Rgirvan44
Posts: 18902
Joined: 10/3/2006
From: Punishment Park
|
The Hunger Games is one of the best films so far this real and a very intelligent science fiction film which demonstrates that teenagers aren’t all just silly Twilight obsessed youngsters – despite what some posters would have you believe.
Set in a post nuclear America, the film emphasises the current discrepancy between the 99% and the 1%. The twelve districts of the world – which look like depression era America, serve the City, with its pre-French revolution fashions, and Roman decadence. Like the very best science fiction, The Hunger Games is a film very much of its time.
Jennifer Lawrence builds on her previous work and is simply GREAT in this role. It is the sort of role which can make someone a true superstar. She has beauty, but also great strength, and for most of the movie looks beaten to hell.
The film is well directed, and the visuals – from the greyness of District 12, to the marble City, to the bright green of the forest where the battle commences, each segment has its own personality.
And it is an intelligent film! Unlike many blockbusters it refuses to speak down to its audience, and expects them to figure stuff out in the same way that our characters do.
It has elements of satire, especially in the way it draws comparisons between how subtle and well developed the soap opera nature of reality TV has become, and how this society used these ideas to keep the population under a heel.
What I liked most was when the game finally started, Lawrence’s character slowly but surely realises that she is not just fighting against her fellow peers, she is also fighting for screen time at home. The more popular a player is, the more help they will get. This becomes ever more complex in the third act.
For those who are lazy and say this is another Twilight – what nonsense. At least go and see the film before you make a judgement call. Is there romance in the film? Sure, very briefly. But the “romantic” subplot in the film is a lot smarter than people are giving it credit for.
Talking of lazy comparisons…lets talk about Battle Royale. BR is one of my top ten movies of all time. It is a true classic, and one I will always love. The Hunger Games is not as good as that…and it doesn’t matter. It is a totally different story, told in a totally different way. In terms of influences on this film I could see The Most Dangerous Game, Lord of the Flies, Peter Watkins films Privilege and Punishment Park, The Running Man, A Boy and His Dog, and yes, Battle Royale. But again…so what?
Here is the truth about Battle Royale – it is a huge soap opera. Those kids are killing each other, but also are in romantic subplots, are jealous of each other, want to be with one another and so on. Love and teenage angst run riot through that film. You are kidding yourself if you deny it, and point to the blood and guts. If you only like BR because of the violence then you are watching it wrong.
Funnily enough The Hunger Games is much harsher in terms of how the players react to one another. There is genuine sadism in some of the characters – and being strangers you don’t get the melodrama.
So yeah, Battle Royale will manage to survive the Hunger Games, and vice versa. Both films build on previous works and both have their place.
My problems with the film were that it could have done with us getting to know some of the a characters better. One in particular needed a few more scenes just to make the impact of what happened to them stronger.
I think the subtext of the “romance” could have been emphasised a little more at the end. I got what was happening, but I wonder if others would or not.
And finally the final act introduces something which I presume is from the books and is a little silly and not needed. The filmmakers should have diverted from the novel at that point.
But none of these things are enough to detract from what the Hunger Games is – an intelligent and unique looking blockbuster that doesn’t treat its target audience like idiots. If I ever had any kids, and they were reading these books or watching this film, I would be very happy.
This is a film that deserves to be seen, and not pre-judged. Make up your own mind, and remember…that Battle Royale disk you own won’t suddenly vanish.
Four stars
_____________________________
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.
|
Printable Version
RE: A fucking teen book? - 
Never mind, the first one was poor.
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread