[Note: yeah, I’m back. I apologize for taking so long to get to
these entries. Life has once again
gotten in the way of doing what I begrudgingly somewhat enjoy. Oh, that and not having a pass. But not having a pass is no excuse for not
writing about the movies I did see. Even
if there weren’t as many. So yes, here’s
the beginning of my attempt to get back on track. Going forward, until I’m caught up, I’ll make
a note of when I actually saw the movies being written about. This is more for my benefit than anything
else. But then again isn’t this
all? Originally viewed: May 20, 2012]
The Hunger Games
Cast: Jennifer
Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen), Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark), Stanley
Tucci (Caesar Flickerman), Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket), Donald Sutherland
(President Snow), and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy). Written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, and
Billy Ray. Directed by Garry Ross.
This isn’t for me. That’s the first thing I needed to remember
when I went to see The Hunger Games. Oh, I’m sure that director Gary Ross and crew
hoped I’d like it, but, as a 30 year old male, I wasn’t their target
audience. This, of course, doesn’t mean
that I shouldn’t have an opinion. It
just means that it doesn’t matter as much to the folks behind the film as those
coming from the young adult crowd to which this was catered. And that’s one of the biggest points that
people seem to be missing in this age of Twilight
and Harry Potter. These flicks weren’t made with the
sensibilities of older folks in mind.
That some of them can transcend their audience to more universal appeal
is awesome, but perhaps the expectations need to be tempered a bit. Oh, and the backlash. But that’s a subject for different blog.
I guess what I’m saying is that I was fully prepared for The Hunger Games to be all hype and no
substance. That so many adults seemed to
enjoy it meant only that it was better than folks expected. Sure, it could blow Twilight away, but does that mean that it’s good, or merely that because
it’s better- significantly so- than Twilight,
it appears to be good. Again, all hype,
little substance. Well, at least in my
mind, The Hunger Games was a
genuinely good film.
By now, the plot must be known to virtually anyone with a
pulse. Set in a dystopian future
(because bright futures make for crap films), The Hunger Games tells the tale of a group of young people (teens
really)sentenced to participate in a battle royal to the death- both as an
ongoing punishment for crimes against the ruling authority, and for the viewing
pleasure of a bloodthirsty, reality TV obsessed populace. It’s all fun and games… especially when kids kill each other for sport. Ah yes, a movie ripe for moralizing. One of the young combatants, the noble
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence- who continues to astound as an actress),
has volunteered to participate in this madness so that her much younger and
much less resourceful sister will be spared from the competition. This is, of course, Katniss’s story. Well actually, in literal terms, it is the
story of that year’s games; from the time of the selections right up to the
last battle- which may not actually have been waged between the young
tributes. During this process, training
is completed, relationships are forged, a love triangle is established and
battles are lost and won. Anyone who is
remotely familiar with the story knows who survives the carnage.
And yet, despite these conventions and the story’s being
inherently anticlimactic (to a degree), I really did find myself riveted by The Hunger Games. I’d chalk this up to two triumphs
mainly. The first were the performances. I can’t recall any that weren’t awesome. And three went above that level. Jennifer Lawrence is fast becoming one of the
most incredible talents in Hollywood. I
haven’t seen all her work, but of what I have seen, there isn’t a misfire in
the bunch. Including The Hunger Games. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss’s district’s
mentor, pulls off his usual difficult dance of understated crazy. But then, you’d have to be a little bit crazy
to survive the games, wouldn’t you? And
Stanley Tucci oozes sleazy charisma as the games’ master of ceremonies, Caesar
Flickerman. Each one of these
performances rose just a bit above the rest of the solid cast.
The other major triumph of the filmmakers, and this is not
to be understated, was how completely the created the world of The Hunger Games. They truly seemed to capture the essence of
this horrible world, and they did so seamlessly, wholly, and utterly
believably. (To put it awkwardly). It felt… for lack of a better word…
real. Too often in movies, entire worlds
seem to be conjured solely for the purpose of the story. And yes while this is always true, the best
films make you feel as though you are passing through the setting, that there
was a history before you came along, and things will continue to happen after
you’ve passed on through. Too many
movies make it feel as though the world your viewing will vanish as soon as the
end credits roll. I know this is hard to
explain, but the world of The Hunger
Games was just so fully realized it’s easy to imagine it was real… or could
be real. It didn’t seem like a plot
device. And that makes for a completely
engrossing film.
This isn’t to say that The
Hunger Games was perfect. It wasn’t. At times, the character development,
relationship development, and plot felt rushed (as often happens when
filmmakers err on the side of staying true to the book, rather than the organic
pace of the movie), and some characters were far too one-dimensional or
conventional (the bad guys had little subtlety- you knew they were “bad”, but
in a world like this, shouldn’t there be some blurring of the lines? Shouldn’t there be more nuance? Or are they afraid we’d root for the wrong
tributes?) But on the whole, I would say
that this genuinely was a really good movie- not just good for its genre. Worth the hype? I don’t know.
But entertaining as all get out and well-made. And really, that’s all you hope for anyway,
right?
Grade: A-
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