Post by Power NeXus on Mar 25, 2012 17:20:11 GMT -5
Based on the recent teen fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the Hunger Games is set in post-apocalyptic America, where a new, harshly-ruled nation called Panem has risen from the ashes of society. As punishment for a failed uprising against the government, each of the twelve disctrics of Panem are forced each year to choose at random a teenage boy and girl to travel to the capital and compete in a televised death match.
The story follows Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12, who volunteers to take her younger sister's place as tribute for the Hunger Games.
Be ye warned. This be spoiler territory...
Plot
It's difficult for me to judge this aspect of the movie, seeing as how I read the books before seeing it. I knew all of the plot twists before they happened. Thankfully, unlike some movies based on books, the plot of this movie followed very close to the source material. Although the plot of this story is not terribly original (what in media is nowadays?), there are enough neat little twists to keep new audiences guessing.
Acting
I had no problem with the acting in this movie. It was not stellar, but it didn't detract from the movie in any way either. My only problem, if anything, would have been Haymitch's character. He had a very distinct personality to him in the books, but he seemed more toned down in the movie. Less drinking, almost decently shaven, less of the dirtbag attitude. If I hadn't already known him from the books, I don't think I would have known exactly who he was supposed to be.
Visual effects
I don't usually have much of a problem with shaky hand-held camera shots, but they seemed overdone in this movie. There were a couple times, particularly during major battle scenes, when I was like, "Holy crap, is the camera guy having a seizure or something?" The brawls and fight scenes were one of the elements of the movie I was anticipating the most, but I could barely tell what exactly was going on in some of them. I suppose it helped in portraying the "these kids are all just terrified and fighting for their lives" element to the audience, but it was slightly disappointing to anyone who was hoping to see a really cool fight.
Aside from that, there was one little thing that seemed rather poorly planned out. When Katniss shoots the bag of apples to detonate the land mines around the pyramid of loot, the pyramid itself ends up exploding in a huge ball of flame. All the explosives were supposed to be scattered on the ground around it. Did the director just think nobody would notice?
Action
Aside from the overly-shaky cameras, the action in this movie was exactly what I was hoping for. It wasn't overly stylized or fancy, or anything that made the competitors look like professional killers. Nor was it weak or toned down. It was just simple and brutal. Teenagers killing other teenagers.
Other thoughts
I like that they started the uprising in District 11 early. It didn't follow the books exactly, but it made for a good lead-in for the next movie.
In my opinion, most of the casting choices were almost perfect. The characters came out very close to the way I had imagined them. Although I always imagined President Snow as looking more like Alec Baldwin...
The scenes that shot back to Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith commenting on the battle seemed somewhat forced. It seems like the director could have found a way to explain the nuances of certain scenes without having the two of them explain it pretty much word-for-word.
The very end of the games seemed rather anticlimactic to me. They didn't seem to do much to make the audience think they might actually eat the berries and kill themselves. Maybe it was just because I had read the book and already knew what would happen, but that scene just didn't seem to have much suspense to it.
Summary
The Good: Follows the source material extremely well (much better than I expected), solid acting and pacing, good tone on the fight scenes, great looking cast.
The Bad: Overly shaky cameras in fight scenes, downtoned character for Haymitch, somewhat anticlimactic.
7.5/10
Not perfect, but still better than I was expecting. Definitely worthy as a counterpart to the book.
