The Running Girl

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2013)

There have been a lot of comparisons between the new series of The Hunger Games and the Twilight (so-called) "saga" lately, and I'm not innocent of avoiding paralleling the two. Well, the moment The Hunger Games begins, those unfair similarities should be tossed. The two franchises are as close as the Star Wars episodes and The Alien films.
While The Hunger Games isn't perfect by any means measurable, it's light-years ahead of the Twilight duds. Better acting, dialogue, suspense, action, emotion, heart and special effects are just the tip of the iceberg on how much better The Hunger Games is, but then again, that's just denouncing the comparison.
So, I digress. The Hunger Games has really only one major thing going for it which is actually making me encourage all to see it: Jennifer Lawrence (or J-Law.) The actress herself and her fantastic character of Catnip, er, Katniss are worth the price alone. I already liked her tremendously in Winter's Bone and come to think about it, I believe I said the exactly the same thing about that movie. So-so movie, EXCELLENT performance, so much so: everyone should see it just for her.
Other than J-Law, this movie was really...eh. Yes, the cinematography was splendid – WHEN THE CAMERA WASN'T SHAKING all around when no one else was – and some of the effects were pretty decent. But, damn, was it ever slow, predicable and has the most LOL vision of the future. I literally did laugh out loud every time the clowns of the future were on screen.
Before any fans shoot arrows at me, I have NOT read any of the books. But, even if these ugly and unnecessary 1960s Star Trek rejected costumes and makeup designs were in the source material that does NOT mean they have to be in the feature film. I mean, if the screenplay writer or director didn't update certain characters/costumes, Robin of Batman Forever/& Robin would look pretty...well, molestable from the much older Bruce Wayne. And the X-Men even commented on the ridiculous yellow suits and look how great they turned out. Well, for the first two installments, at any rate.
(Sadly, they failed to hear this kind of complaint for Captain America in the forthcoming Avengers movie. Hey! There's still time to edit out that hilarious uniform, Disney. This goes for you, too, Thor!)
Anyhoo, what I am guessing is hundreds of years into our future, the reality TV show lives on (THANKS, America) only this one has the kids killing other kids. As much as I'm against that, if Jersey Shore stole this idea, I would finally watch my very first episode of that awful MTV show. Repeatedly.
Not really a spoiler – seen a movie trailer lately? – but Catnip volunteers/sacrifices herself in place of her weakling sister for this wooded and hologram'med death match of 2 younglings from each of the 12 districts (why the aliens from #9 didn't participate is beyond me.) She leaves behind an obvious love choice and must fight/help a new love choice (Dang, there's that Twilight comparison again) in order to survive the "game" of life.
The idea's not new (The Running Man anyone?), but this new horror of kid on kid deadly violence is. This absolutely should've been Rated R and be more serious. 'Course, they wouldn't make the money they'll know they'll make by copping out to the PG-13 crowds.
In all seriousness, this has a VERY violent movie premise and whenever the movie tried to make some lite comment or joke, I barely laughed because it's like making a teeny-bopper movie about everyone being a rapist or molester, but everyone still can enjoy a few laughs from time to time.
Also, as I mentioned, it was slower than it should've been, felt very much like the first in a series and seemed to take far too long to get to the actual "Games" than it should've been. All along, I felt this was a perfect prequel movie that should've been the fourth film – à la The Hobbit after we're already invested in the series.
Okaythat all saidagain, it's worth a viewing due to the absolutely Oscar-nomination-worthy performance of J-Law – who delivered the only unpredictable aspect of this movie (I never knew which way her character would sway while all other characters or scenes were A-B-C) and maaaybe a consideration for Woody Harrelson, whom I normally don't like, but did great here. No one and I mean no one – even the VERY cute guys – did great, but they were 16-acting-classes ahead of Robert "Eerie Edward" Pattinson, Kristen "Blah Bella" Stewart and Taylor "Jake the Dog" Lautner of the Twilight series. Oops, sorry about bringing that up again. See? I'm not immune to the comparisons.
And finally, the movie, quite honestly, grabbed my attention enough that I really, really look forward to part II. No spoilers because I haven't read the novels, but I strongly want one of my new favorite characters, Catnip, to take down the establishment. The ideas, though preposterous, are sadly and minutely accurate (ah hem, Nazis or Republicans, you pick) of a possible and tyrannous outlook of mankind. They're horrifying, although, if this were a 1980s/1990s action flick starring Arnold or Sylvester, the "man" would've been taken down by now.
Since that isn't the case and this wasn't made 20-30 years ago (though you would believe it was with the costumes, makeup and hair), I'm really looking forward to seeing my new heroine take on Kiefer's dad and put an end to the games. You go gurl!