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A world wide phenomenon has hit the theaters this month – and
it goes by the name of The Hunger Games. Is this highly success movie really that great?
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in the nation of Panem, which consists of a wealthy capital that
is surrounded by 12 districts. The Capital has initiated the Hunger Games, which is a televised annual
event in which one boy and one girl from each district are selected via lottery to participate in a winner takes all blood
bath competition. They are required to fight to the death until there is only one left standing.
It starts off relatively well, except for a few nauseous scenes in
the beginning fifteen minutes… thank God they found a steadicam (a brand of camera stabilizing mount for motion picture
cameras that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement) for the remainder of the movie. Anyways,
it starts off relatively well – you learn the backstory about the Hunger Games and about the lead character in the movie.
In the opening scenes you find out that Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is a remarkable hunter
and is extremely skilled with a bow and arrow. In fact, she can even shoot a flying bird at a remarkably
difficult distance. (something that will come up again in this review) You
quickly find out that she has a younger sister who is eligible to participate in the Hunger Games for the first time, which
is not a good thing by the way. Someone so young and unskilled will most likely die an early death in the
arena, and this is exactly why Katniss Everdeen immediately volunteers for the Hunger Games when her younger sister’s
name is drawn from the list of unlucky adolescents… something that has never happened before in the many years of the
televised show.
The male counterpart to Katniss Everdeen
is Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson). Peeta Mellark may not be as skilled as Katniss when
it comes to hunting, but he is rather strong… in fact, he can throw a one-hundred pound boulder effortlessly and precisely.
(something that will come up again in this review) Together they make a remarkable team,
and although they may be the underdogs in the competition… they stand a great chance at winning the Hunger Games.
I felt that the majority of the main cast was enjoyable and fitting
for their parts. Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence were both charming and believable. Hell,
even Lenny Kravitz did a remarkable job as “Cinna”. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same
for the cast members involved in the Capital scenes and behind the scenes of the Hunger Games. Apparently
in the future we are all going to be flamboyantly dressed… overacting… cheesy idiots. The
costume design for these characters were a bit over the top and not fitting for the movie. And the acting
matched the drapes.
My main problem with this movie is the bad
storytelling and piss poor character development… or lack there of. Nowhere in the movie does it
explain why some children/teens have more or less entries in the Hunger Games lottery. Of course, in the
book they explain it relatively well. The characters and their skills even seemed to vary from scene to
scene. Remember how I mentioned Katniss’ hunting skills in the beginning of this review?
Well, you hardly see that skill in the movie. Sure, there’s one scene where she shoots another
competitor in the chest and another scene where she shoots a bag of apples… but that’s it. The
rest of the time she is either bowless or running from a blood hungry crowd of teens. And the fact that
she is without a bow in the first half of the competition is appalling, mainly because her boyfriend even tells her (and
us) that she can easily make her own bow inside the competition. I guess it’s just another wasted
skill or a skill just irresponsibly set aside. And only hours after the Hunger Games competition begins…
she is seen setting traps… traps that NEVER GET USED during this movie. And remember how I mentioned
how strong Peeta Mellark was? Well, you will NEVER get to experience that ability during this movie.
Instead we see a rather helpless teenager that would have been easily picked off by the other competitors.
Woody Harelson plays Haymitch Abernathy, a mentor to Katniss and Peeta…
and also a survivor of the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta are trained by Haymitch for quite some time
before the event. This is when he teaches them many useful skills and offers them life saving advice to
survive the game. There is one scene between Haymitch Abernathy and Katniss Everdeen that really got under
my skin, it is only minutes before she boards the plane to begin the Hunger Games… and Haymitch decides to give her
the most important piece of advice… not to run to the supplies and weapons in the beginning of the games because this
will be a blood bath. My question is this… why did he wait until the last moment to tell her this?
You would think that this would be the first advice given, but instead… now she has to change her game plan
only minutes before the competition.
Because of the inconsistent character
development and weak writing – I just can't appreciate any of the characters in the movie.
And when I can’t appreciate the characters, I can’t get involved in the movie. It all
just boils down to bad storytelling.
The
Bottom Line: I liked the thought of the movie (Truman
Show mixed with Gladiator and Running Man), but I didn’t like the final outcome. The action
sequences seemed to be holding back, almost like it was edited for television. I just can’t get past
the poor storytelling and poor character development.
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