Movies: The Hunger Games

Movies: The Hunger Games

INTRODUCTION

Finally, the movie that is probably one of th/e most advertised has finally come to our shores ^_^. If you are still unaware, it seems that the advertisements and trailers for this show started surfacing like at least 6 months before it was really released. That is about similar to when the adverts for The avengers actually came out. Only difference is that the avengers is actually a lot more well known then this movie and its source material.

To those who do not know, it seems like this show is adapted off the books. It has 3 books in the series and apparently the producer is going to use the earnings of this show to decide whether they will continue on and produce movies for the other two related books.

This movie has nothing to do with hunger camps, hunger strikes, hunger appreciation day and so on and so forth.

Heres a picture to jolt your memory with regards to what i am talking about.

Still unclear or not enticed to see this show? Maybe this picture will work better

Remember now? You know the trailer you saw with this girl shooting an arrow at the bird who catches it in its talons? Yea.. its that one. Unfortunately the bird plays hardly any role in this movie, but fortunately we get to see lots of this girl over here

Here is obligatory eye candy for the female viewers!

So what is this story about anyway?

Basically, the world is a different world in this hunger games timeline. Its a world where there are 12 districts that are being punished for staging an uprising some time ago. So these 12 districts lost the war and now on every appointed occassion, they will have to offer up a male and a female in tribute to participate in this hunger games, whereby they are trained to survive and kill. After the training period, they will then be brought to a battle location and fight it out to the death and the last survivor will receive glory and honor for their district. Of course a side bonus is that they will get food to eat and i suppose much riches.

So as far as the movie goes, here is the review

Storyline


I suppose if I had to say which part of the show would be the main emphasis, it would be the storyline. This show manages to introduce this new world complete with its different culture and practices and the way it supports the strange practices seems to be very plausible. Of course one of the main thoughts on people's mind is that, is this like battle royale that the Japanese has produced quite some time ago. I would say that the main draw of this show is mistakened to be exactly like battle royale. But unfortunately, battle royale has a much stronger thrilling and action factor then this show. While this show has a bit more focus on the new world that this show takes place in.

So its best to come into hunger games expecting to be wowed not by the battle action, but rather more of the entire concept of the world and how it functions in that time because half the show is focused on the preparatory work and only the other half is the real battle itself.

Characters


It is unfortunate that in a show whereby there are 12 districts and 2 tributes from each district, totalling 24 contestants, there are only 3 more important tributes, and perhaps another 5 supporting tributes and the rest are totally generic. In fact even in the credits, you can see some tributes don't even have a name. They are not made to be distinct at all.

Again this is probably because the hunger games section is only half of the show, while the rest is spent on training. However, the people involved in the training though they are obviously different, their characters and backgrounds are not very much delved into in this 2 hrs+ show. There are fun characters like this fella below but nothing much is said about why they are like that...

For example, the show says that all 12 districts have something distinct about them and that the tributes will present themselves in way to highlight this. However, besides the fact that district 12 people are miners, district 2 people are warriors of sorts and district 11 people are kinda blackskinned, there is no other emphasis that could help the movie's cause.


Cinematography


There seems to be a pattern between big budget movies and cinematography. It seems like if your budget is very high, you will have quite a focus on cinematography and this show is no exception. The introduction to the new world is pretty grand and there are quite a few big moments. Also there are pretty good use of angles and perspectives to add some immersiveness into the show as well as some smart uses of flashback to add depth into the show.


Music


Music was pretty good, judging from the fact that I actually noticed some pretty good music during the show. So the very fact that the music is noticed would give some bonus points to this category.


Spectacle


With regards to spectacle, it really depends on what you believe this show is trying to present to you. If you are looking for a new world concept, then you would really say this show manages to deliver a good introduction into this new world. Action wise this show does put in some effort, but its probably safer to say that this wasn't this show's main focus. Character development however could have been made stronger and that would actually help present the world more better. But that being said, they already have a 2 hr + show and it would be quite hard to fit in anything else.

Overall


Storyline             : 4.5 (It is a very good storyline, to introduce a new world and the games in general)
Character           : 3.5 (Just too many characters to introduce but it does attempt)
Cinematography : 4.0 (Good use of perspectives to strengthen immersiveness)
Music                  : 4.0 (Not a musical, but the music is really there)
Spectacle            : 4.5 (If it was a show to introduce the world and its concepts. It will definately be lower if you thought this was supposed to be an action show. But its really not)


Overall : 4.1 (What i have to say is that for this show, know what to expect, which is a show that is introducing this new world. It is not a mindless fighting action flick and should not be expected to be such. The audience is expected to pay attention to the dialogue to actually be able to appreciate the subtleties of the show. Especially if this show goes on to the next part, then the hunger games world may be further introduced. Frankly if this show had maybe another 40 minutes, it could do a much better job trying to make everything more distinct and hence more charming to the audience, but a show of that length would be pretty tiring already.)


Tell me if you seen this show and please leave your comments. And May the Odds always be in your favor.