Review of The Hunger Games...contains spoilers
So Jaime dragged me to see The Hunger Games last night; I admit that I really did not want to go, and I also admit that it was more entertaining than I thought. It did not make me want to read the books, and I will not be buying a copy. I am neither happy nor sad I saw it and I didn’t feel robbed of my $9. All in all it was tolerable, but not necessarily good.
I am going to critique what I saw. Bear in mind, my criticism of this is strictly as a movie and my criticisms may or may not bear up to the books; I don’t know, for as I said, I haven’t and do not plan to read them. I admit a portion of my aversion to these stories is their sheer popularity. I have generally found mass consumption of any artistic material to be proof of its bland consumability rather than evidence of poignant quality. I admit this is a point of snobbery, but it’s not one I plan to change because 9 times out of 10 it proves correct, and unfortunately, this movie did nothing to convince me that these books are any exception.
Firstly, who gave Lady Gaga the job of costume design? Portions of this movie were just downright painful to look at. There is, in fact, such a thing as too much color, too much stylization.
As for cinematography…boring. All of the shots were direct and frontal. No noticeable cut scenes, no juxtaposition of theme, not even a pan shot of anything that wasn’t CG. How do you shoot in the stunning Blue Ridge mountains, set the bulk of the movie in an Appalachian setting (both real and duplicated), and never manage a pan shot of the gorgeous mountain vistas? How, I say, how?!
The basic premise is all too familiar. It made me think of The Long Walk, The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game, and even Lord of the Flies. It’s not a new idea, children being forced into savage survival circumstance, nor is it new to explore what lengths a human being will go to in order to survive and/or protect loved ones.
Not that lack of originality is my primary criticism…non nobis solem, etc., and for a recycled idea it’s done well, because for all the social disgust for the games themselves, the characters forced to participate are also complicit in their own participation. And I will also admit that the social commentary, although also not original, is still compelling and relevant; mainly, the abuse of the Haves over the Have Nots and the social warfare to make them participate in their own oppression.
The acting was decent, fairly honest and believable emotive expression. And the moral outrage is appropriately placed. I also had an appreciation that many of the powerful characters were not morally bankrupt so much as ignorant of their own privilege…it was like watching rich white people discuss the pitfalls of healthcare and foodstamps…in fact, that’s PRECISELY what it was, since entry in the games is based on your family’s food consumption.
But, to be frank, the characterization sucked. Keep in mind that I am approaching this from the perspective of someone who has not read these novels. But these characters, especially the women, lacked personalities. Katniss herself, for example, is void of any demonstrable opinions about anything except her little sister, placed solely as a vehicle for the audience to superimpose themselves onto her. She waffles, disgusted by her own poverty and also disgusted by the rich and their lifestyle, but with little sense of herself beyond caring for her sister. She is completely unaware of the emotions of others, which may be fair, because her own seem to be fairly random…she ignores a good man who takes care of her family for her, but makes out with a coward who she knows tried very hard to kill her. When questioned directly about the games, she expresses appropriate fear of being chosen, and she also expresses disapproval that parents would gamble their childrens’ lives for food; on the other hand, when directly approached about stopping the nonsense, or even refusing to participate in it, she reacts with bemused apathy. More disgusting, when she achieves her inevitable and heavily foreshadowed victory, she reacts with a bright and shining moment of rebellion against the whole mess and the social structure that produced it, threatening to snatch victory from her oppressors. Then, when they relent to her demand, she proceeds to allow herself to be a puppet, a mouthpiece to subvert and undo the revolution she just threatened to start. She goes from being generic awesome chick to generic vacuous Hollywood celebrity in approximately 6 seconds. Infuriating.
She’s not the only one to suffer from bizarre and inexplicable personality and characterization changes, either:
This movie was entertaining enough and had the potential for good storytelling, but it had all the subtlety of a morningstar to the face and was clearly designed under the assumption that the audience likely would not be capable of thinking too hard about it.
I am going to critique what I saw. Bear in mind, my criticism of this is strictly as a movie and my criticisms may or may not bear up to the books; I don’t know, for as I said, I haven’t and do not plan to read them. I admit a portion of my aversion to these stories is their sheer popularity. I have generally found mass consumption of any artistic material to be proof of its bland consumability rather than evidence of poignant quality. I admit this is a point of snobbery, but it’s not one I plan to change because 9 times out of 10 it proves correct, and unfortunately, this movie did nothing to convince me that these books are any exception.
Firstly, who gave Lady Gaga the job of costume design? Portions of this movie were just downright painful to look at. There is, in fact, such a thing as too much color, too much stylization.
As for cinematography…boring. All of the shots were direct and frontal. No noticeable cut scenes, no juxtaposition of theme, not even a pan shot of anything that wasn’t CG. How do you shoot in the stunning Blue Ridge mountains, set the bulk of the movie in an Appalachian setting (both real and duplicated), and never manage a pan shot of the gorgeous mountain vistas? How, I say, how?!
The basic premise is all too familiar. It made me think of The Long Walk, The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game, and even Lord of the Flies. It’s not a new idea, children being forced into savage survival circumstance, nor is it new to explore what lengths a human being will go to in order to survive and/or protect loved ones.
Not that lack of originality is my primary criticism…non nobis solem, etc., and for a recycled idea it’s done well, because for all the social disgust for the games themselves, the characters forced to participate are also complicit in their own participation. And I will also admit that the social commentary, although also not original, is still compelling and relevant; mainly, the abuse of the Haves over the Have Nots and the social warfare to make them participate in their own oppression.
The acting was decent, fairly honest and believable emotive expression. And the moral outrage is appropriately placed. I also had an appreciation that many of the powerful characters were not morally bankrupt so much as ignorant of their own privilege…it was like watching rich white people discuss the pitfalls of healthcare and foodstamps…in fact, that’s PRECISELY what it was, since entry in the games is based on your family’s food consumption.
But, to be frank, the characterization sucked. Keep in mind that I am approaching this from the perspective of someone who has not read these novels. But these characters, especially the women, lacked personalities. Katniss herself, for example, is void of any demonstrable opinions about anything except her little sister, placed solely as a vehicle for the audience to superimpose themselves onto her. She waffles, disgusted by her own poverty and also disgusted by the rich and their lifestyle, but with little sense of herself beyond caring for her sister. She is completely unaware of the emotions of others, which may be fair, because her own seem to be fairly random…she ignores a good man who takes care of her family for her, but makes out with a coward who she knows tried very hard to kill her. When questioned directly about the games, she expresses appropriate fear of being chosen, and she also expresses disapproval that parents would gamble their childrens’ lives for food; on the other hand, when directly approached about stopping the nonsense, or even refusing to participate in it, she reacts with bemused apathy. More disgusting, when she achieves her inevitable and heavily foreshadowed victory, she reacts with a bright and shining moment of rebellion against the whole mess and the social structure that produced it, threatening to snatch victory from her oppressors. Then, when they relent to her demand, she proceeds to allow herself to be a puppet, a mouthpiece to subvert and undo the revolution she just threatened to start. She goes from being generic awesome chick to generic vacuous Hollywood celebrity in approximately 6 seconds. Infuriating.
She’s not the only one to suffer from bizarre and inexplicable personality and characterization changes, either:
- Her mentor, Hamish, goes from drunk and abusive to heaven-sent guide and father figure, sobering up completely and cherishing her in less than 30 seconds, all based on her trying to stab him with a butter knife.
- Her partner, Peeta, vacillates between cowardice and childlike glee, changing allegiances like he changes his underpants, and has one useful trait which he demonstrates in harmless surroundings once and then never uses in any other portion of the film…there’s an old saying about not showing a pistol in the first act if you’re not going to use it in the last one.
- And we have Seneca Crane the gamemaker…again, he seems to be rooting for Katniss and seems to genuinely possess a rudimentary conscience, although it’s about as developed as the average 5-year-old, and yet he still engages is gleeful bloodlust at seemingly random intervals.
This movie was entertaining enough and had the potential for good storytelling, but it had all the subtlety of a morningstar to the face and was clearly designed under the assumption that the audience likely would not be capable of thinking too hard about it.