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Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
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Title: THE HUNGER GAMES
Director: Gary Ross
Year: 2012
Reviewed: September 06, 2012
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Birthday Cake-Second Highest Rating |
[Rating Definitions]
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Admittedly, I am a huge fan of Suzanne Collins' dystopian, sci-fi, trilogy involving her first book, The Hunger Games. Her sense of pacing is absolutely amazing; so much so, I think a great deal of "so-called" literary authors could learn a thing or two from her. And when I first saw the movie, The Hunger Games, I did like it (ubiquitous shaky camera aside). However, the more I think about the movie, the more I run through scenes they chose to film and scenes from the book they chose to leave out, the more I find myself disliking the movie, which may account for me waiting so long to do a review.
First, and I think most obvious, the book and the movie are entitled The Hunger Games. And yet no where in the film did I get a sense of the great overall hunger of the people working and dieing in District 12. There were no gaunt and or starving people risking incarceration by hunting illegally in the forest; more over the lot of them looked pretty well fed to me. You could argue that this point is miniscule compared to some of the other opinions I intend to discuss further, but the over all hopelessness of the citizens and people of District 12 is rendered mute by the fact that the director did not push this tone, if you will.
Second, the book, The Hunger Games, is violent and dark. I implore you to read it if you haven't already. The movie was a scrubbed and sanitized version of what Suzanne Collins' brilliantly represented in the books, a brutal world of survival of the fittest and smartest. I believe the director did a great disservice to her story by pulling away the camera every time a teenager, or child, was killed. And they are killing each other, with swords and axes and knives and bows and arrows. It is not a YMCA campout somewhere in the Smoky Mountains, it is, in fact, a battle to the death in an arena that is just as dangerous, if not more so, than the competitors.
Third and I won't go into too much depth here, because if you have read my reviews you know how I feel... SHAKY GODDAMN CAMERA!
Fourth, and for me this is probably the biggest mistake made by the director, removing pivotal scenes regarding character and motivation, and inserting scenes that were not even in the book. For example, the scene in which rue dies is pathetic, quick, and hollow in the movie, however, in the book, the scene is so heartfelt, and sad I was choking back tears. As well as, the inclination to ad scenes concerning the inner workings of the game master, which upon my first viewing I liked, but after time and more reflection I realized that, yet again, the director committed an egregious error by straying from the original story. He could have put more emphasis on what was a major characters death rather than inventing new scenes, which simply appear superfluous. Not to mention the fact that there are people on line who have filmed far superior scenes. Below, are two examples of this; the first is an example of how Rue's death should have been filmed; the second is simply an example of how the inherent violence in the book should have been shown in the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_jw3z68TW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUjssn86h4
And finally, there is the fact of location. District 12 appeared as if it may have been filmed in the woods of Tennessee (which probably means it was filmed in British Columbia). The arena had the same look and feel as District 12. Considering that they spent over 50 million dollars on the movie, you think they would have changed states, at the very least counties, to give the arena a look and fell all its own.
Upon reflection, I thought the movie version of The Hunger Games was sub par. Casting was damn near perfect, but execution and direction I believe were very, very lacking. I give the movie a high BIRTHDAY CAKE review.
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