The Hunger Games (2012):

Starring:

Jennifer Lawrence - Katniss Everdeen

Josh Hutcherson - Peeta Mellark

Woody Harrelson - Haymitch Abernathy

Stanley Tucci - Caesar Flickerman

Wes Bentley - Seneca Crane

Liam Hemsworth - Gale Hawthorne

Elizabeth Banks - Effie Trinket

Lenny Kravitz - Cinna

Donald Sutherland - President Snow

Alexander Ludwig - Cato

Isabelle Fuhrman - Clove

Toby Jones - Claudius Templesmith

Director:
Gary Ross (Big; Seabiscuit)

Synopsis:

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match

Review:

Ah yet another Tween phenomenon that I was hoping I would never be involved in. Much like the Harry Potter, Twilight Or Justin Bieber years of past. Yet here I am, one day removed from seeing this film in theaters. I needed a night to sleep on it, whether or not I liked, disliked or thought that Rush Hour 3 was better than this film. After a somewhat good nights sleep, I have made my decision. This movie runs 2 1/2 hours long, but it felt MUCH longer. First off, from the start of the film it feels like it is immediately catering to people who have read the books because the characters through their dialogue are bringing up past events as if you already are suppose to know them. They also don't go into any sort of detail on the current world & exactly how The Hunger Games work. How your name gets placed into the list of names to be picked, or what can get your name put in more. Everything is implied & for someone like myself who didn't know anything about the film/books other than seeing a trailer it was confusing. Then after sitting through the first hour, although it honestly felt like more, I already felt that I had sat through an entire movie already just from the build up of the selection, then the transporting, then the training, then the promotions & interviews. I personally didn't feel any sort of connection to the character through any of the dialogue that occurred during this portion of the film. The only saving grace was Woody Harrelson's awesome role as a former winner who is now Katniss & Peeta's mentor. Question. Can Woody ever play a character NOT gay? Not quite sure he knows the difference between washed up drunk & secret gay. From here, we FINALLY get to the arena where they will be having their little games. It makes me wonder though, if they didn't want them to have uprisings in the poorer districts to keep the rich, rich & the poor, poor. Then why the hell would they choose children to battle it out? Having your child taken away from you & forced to kill or be killed would make their parents go ape shit & start a murderous rampage. If they really wanted to get their message across they would have taken the most in shape, educated, powerful people from the districts & forced them to kill each other, so they wouldn't have a Spartacus on their hands. But anyways, once you finally get to the arena, as they are raised up from underneath & the countdown beings for them to grab weapons, food, survival gear, your thinking FINALLY! business is about to pick up.... But then you remember, oh yeah it's a damn kids movie. Which totally ruins any aspect of gladiators or battles that they would have because it's PG-13 (or whatever it is, I'm way too lazy to actually look) So you get nothing but quick cutaways, thrusts into nothing & falling down acting dead because you couldn't show anything. Now enough about the plot, because if any of you (I'm assuming anyone reads this stupid thing) want to see it, I don't want to spoil EVERYTHING, so I am going to skip to the cinematography of this one. I felt like I was watching what it would look like if Tim Burton was raped by Lady GaGa & they used their child as the production, set & costume designer on this film. Why does everything in the future have to look like everyone is the opposite of colour blind? I kept waiting for Beetlejuice to jump out & skeeze his way into the real world. The fact is, they used concepts & ideas from every futuristic movie that has been made over the past 25 years. I saw glimpses of Total Recall, Fifth Element, even the newer Star Wars movies. Why can't everything just be normal in the future? Remember when people thought we were going to have colonies on the moon & mars in the year 1999 in the 20's & 30's? Now obviously there is a huge market for this film, I mean you don't have the 3rd highest opening weekend gross of all time (The last Harry Potter & The Dark Knight for those of you scoring at home) but it's pretty obvious that said demographic is clearly not a 25 year old male who can grasp concepts & see plot holes! I was mislead by Andrea Muzzin & Anya Cengic as well. Shame on you ladies for telling me it would be good! OH ALSO! The creepy girl from Orphan is in it, slightly less creepy, but not by much! The acting actually wasn't that bad at all. I thought Lenny Kravitz was pretty good considering the lack of acting he's done. It was hard watching 82-year old Donald Sutherland attempt to not get winded standing & the ending scene of him walking up the stairs (that they cut after 1 stair), but he was still just as imposing a figure as always. Then you get little Josh Hutcherson all grown up. I noticed though the awkward chemistry between He & Lawrence. Also keep your eyes pealed for genetically enhanced super bees & ridiculous looking CGI dogs? or wolves? I couldn't really tell.

S.P.R.: C/34

Acting: 8/10

Plot: 5/10

Cinematography: 6/10

Intrigue: 7/10

Extra: 8/10 (Only for Woody Harrelson)