|
I saw the comments up above about the need for a prequel that gives the history of the Hunger Games and where we see how Haymitch won his year's games. I don't think we need all of that but we certainly could have used more than a 60-second title card at the beginning that explains the setup. It would have been nice to see some kind of brief filmed (and jump-cut) history of Panem, and a map of the territory, and some sort of feel for what the Games are and were. Nothing egregious, just a 3-minute clip or something that clearly explains the premise of the story for the non-book readers in attendance.
That said, I loved that roughly the first hour of the movie is ALL setup for the games themselves. We needed to see everything in that hour before we got into combat. Only thing, though, is I wish we would have seen more of Gale, specifically more on his thoughts on the whole Games deal, especially since they play a crucial role in the next two stories. And it would have also been nice to get more of his relationship with Katniss, since he's supposed to be in this love triangle, because all we got was that he kicked it with Katniss for a minute in the woods, then later we saw him looking sad when Katniss kissed Peeta. That was it.
And that was a problem for me with the two male leads as a whole: they're reacting to what's happening to Katniss because the story says they're supposed to react that way instead of having those moments be earned. I already mentioned the Gale thing, and we were also supposed to glean from a brief flashback that Peeta has this thing for this girl that he once tossed a loaf of bread to. Which in and of itself is a bit of a change from the book, where you didn't really know what Peeta's intentions were once he started playing the game...
Even if you deviate from the book we still need scenes where we see, and more importantly *feel* that these two dudes are absolutely head-over-heels for this broad, for whatever reasons: she can hunt and is competitive and fun to hang with, she does an admirable job of taking care of her sister, she can cook the shit out of a squirrel, she's simply fucking hot... something other than, "Well, the story says I'm supposed to say I like you, Katniss, so I'll do that here"...
I didn't mind the removal of Katniss' narration and I thought it was actually skillfully handled by Ross, Collins, and Ray. The only problem with that is that some of the soul of the story was removed as a result, and I was hoping that it reappear somewhere other than in Lenny's hairdo.
Speaking of which, I thought Lenny was basically playing himself in a futuristic costume designer setting, which is okay. At least he wasn't extra-flamboyant and "glam," which is what I feared when it was announced that he was cast.
I thought Jennifer Lawrence was very, very good as Katniss. I still think the character skews younger, but otherwise her performance was quite good.
Like I said I thought that the two male leads weren't developed enough as characters. Both guys weren't given much to play except, "look sad and forlorn when something happens to Katniss," so that was a letdown, especially with Peeta, whom as I said played things more close to the vest in the book.
I thought that Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley, and Woody were all good. It felt like a good deal of Elizabeth Banks' performance was left on the cutting room floor. Her performance was hard to gauge.
I remain annoyed that (to me) Rue was the Magical Singing and Healing Negro Child who was a Noble Sacrifice for the white girl's ultimate glory. But maybe I'm just reading too much into that. The girl was adorable, though.
Here's a note to Gary Ross for the future films: just because you've described the films as independents disguised as blockbusters does not mean you should PEPPER THE FUCKING SCREEN WITH EXCESSIVE HANDHELD CAMERAWORK. Cmon. No, seriously, cmon. I mean, I get what you were going for, the handheld was kinda-sorta like Katniss' point of view, but you can't use that extensively then cut to scenes that don't involve her in any way. You don't get to cheat, Gary, so keep that shit to a minimum in the next film. Thanks.
In all, I was entertained but not as much as I would have hoped. I usually try not to be one of those "but in the book they..." guys, and in this case I had hoped to see a little more from the guys (and I understand whose story this ultimately is) as well as get a little more background about this world...
________________________________________________________________________
© ZooTown74 All Rights Reserved
|
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
Pass The Popcorn 
. It's a really good trilogy 
