Movie Reviews By the Insane: Hambre Juegos! (Better Known As the Hunger Games)

Well, after a lot of procrastination and a busy work schedule, I was finally able to get enough coherent thought (or something close to it) to be able to put together my honest thoughts about the Hunger Games.  

The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where parts of what was the United States are reorganized into different districts in a nation called Panem.  Each district specializes in one specific task, be it mining, electronics, whathaveyou.  All the districts supply the Capitol.  Due to a insurrection years before the start of the movie, the districts are forced to send, every year, a boy and a girl from the ages of 12-18 (I think) are sent to the Capitol, where they are paraded in front of a live telecast with all the pomp of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games, given an NFL/Navy SEAL type of two week training regimen, then sent into the arena after living said two weeks in the lap of luxury, where they are forced to fight to the death until one survives.  Fun times!

My three sentence review:  I liked it!

My much more long winded thoughts?  See below.

First of all, I need to explain something first of all.  This is strictly what my thoughts are about the movie, not the book.  I have not read the book, though I suspect I will be doing so in the near future, so don’t start tossing book events and lingo at me, as I will simply be irritated and have no idea what the hell you are talking about.  With that said, let’s go into what I thought of the film.

This is beautifully shot, as the cinematography is excellent.  District 12 is shown, appropriately, as rather dirty, dull and dark.  People are appropriately dressed as such, which makes the subsequent scenes shot in the Capitol as being even more startling in their presentation.  The Capitol is lively, colorful, gaudy, and futuristic.  It’s like Ziggy Stardust combined with Gladiator.  The costumes are quite different, as are the architecture.  The training scenes are very well shot, bringing up a lot of images of Underarmor’s marketing campaigns. The actual forest scenes, and even a few of the combat sequences are well done, giving you a bit of a Predator type paranoia in the Jungle.  

Probably the best segments done in the film are the actual broadcast portions, as you get the feel of what the movie is trying to reflect and draw upon: our nearly 24/7 obsession with sports, celebrities and news.  The contestants are interviewed in a sort of American Idol meets the Oscars type of setting, complete with a flamboyant and charming host that is played brilliantly by Stanley Tucci, who channels Ricardo Montabon in this role.  The broadcasts that lead up to the games, which do everything from breakdown the contestants like we do draft prospects to providing odds on each of them, very much mirror ESPN's coverage of the NFL, Sportscenter, and the NFL draft.  It's over saturation of a particular topic, but it's done because it sells.

There are some very intriguing characters in the movie, starting with Katness, who is as strong of a female character as you’ll ever meet.  She is rather feisty, intelligent, has a take no shit element to her, and is a very resourceful person.  And, of course, she’s easy on the eyes, so there’s that as well.  Woody Harrelson is awesome as Haymitch, a former Hunger Games winner that begins the film as a haunted drunk before showing himself as a loyal and resourceful adviser and teacher.  Lenny Kravitz is a very endearing character as Cinna, who molds Katness from a socially awkward teen to a Panem phenomena.  Even Wes Brantley’s portrayal as Seneca Crane is worth watching for both his rather underhanded and conniving performance as well as his seizure inducing facial hair.

However, there are several weak characters as well, starting with Peeta, Katness’ main love interest.  While it is explained that Peeta was really regarded as a bit of the black sheep of the family, and is shown as being rather reserved, I really think that the actor should have done a better job.  There are actors out there that could take all the character aspects I named above and made it into something compelling.  In this case, he just comes off as rather dull, boring, and wooden.  I did not like him, to sum it up.

The other character that really irritated the hell out of me was Cato, one of the many kids from the wealthier districts in Panem that was trained for the specific purpose of competing and winning in the games.  He was, by and large, presented as an evil bastard that was looking forward to winning, and even lead a group with the specific purpose of finding and killing Katness.  He disappears for a bit, until his final knockdown battle with Katness and Peeta, where, surprisingly, he has a come to Jesus moment where he acknowledges his entire existence is strictly so he can die.

My thoughts when I saw this:  WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM?  By and large, he’s been presented in the film as an evil fucking bastard, and now, all of a sudden, we’re supposed to feel sympathy for him?   I don't think so.

The other part of the film that I disliked was the romantic aspect, which is why the film garners some comparisons to Twilight.  To be honest, the whole thing felt forced, which maybe is how it was meant to be played up, as it was a big part of the reason why Katness did receive some support from the viewers of the games.  But I felt that it could have been done a lot better, as really, it was the scene in which Katness tended to Peeta in that earthen cave that the movie really did drag out. 

Which brings me to my final point of the review:  the pacing seemed a bit uneven.  Throughout the movie, there was a great deal of build up, as you got the sense that the film was building up toward a spectacular climax toward the end.  And in the end, it just kind of drops off, really around the time the whole romantic angle of the film starts to be played up.  There were several attempts to try and regain the build up, but by then it’s too late.  You’ve lost the adrenaline rush that’s been building, and by the time the final battle comes in, you’re just kinda waiting for the film to be over.  The moment is gone.

TheHunger Games also does have it's share of controversy that surrounds both the book and the film.  Aside from the violence (which really, isn’t all that much, people), the series gets a great deal of flack because of it’s similarities to the Japanese movie franchise, Battle Royale.  While I admit that there are a great deal of similarities between the two franchises (which is a subject for another day), this isn’t a new concept.  Steven King wrote along the same lines as Richard Bachman twice, both in the Long Walk (which Royale and Games should both count as an ancestory0, and The Running Man (which Games should actually admit is secretly it’s mother).  I myself once came up with a book idea along these line of Hunger Games about five years ago, but never pursued it.  So please, fanboys of both series, calm the fuck down!

All in all, it’s a highly entertaining movie, with some beautiful visuals and some interesting characters.  While some parts do seem a little forced, and it does have it’s moments when it drags, I liked it enough to want to check out the books, and will more than gladly shell out some hard earned cash for the sequels. 

As for it's comparison to Battle Royale, well, that's a post for another, day (or next week).