Intriguing

Rating: 10/10 (24 March 2012)

I saw the Hunger Games yesterday, and although I have read the books, I think the movie is spot on. What they cut made sense, what they added made sense. But most importantly, I watched something that worked as a movie, not just as an adaptation. Imagine my surprise as I was leaving the theater pretty satisfied (I'd give it a 8/10 at that time), and hear someone comment that it was "pretty boring, and there are still two others to come? What will the movies be about if the games are already over?", and I realized how the movie might come across to some people: an action movie with a sexy female hero and typical cartoon villains trying to kill her. But that was not the point of the movie at all. It's not a story about Katniss (the main character), violent games and romance on the side. It's a story about oppression. And a pretty good one at that.
The Capitol creates the Hunger Games with the objective of ending rebellions before they begin. They make the twelve districts remember, each year, how powerless they are to act against the capitol, and also makes the districts hate each other instead of the capitol by making one district's teenagers kill the other's. Then Katniss comes and semi- unintentionally turns the system around by starting to bring unity to the districts instead of distrust, and at the end of the movie exposes how fragile the whole system actually is.
"Do you know why we have a winner? Because the only thing more powerful than fear is hope. A small spark is fine as long as it's contained" - That quote by the "evil" president Snow summarizes the premise of the movie. Katniss is that spark; she knows that rebelling won't end well for her and her family, but she still ends up accidentally (or is it?) bringing hope to the districts by showing them that they can, indeed, fight against the capitol - whether she wins the games or not is incidental. And that is why this movie, actually, this story, is genius.
That was just on the story part, though. I have seen a lot of people comment on 2 things (aside from the boredom from lack of action thing which I already commented about above): the shaky camera and the "horrible costumes and make up". The camera is indeed shaky, but the friends that watched the movie with me didn't even notice it; I only noticed it because I was looking for it (read too many reviews before watching it). If it bothers you that much, then I guess you won't like it, but your mileage may vary. As for the costumes and make up, it's supposed to be like that. That's their fashion sense. The book emphasizes that for Katniss, they look hideous.
Another thing that I found rather interesting were the people saying that Cato and the Career tributes (tributes who train their whole lives and volunteer for the games) were bad because they were just typical bully evil jerk villains. Villains? Were they? Out of the 24 tributes in the arena, who all have the same goals, to kill all the other tributes, some are considered evil and some aren't? This is exactly what I was talking about when I said that some people missed the point; the fact is that the villain wasn't the other tributes, the mutations, etc. It was the capitol, and the fact that many people forgot about the capitol and just took the other tributes as enemies just proves how the scenario described in the movie is not so unbelievable as it seems to some.
In the end, instead of the 8 I was going to give it, I had to give it a 10 after I saw how many people missed the point of the movie, and that made me realize the story was much deeper than I thought. If you go to this movie expecting an unending action scene with a simple, obvious plot, or if you don't like shaky cameras, you will be disappointed. This movie definitely isn't "easy watching", and you have to pay attention and read between the lines for it to make sense, and come into the theater with an open mind to enjoy it.