So this film is the biggest thing right now and everyone has head about it whether or not they know what it is or is about. Many people have read the books, others have just seen the trailer, but people have been flooding into the theaters for the past two weeks to get a look at The Hunger Games. Some people have hated this film for the following reasons: "It was nothing like the book! They ruined everything!", "The camera was too shaky", and the most irritating "I had never heard of it, but I didn't like it". Okay, I'd like to talk about all of these things along with the many high points of this film.
First off, a lot of people are in the dark as to what The Hunger Games is actually about. It's set in a post-apocalyptic future in a dystopian society. More specifically, it's set in a time where North America is now a country called "Panem". This country is divided into 12 districts that surround a capital city called "the Capitol". District 1 is the closest to the Capitol and district 12 is the furthest. There is an extremely uneven distribution of wealth in this country; the Capitol is extremely wealthy and the districts get poorer as they get higher in number. The main character of the film lives in the twelfth district which is basically the slums. Every day, people die of starvation. In order to keep her family alive, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, hunts for deer, squirrels and game in the woods daily. In the beginning of the film, we see her leaving her home to hunt, from this scene it is obvious to us how much oppression these people are under. These districts are contained by an electric fence and Katniss has to crawl through it in order to find food, luckily, the capitol only provides district twelve with electricity for about an hour per day.
Now, "The Hunger Games" can be a misleading title in today's movie and book world because of all the vampire madness going on, but The Hunger Games is the title of an organized event that takes place in the film. The event is this: as punishment for a rebellion of the districts towards the Capitol, every year each district has to provide the Capitol with one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen who are randomly chosen to be trained and placed into an arena to fight to the death. The single winner of the Hunger Games returns home to luxury and their district is provided with food for a year. The worst part of the event is that it is televised and mandatory to watch. So, there are no vampires which was a common suspicion when the franchise became popular, but essentially the film is about a sick government that starves it's citizens and forces families to watch their children die telling them their families will be fed if they win.
The film adaption of the novel was wonderful. Jennifer Lawrence did a remarkable job as sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen who was one of the tributes in the games in place of her twelve year old sister. Most of the acting was very convincing from all of the cast however Jennifer Lawrence knocked it out of the park. Surprisingly, Willow Shields, who played twelve year old Prim, was amazing; she was very believable in the reaping scene. I was not a huge fan of Josh Hutcherson's job at Peeta or Woody Harrelson's embodiment of Hamish. Overall though, the acting was good.
The shaky camera was a big issue for me the first time I saw this film. It was difficult to not only see what was going on, but to see the set. The beginning of the film (from what I saw) had an amazing setting and I was only able to catch small glimpses of it because of how close the camera was to small details. Most of the shots were moving and in an extreme close up on the characters' faces for a large portion of the film. You really to have to focus on what's going on, because you will miss something if you don't. Apparently, this style of filming was Gary Ross's way of "showing Katniss's point of view". Maybe others will like that and think it's a great idea, but it really upset me and threw me off. There are other ways to show a character's point of view, ways that don't confuse and frustrate the viewer.
In relation to the novel, The Hunger Games was definitely toned down from an R rated novel to a PG-13 film. In order to achieve this, actual killing was not shown but obviously implied. One of the main ways of implying this was...yes, shaking the camera around. The film is quite violent and disturbing at times but definitely not R rated violence. There are some other small details that were left out of the film and some larger details that could affect the two next films but not really in terms of plot. I'm not bothered by this because the point is to make a good film from a good book, not to create two versions of the same thing. On another note, something more uncommon happened in this film, a scene that was not in the novel was added to the film. Anyone who has read the novel will be able to place it and will be quite surprised. Anyone who has not read them, accept the improvement because it is a wonderful and chilling addition. I was pleased with the relation to the book. However I really am waiting for "Hollywood" to stop taking something that wasn't made for children, and adapting it for them to bring in more money. I've began to expect it now, which is my I'm not so upset about it; but I'd really like to see more writers and directors doing projects to make them something people will find outstanding, rather than doing it for money.
All in all, I'd rate this film a 7/10 with hopes that with a new director and writer, the next film in this trilogy with have the improvements I'd like to see. Please, if you've seen it, tell me what you thought! Were the shot's reflecting the protagonists point of view interesting for you? Or did it completely throw you off.
First off, a lot of people are in the dark as to what The Hunger Games is actually about. It's set in a post-apocalyptic future in a dystopian society. More specifically, it's set in a time where North America is now a country called "Panem". This country is divided into 12 districts that surround a capital city called "the Capitol". District 1 is the closest to the Capitol and district 12 is the furthest. There is an extremely uneven distribution of wealth in this country; the Capitol is extremely wealthy and the districts get poorer as they get higher in number. The main character of the film lives in the twelfth district which is basically the slums. Every day, people die of starvation. In order to keep her family alive, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, hunts for deer, squirrels and game in the woods daily. In the beginning of the film, we see her leaving her home to hunt, from this scene it is obvious to us how much oppression these people are under. These districts are contained by an electric fence and Katniss has to crawl through it in order to find food, luckily, the capitol only provides district twelve with electricity for about an hour per day.
Now, "The Hunger Games" can be a misleading title in today's movie and book world because of all the vampire madness going on, but The Hunger Games is the title of an organized event that takes place in the film. The event is this: as punishment for a rebellion of the districts towards the Capitol, every year each district has to provide the Capitol with one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen who are randomly chosen to be trained and placed into an arena to fight to the death. The single winner of the Hunger Games returns home to luxury and their district is provided with food for a year. The worst part of the event is that it is televised and mandatory to watch. So, there are no vampires which was a common suspicion when the franchise became popular, but essentially the film is about a sick government that starves it's citizens and forces families to watch their children die telling them their families will be fed if they win.
The film adaption of the novel was wonderful. Jennifer Lawrence did a remarkable job as sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen who was one of the tributes in the games in place of her twelve year old sister. Most of the acting was very convincing from all of the cast however Jennifer Lawrence knocked it out of the park. Surprisingly, Willow Shields, who played twelve year old Prim, was amazing; she was very believable in the reaping scene. I was not a huge fan of Josh Hutcherson's job at Peeta or Woody Harrelson's embodiment of Hamish. Overall though, the acting was good.
The shaky camera was a big issue for me the first time I saw this film. It was difficult to not only see what was going on, but to see the set. The beginning of the film (from what I saw) had an amazing setting and I was only able to catch small glimpses of it because of how close the camera was to small details. Most of the shots were moving and in an extreme close up on the characters' faces for a large portion of the film. You really to have to focus on what's going on, because you will miss something if you don't. Apparently, this style of filming was Gary Ross's way of "showing Katniss's point of view". Maybe others will like that and think it's a great idea, but it really upset me and threw me off. There are other ways to show a character's point of view, ways that don't confuse and frustrate the viewer.
In relation to the novel, The Hunger Games was definitely toned down from an R rated novel to a PG-13 film. In order to achieve this, actual killing was not shown but obviously implied. One of the main ways of implying this was...yes, shaking the camera around. The film is quite violent and disturbing at times but definitely not R rated violence. There are some other small details that were left out of the film and some larger details that could affect the two next films but not really in terms of plot. I'm not bothered by this because the point is to make a good film from a good book, not to create two versions of the same thing. On another note, something more uncommon happened in this film, a scene that was not in the novel was added to the film. Anyone who has read the novel will be able to place it and will be quite surprised. Anyone who has not read them, accept the improvement because it is a wonderful and chilling addition. I was pleased with the relation to the book. However I really am waiting for "Hollywood" to stop taking something that wasn't made for children, and adapting it for them to bring in more money. I've began to expect it now, which is my I'm not so upset about it; but I'd really like to see more writers and directors doing projects to make them something people will find outstanding, rather than doing it for money.
All in all, I'd rate this film a 7/10 with hopes that with a new director and writer, the next film in this trilogy with have the improvements I'd like to see. Please, if you've seen it, tell me what you thought! Were the shot's reflecting the protagonists point of view interesting for you? Or did it completely throw you off.