Hunger Games Review–by Karl

I got the chance this past Monday to see "The Hunger Games" in the theater. Having never read any of the books and only knowing a little bit about the premise I thought this would be an interesting experiment for me to watch a movie based on a popular book series and see how well the adaptation works on its own without being encumbered with "background" information. Watching something like Harry Potter, or the Lord of the Rings is difficult because I have a hard time separating my knowledge of the source material with what I'm seeing on screen. That's probably why "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is still one of my favorite Harry Potter movies. I loved the book so much that it's easy for me to overlook some of the obvious flaws it has. But in this case I would be able to walk into the theater having no preconceived ideas of what would happen and just enjoy it as a cinematic experience.

First off, I really liked this movie. The story was exciting and I thought that it was pleasantly dramatic and appropriately suspenseful. Where the main story revolves around the experiences of one young woman I thought that the focus was kept nice and tight. The audience was given enough information about the world to know what was going on without boring us with exposition. I thought the dialogue was generally well written and I like that fact that some things were shown to us or left for us to infer rather than being spoon fed.

That being said, I thought there were a few things that would have been better with a little more clarification. Some things took me a while to figure out like the nature of the arena and how things come to exist within it. Even just one exterior establishing shot would have help me understand it better from the outset. But then again maybe that was the point; we're left as in the dark as Katniss. I also thought the mechanics and some of the rules of the game were a little unclear. At first I thought some of the things in the arena were holograms until people started being injured by them. Then I started to wonder by what physical means were the game operators able to create the obstacles. Some of them seemed to appear out of thin air. I liked being able to see control room but I would have liked seeing a bit of the "backstage" just for clarification. This and other missing details of the general world created don't really detract from Katniss's story but they did distract me while I was trying to understand them.

It also took me quite a while to find out what the big deal with the sponsors was. They kept talking about them like they would be the difference between life and death but then two things happened. One: we never actually got to meet any sponsors or watch our main characters interact with them and two: a long time passes in the game before we see the effect the sponsors can have. And frankly when it did happen I couldn't help think "That's it?" A tiny little tub of cream or soup is the best you can do? I thought they'd be sending weapons and big packs of food and fresh water and other supplies. It just seemed like a big deal was made out of something that for as much as I cared could have been left out of the movie altogether without materially affecting Katniss's story. But now that I think about it maybe I'm saying it the wrong way. I think the idea is a good one because it encourages Katniss to go against her nature to try to impress people she doesn't care about which was important to her character development. The problem lies in the fact that it ultimately felt like it didn't really matter.

Overall I thought everything that was important to understanding and enjoying Katniss's story was present and accounted for. The ending felt resolved enough that I didn't have many lingering questions but open ended enough that it's obvious the story isn't over yet. To be very honest when I walked out of the theater I felt satisfied to the point that reading the book would be unnecessary. I'm sure there are things that are missing that would be cool and add another dimension to the story but I didn't FEEL like they were missing. The story felt complete.

With one glaring exception. Now I think my wife and I were watching pretty closely and neither of us noticed an explanation for something that seemed fairly important. There's a question of loyalty that comes into play just after the game begins. I won't give any more details than that for the sake of those who haven't read the book or seen the movie but the motivation behind the traitorous(?)/loyal(?) behavior is not explained. Or maybe it was and I just missed it but like I said, I was paying pretty close attention to the film. While most character actions throughout the story seemed pretty clear this one just didn't make any sense to me. It's all the more frustrating because I've been informed (without details seeing as I still haven't read the book) that it's something that could easily have been explained with just a shot or two or a quick line of dialogue. Now it may not be that big a deal and I may just be nitpicking but this was kind of the point of trying out this experiment: to find out if this movie stands alone as a movie or if knowledge of the book is required to fully appreciate it.

So my answer is, it comes awfully dang close. Where we are understanding things basically from Katniss's point of view and maybe she doesn't have all the answers and we learn them as she does, the movie does a fine job of alternatively enlightening us and keeping us in the dark. But when a is a character running around doing things that don't make sense I would think she, as a character, would take the time to ask and find out what's going on. Again, this is not a huge deal but it seems all the more confusing in a movie that does so many things right.

Since I'm not writing this as a review of the film but rather as an observation of its effectiveness I'll stay most of my other comments about it. I'll just add these two things: shaky cam = slow, sad head shake; and Jennifer Lawrence = yes please and can we have some more?