The Hunger Bore

The Hunger Bore

The Hunger Games Review

I'm probably going to get a ton of hate mail for this but I didn't like this movie. There, I said it.

Don't get me wrong, it's not Wrath of the Useless or Ghost Rider: Spirit of Humiliation bad, but I really don't see where the hype's coming from. I'll keep this one short and sweet, due to a painfully bad essay looming over me and getting ready for my new tablet =D

Doing my Susan from Narnia impression

For the second time in as many trips to the cinema, I was bored . The film dragged out, from the long build up to the games and then during the games itself. In a build up for a fight to the death, I don't want to see the combatants on a talk show, I want to see them training and atmosphere building, maybe alliances being formed and some fierce rivalries. I did appreciate that this was to show the themes and distance itself from just being another standard action flick but it just didn't gel for me. Similarly during the games too little happened and it all felt anti-climactic. Tension wasn't built up and I just wish it wasn't a 12A because if we had properly seen half the fighters dying, we might have cared a bit more.

I didn't care for any of the characters. Jennifer Lawrence did nothing to make me like her. The love story was a bit out of the blue, in fact I don't know if she really liked Peeta, or if he really liked her, or even who the guy back home was. A lot of the characters' actions seemed quite unmotivated or out of character. Peeta likes Jennifer Lawrence, yet he gangs up with the rival gang and helps to hunt her? Then he changes his mind and lets her escape? OK.... And this is a game of death and every man for himself and yet when the gang find Jennifer Lawrence they let her get all the way up a tree. Even with an ARCHER and a knife THROWER. How the heck did she manage to get out of their grip? And why would the group members not try and knife each other in their sleep? I couldn't take Woody Harrelson's character seriously, he just didn't sell the whole tough on the outside, warm on the inside routine for me. I would have liked to have seen more of the outside world's reaction to the brutality of the games. It was great when we saw District 11 rise up after the death of one of their own and it would have been really powerful to see this happen across various districts. Or do the people just not care?

He's either from the future or bar staff at BOX

Other things dragged this one's score down a bit too. 

Laughable CGI- that fire was nearly as bad as Ghost Rider's. Nearly. 

The fact that they used a washing machine instead of a tripod. Seriously guys, too much handheld camera isn't fun.

Inconsistent soundtrack. There were times when it felt like a score or just something in the background would have made things more interesting.

Maybe the books would help me understand more about this future, dystopian world. No idea, I'm just going by the film here.

It wasn't all bad though....

Costumes and hair and make up were very eye-catching and it was nice to see an imaginative take on future fashion for the wealthy, while giving the repressed workers resembling more recognisable threads and styles.

I also like the story of the film and all its themes, such as conflict, repression and feminism. It just wasn't captured in a style that appealed to me or enhanced the exciting kill-or-be-killed battle, which i feel it should have revolved around.

Best thing- Crazy, imaginative take on the future.

Worst thing- That fire CGI on their clothes.

Overall: 2.9/5