Review of The Hunger Games (2012) by Ronan E — 05 Dec 2018

The Hunger Games, a movie directed by Gary Ross starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, is about a 16 year old girl living in the poorest of 12 cities ruled over by the oppressive Capitol in the dystopian United States, and when her little sister gets picked to participate in a murder game where only 1 person can live out of 24 contestants, Katniss volunteers to take her place as she tries to make it to the end. While the movie is a decent flick, it is nothing revolutionary and started a trend of just passable dystopias.

The Hunger Games is a very mixed bag of a movie with some high points and some very low points. Being a movie adaptation of a book with the same name, the dialogue between action scenes can be brutal to sit through. The book can get an excuse for this by people being able to skim through large blocks of text, but in the movie, the blocks of text have to be put in to please the "the movie has to be exactly like the books" people, so people cannot imagine the scene in a faster pace, they have to stick with the paces the director chooses, which are not all that great. A prime example of this type of scene is the one after some dinner or something that is so unmemorable that the only part that that stuck out was that the scene was very blue and impossible to watch. The actors tried their best, but the script just did not lend itself gracefully to the movie. Speaking of the acting, it was not all too terrible. A few performances fell flat such as Josh Hutcherson's having more in common with a stone wall than anything.

The movie does hit some good points though. For example, James Newton Howard's score really pulls a viewer into the action, or feel the power of Rue's death. The score on its own is actually more appealing at times than the scene it is accompanying, and that is when a score fulfills its job, so great job. Another high spot for the movie is the special effects. While sometimes the blood looked like strawberry syrup, the scene of Katniss and Peeta in the chariot looked really stunning with the fire effects.

The Hunger Games, while being a good way to waste an afternoon, is not a worthwhile flick to watch because of its lack of general creativity, memorable moments, and overall blandness. Its blandness is actually infectious, as it took several days to write this review because there were simply better activities to be doing and constantly playing with the surroundings. If you are in the mood to watch high schoolers murder each other, just watch Battle Royale. It is so much better with only a 16th of The Hunger Games's budget.