Okay, in hindsight we can nitpick every decision. They wanted a shorter film as it was already too long. They decided to bank on longing looks between Lawrence and Hutcherson and to confine the perspective so as to remain ignorant of the other characters. Fine. Something still could have been done to key in the audience that these other characters were more than pawns in the game, exactly how Panem was treating them. As an audience we should not be taking a similar point of view as the Panem game masters.
Another problem I had was in the filming style. Too much shaky, in-your-face, shallow depth of field with blurry noses and drifting focus. At times it seemed like nothing but closeups, jittery unsure ones. That style may be in vogue, but it lacks the artistry of more nuanced shots and intentional composition. We can argue about that choice, but I found it wanting.
Something I disliked was not the film itself but the small-minded obligatory accusations of plagiarism, as if The Hunger Games was really just a "rip-off" of the Japanese film Battle Royale. This is absurd, of course, and reveals the ignorance of those leveling the charge.
Similar smears were lobbed at Avatar when it came out, accusing it of being Fern Gully, or Dances With Wolves. My friend, if you can't see the magnitudes and eons of difference between Avatar and Dances With Wolves then you have no place commenting on film. Avatar drew its world not from some film but from the history of conquest stretching back millenia. Stronger, more technologically advanced invaders have exploited and massacred the indigenous throughout human history. The invader's guilt gives rise to the myth of the "noble savage" and the savior story. This is our history, ingrained in our culture, on land awash in centuries of blood.
Battle Royale is absolutely nothing like The Hunger Games, not in story, characters, world, tone or style. There is a facile similarity in the contest that could mean something except for the centuries of Roman gladiator combat that preceded it. Was The Hunger Games also stolen from the gladiator sequence in Conan The Barbarian? Or what about the film Gladiator? And why not Lord of the Flies? These inane smears against a well done and widely sourced series of novels and now films are pathetic, and yet they persist. Trite dismissals are used to shut down debate and understanding, not to foster them. Perhaps there's an element of jealousy in using them.
Wrapping up: The Hunger Games delivers, and not just for the tween girl audience. It falls short of really ripping into the flesh of the matter, but then again there are at least two other novels to carry the story forward. It shoots a warning across the bow that the unquestioned power of the state leads to atrocity and servitude. Perhaps this somewhat blurry mirror will show young audiences a glimpse of what to be ever vigilant against.
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