Movie Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games has to be one of the most hyped movies in recent memory. The books came out of nowhere and became insanely popular almost instantly (Just like Twilight a few years ago). I knew even though I didn't want to see it initially, It was going to be one of those movies that everyone sees eventually. While I did enjoy The Hunger Games way more than I expected to, At the same time I didn't find to it be nearly as good as most people did. The biggest strength The Hunger Games has is an interesting concept. There's no denying this film is a rip-off of the Korean book/film Battle Royale, but that doesn't make the story not gripping. The story grabs you from the beginning and keeps you pulled in throughout. The actual Hunger Games sequences are well done. Director Gary Ross is able to establish an effective doomsday atmosphere with an equal sense of urgency and intensity. The action scenes are driven by shaky cam shots and are really frantic and chaotic like they should be given the setting of the film. It's a shame he won't be back for the sequel because he handled the tone of the film very well. The film is also bolstered by a strong performance by Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role of Katniss and some interesting side characters led by Woody Harrelson as a previous champion of the Games (He is easily the best character in the movie and I wish he had more time on screen). They couldn't gotten some one better than Lawrence for the role of Katniss. She is one of the best young actresses out there and in the hands of a lesser actress, This movie very well could've have been doomed. That being said, The Hunger Games has it's fair share of flaws. The biggest problem I had with it was how tame it was for a fight to the death movie. A movie like this should be way more violent and gory. The violence was beyond sugar-coated and that took away from how powerful the film was. Another big problem was the really forced love story at the end. Katniss and Peta (Josh Hutcherson) had zero chemistry and the way it was worked into the story was just plain bad. It seemed like the writers wanted to give something to the teenage girl audience, so they just threw a really poor love story into the plot. There is also a lot of useless and annoying characters. Maybe it's because I didn't read the books, but the Elizabeth Banks character (Effie Trinket) was especially useless and obnoxious. Her character served no purpose other than reading the names of the contestants for the Games. Besides that she just stood there looking like a rejected Tim Burton movie character. The Hunger Games was good enough to grab my attention and to obtain an interest in seeing the rest of the series, but it's not the masterpiece it was out to be either.

3.5/5 Stars