#1 frigid watched the Hunger Games
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:38 pm
The Hunger Games is based on a novel written for young adults by Suzanne Collins (there are two sequels) . To be honest I never read the novel so you're getting an review of just the movie.
Jennifer Lawerence from X Men First Class returns as Katniss Everdeen, our main character. This movie is about Katniss. As such, the entire movie hangs on Ms. Lawerence performance. She is in the vast majority of the scenes and many of the scenes she isn't in are about her. Ms. Lawerence took this seriously and it shows, from what I find she put in a fair amount of training for this role, training for 4 hours a day just on her archery so she would be believable. She pulls this off wonderfully in my view, making her one of the few young actresses who can actually carry a movie on her back (I'll take her over Megan Fox any day of the week).
The rest of the cast is well chosen as well, with many of them turning in solid performances.
The writing as you can guess is well done as well. Collins, the author of the book was it seems involved in the sceneplay, the movie sticks to and develops it's themes and doesn't shy away from the characters reactions to events or the implications of the above.
And these are dark, disturbing themes. The Hunger Games takes place in North America, after our civilization has fallen and seemingly been forgotten. PanAm, an continental empire has divided it's holdings into districts (12 of them). The Districts exists to feed the Capital the resources it needs to maintain itself and it's populace in idle luxury (seriously rarely do I see any Capital Citizen doing anything I would call real work). The Districts we see (12 and a brief glimpse of 11) live in crushing poverty while enduring back breaking toil (they're coal miners). The poverty of district 12 wouldn't be out of place in the Gilded Age, Katness has to illegally hunt just keep her sister and mother fed. There's a fucking black market for food for Christ Sake! Say what you will about the modern American system, we've never systematically starved the population of entire states to the point that squirrel meat is major black market luxury! This isn't just the blind thrashing of the free market either. This is purposefully and systematically done, while the citizens of the capital get fat and happy. Nor are people forced to stay where they are under the punishment of being hunted like animals and having their tongues cut out. This is not a well or just civilization. You figure that out in 5 minutes.
As one could guess, the Capital's rule of PanAm isn't popular. In fact there was a rebellion (I doubt there was just one either). A real brutal one, where weapons of mass destruction were used to put it down. Saddly the Capital won. As eternal punishment for the having the gall not to suffer serfdom and near slavery quitely, the Hunger Games are set up. Every year, 24 children, 1 girl and 1 boy are taken from the districts and made to fight to the death for the entertainment of the Capital. The last child is declared the victor and let free. The people of the districts are forced to watch as well. The children are age 12 to 18, their names are drawn randomly via lottery. In exchange for additional food rations from the government (proving there is a surplus, the greedy bastards) one can put his or her name in extra times, the more slips of paper you put in, the more food you get. The level of sickness here is... amazing.
The Capital itself has a higher level of techonology then modern day America, while the districts seem frozen in the early 1900s or even late 1800s. The Games are treated as a spectator sport, celebrated, enjoyed, the focus of media and betting. When Katness' 12 year old sister's name is chosen, she volunteers becoming the first volunteer from district 12.
The Movie is PG-13 and a while the violence isn't graphic (not by my standards anyways) it is disturbing, because you're watching children murdering each other. The story becomes as much about Katness trying to remain a human being as trying to survive, while contesting a society that I think would even make North Korea recoil.
The themes here revolve around violence, power, grief, poverty and wealthy, helplessness and picking yourself up and fighting through anyways.
As you could guess I had a reaction to the society of PanAm. It is a society seemingly cobbled out of spare parts from the bin marked "Things Frigid Loathes." They are self indulgent, preening, over groomed tyrants. They are unthinkingly brutal and classist, grinding down those they deem beneath them and believing their poverty and their wealth to be the rightful order of things. They are slavers. They have children kill each other for entertainment... And they think it's funny.
The Hunger Games doesn't dress any of this up. It's a dark, grim movie with Katness scraping small victories against a system that is simply to vast and powerful for her to effect. I give this movie full marks for not shying away from this.
The Hunger Games gets an -A.
Jennifer Lawerence from X Men First Class returns as Katniss Everdeen, our main character. This movie is about Katniss. As such, the entire movie hangs on Ms. Lawerence performance. She is in the vast majority of the scenes and many of the scenes she isn't in are about her. Ms. Lawerence took this seriously and it shows, from what I find she put in a fair amount of training for this role, training for 4 hours a day just on her archery so she would be believable. She pulls this off wonderfully in my view, making her one of the few young actresses who can actually carry a movie on her back (I'll take her over Megan Fox any day of the week).
The rest of the cast is well chosen as well, with many of them turning in solid performances.
The writing as you can guess is well done as well. Collins, the author of the book was it seems involved in the sceneplay, the movie sticks to and develops it's themes and doesn't shy away from the characters reactions to events or the implications of the above.
And these are dark, disturbing themes. The Hunger Games takes place in North America, after our civilization has fallen and seemingly been forgotten. PanAm, an continental empire has divided it's holdings into districts (12 of them). The Districts exists to feed the Capital the resources it needs to maintain itself and it's populace in idle luxury (seriously rarely do I see any Capital Citizen doing anything I would call real work). The Districts we see (12 and a brief glimpse of 11) live in crushing poverty while enduring back breaking toil (they're coal miners). The poverty of district 12 wouldn't be out of place in the Gilded Age, Katness has to illegally hunt just keep her sister and mother fed. There's a fucking black market for food for Christ Sake! Say what you will about the modern American system, we've never systematically starved the population of entire states to the point that squirrel meat is major black market luxury! This isn't just the blind thrashing of the free market either. This is purposefully and systematically done, while the citizens of the capital get fat and happy. Nor are people forced to stay where they are under the punishment of being hunted like animals and having their tongues cut out. This is not a well or just civilization. You figure that out in 5 minutes.
As one could guess, the Capital's rule of PanAm isn't popular. In fact there was a rebellion (I doubt there was just one either). A real brutal one, where weapons of mass destruction were used to put it down. Saddly the Capital won. As eternal punishment for the having the gall not to suffer serfdom and near slavery quitely, the Hunger Games are set up. Every year, 24 children, 1 girl and 1 boy are taken from the districts and made to fight to the death for the entertainment of the Capital. The last child is declared the victor and let free. The people of the districts are forced to watch as well. The children are age 12 to 18, their names are drawn randomly via lottery. In exchange for additional food rations from the government (proving there is a surplus, the greedy bastards) one can put his or her name in extra times, the more slips of paper you put in, the more food you get. The level of sickness here is... amazing.
The Capital itself has a higher level of techonology then modern day America, while the districts seem frozen in the early 1900s or even late 1800s. The Games are treated as a spectator sport, celebrated, enjoyed, the focus of media and betting. When Katness' 12 year old sister's name is chosen, she volunteers becoming the first volunteer from district 12.
The Movie is PG-13 and a while the violence isn't graphic (not by my standards anyways) it is disturbing, because you're watching children murdering each other. The story becomes as much about Katness trying to remain a human being as trying to survive, while contesting a society that I think would even make North Korea recoil.
The themes here revolve around violence, power, grief, poverty and wealthy, helplessness and picking yourself up and fighting through anyways.
As you could guess I had a reaction to the society of PanAm. It is a society seemingly cobbled out of spare parts from the bin marked "Things Frigid Loathes." They are self indulgent, preening, over groomed tyrants. They are unthinkingly brutal and classist, grinding down those they deem beneath them and believing their poverty and their wealth to be the rightful order of things. They are slavers. They have children kill each other for entertainment... And they think it's funny.
The Hunger Games doesn't dress any of this up. It's a dark, grim movie with Katness scraping small victories against a system that is simply to vast and powerful for her to effect. I give this movie full marks for not shying away from this.
The Hunger Games gets an -A.