Disclaimer 1: I watch movies to be entertained.
Disclaimer 2: I don’t read fiction books.
If you still want to read my thoughts on the Hunger Games despite the fact that I am clearly unsophisticated swine, then read on.
I enjoy two kinds of movies (primarily): action and sci-fi. Make it three … I love a good laugher, and my all-time favorites are movies like Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Spinal Tap.
Okay, I’ve cleared out as many of you as I can. You’re on your own if you insist on reading any further.
As an action flick, the Hunger Games did not deliver. I presume that the books really played up the battles, but the movies, clearly hoping to avoid an R rating, toned them way down. I get it, and as a parent am happy with that decision, but it made for a terrible movie experience for us hand-to-hand combat lovers.
As a sci-fi flick (I’m being generous here—futuristic tale), nothing about the future in which the movie was set was ever explained. As a viewer, I saw glimpses of cool technology, futuristic cities, and a very foreign culture, but nothing more than a teaser concerning those things. I was supremely underwhelmed.
Finally, despite the reactions of the giggly teenage girls in the theater with us, I found nothing humorous about the movie. That’s three strikes against the Hunger Games.
One final thought. I assume the movie was primarily designed as a dramatic representation of the heroic sacrifice on the part of Katniss Everdeen. The acting was good, no complaints. But I never felt myself really rooting for any of the characters. As an unsophisticated movie viewer, I have no explanation for that. Maybe the film critics of the world can explain it. I only know that I was not really invested in any of the characters and would not have been terribly disappointed if the stars had perished along with the rest of “tributes.” At least then it would have been less predictable, and it would have upped the assumed creepy factor of this futuristic culture.