts of the novel had to be left out and some of the supporting characters were not as well developed as they are able to be in the novel.  I never read the novel, but I hear that the film hasn’t upset too many fans of the novel (unlike a lot of film adaptations of popular novels).

Acting-wise it is great!  With heavyweights like Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson in SUPPORTING ROLES… that was never even a question.  But the real star of the film is Jennifer Lawrence.  At 21, she is barely legal enough to drink, but she has been already nominated for an Oscar (for Winter’s Bone), and she has been in HUGE movies like X-Men First Class and now, The Hunger Games. She holds this film on her back as the strong, but somewhat vulnerable, Katniss Everdeen.  She is helped by strong writing and a challenging role to sink her teeth into, and she steals the show.

The film does have it’s problems, though.  At the beginning, the cinematography and editing is almost disorienting.  The shaky camera and needlessly quick cuts seem out of place, especially since they are employed in dramatic moments rather than action moments.  As the film went on, I didn’t notice it as much for one of three reasons.  This could be that, as the action picked up, it didn’t seem so out of place.  Or it could be that the camera man had gotten rid of the jitters and had a more steady hand as the film progressed.  Most likely, though, I just got used to it…like you do a bad smell after being around it for long enough. 

Also, the mood of the film seemed a bit off.  The movie is about 12-18 year olds fighting each other to the death for the entertainment of other human beings.  People watch this on TV, bet on it, cheer for certain people, etc.  That is royally screwed up!  But the look and feel of the film is similar to that of something like “The Goonies.”  They don’t really delve into how disturbing this whole idea is, and how traumatic it would realistically be on children of this age.  This made the film feel uneven.

Overall, it is very entertaining, albeit a bit predictable; but it is definitely uneven with it’s mood and themes.  The acting is fantastic, the scoring is great, and it will make boatloads of money… as will the next two films.