Monday 26 March 2012

The Hunger Games



Edit: OK, after finishing the first book, the Hunger Games, I want to retract that entry below. So many more points are many clearer to me. I no longer think of how sick it is (ok maybe a little), and I know why Jennifer Lawrence seems to have little or no expression in the movie. In fact, she is trying to look sullen or neutral most of the time. And a lot of other things become clearer by now. I want to watch the movie again.


One good thing though, the movie follows the book pretty much. But still, read the book before you watch the movie, if you can. :)


I'm now halfway through the second book.

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When I saw how popular it was, and how high the ratings were (85% by all critics; 95% by audience on Rotten Tomatoes, and 8.0 on idmb), that was what prompted me to watch the movie. Plus the trailer looked interesting enough.

What is the Hunger Games?

The Hunger Games is set in the future. The evil and very sick Capitol of the nation of Parem conduct what is called the Hunger Games annually, in which they select a boy and a girl from each district (there are 12 discticts), from the ages of 12 – 18 (me thinks). These kids selected are referred to as “Tributes”, and there are 24 of them. They fight, slaughter and kill one another (kids, mind you) with bows and arrows, knives, and their bare hands until there are only one remaining. Why are they doing this, you ask? For their (Capitol’s) sick entertainment. People place bets and watch on television everything that is happening on the show. They decide when to place beasts into the show to kill the kids, they decide when to turn day into night, they decide when to light fire just to direct the kids to one another.

From the reviews, the books itself sounds much more violent, aggressive and I dunno, sick I believe. Makes me think what the author was thinking. But maybe I should read the books first before I judge. There are three books btw. I’m going to Popular later to search for the books.

What I didn’t like: I didn’t like that during the fight scenes, you can’t see clearly at all who is fighting who. I didn’t watch this movie on some pirated DVD ok. I watched this at MBO. Very clear, big screen, and no subtitles, I might add. Or sometimes there are, sometimes there aren’t. Weird.

And during the movie, some scenes were moving about too much (duno how to explain), but at some parts, I had to look away cos it made me dizzy. Not just me. Cs as well. And another girl along the same row kept sighing when they moved the camera about too much again. Maybe this is some new high tech way of filming, I dunno. But it sucked.

What I liked: Yes, the plot is actually good. Not bad. But if they had filmed it properly (without us being dizzy and having to look away), it would be much better. But maybe that’s just me.

Would I recommend it: Actually, yes. Quite interesting to say the least. You don’t get to see Lenny Kravitz wearing gold eyeliner everyday. Hahaha yea he is in the movie. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance though, a bit blah. She looks a bit older and taller than Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

The character I liked most was Stanley Tucci. Blue haired host of the game show. Funny actually.

Anyway, conclusion. I have mixed feelings about this movie actually. Good and bad. I want to get the book so I can know more about the trilogy first. 

Bye.

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