I went to the highly anticipated film of the teen book session series "The Hunger Game" with my niece Louba. And she was very excited, explaining the convoluted rules of the game with relish, and expanding upon the episodes the movie glossed over.
But after awhile, her enthusiasm waned and in the end, Louba gave the movie a "B" -though I think she really meant a "B+", The problem was that the characters were so underwritten it was difficult to care about them, and the forest so beautiful, the movie never grasped the dangerous, dirty, underside of the game.
Or to put it another way, perhaps, if you read the book you had a rooting interest in seeing the most generic named actress in the world Jennifer Lawrence as the worst named character ever, Katriss Everdeen, win the games. If you didn't, you simply don't. This is a movie that can have you shrugging at the murder of a twelve year old black girl.
OK, I'm gonna explain the concept because they make it so confusing somebody has to dumb it down. It takes place In a dystopian future (like we need a future to get dystopian on your ass0. A brutal civil war end ended 72 years prior and the US (one assumes since everyone has American names and accents) and the country was cut into 12 districts with the Capitol rules. Once a year each district gives up a girl and a boy so the Capitol can show em whose boss, though it is played out as game between the 24 so the Districts can hold out some but not much hope.
Katriss and this kid with a crush on her represent District 12.
After that, it is like a mix of "The Truman Show" and "Survivor" with the lamest heroes and villains on earth. With nobody to much give a shit about it drags for a coupla hours and then stops and even the ending isn't such a rush. I vastly prefer "Harry Potter" and "Twilight". Lawrence is lousy in the lead, and her love interest played by Josh Hutcherson (where do they get these names???) is beyond cipheric. He isn't there at all and has all the passion of, I dunno, somebody with no passion.
Musically, Lenny Kravitz is here, though he doesn't actually sing. Nobody actually sings. Oh and Mr. Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, is there in what amounts to a cameo. A reliable source, Louba again, advises me he will be push more prevalent in the already dreaded Part Two. Just the usual score on the soundtrack and nothing on the T Bone Burnett album appears.
Movie: C
Music: C