Entrance to a promising trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2013)

Okay, just got back from The Hunger Games. I rather liked the movie. I'm not going to talk about the actors. No one made glaring mistakes and I haven't read the books, so can't compare. I'm going to discuss the movie style a bit, then the story itself.
The handling of the camera and the general cinematography aspect was rather "fashionable". The shaking during the action and the lots of close-ups are all the rage nowadays. The shaking was a bit overdone. Especially in the beginning. Luckily a bit later it calmed down, because it sometimes makes me nauseous. The close-ups were good, just the right amount at the right moments. Especially because it wasn't 3D. You can't do so many close-ups in 3D nor shake the camera, because the mind can't keep up.
The story was good. I knew to expect a dystopia. As a genre they are usually defined as portraying the worst of all possible worlds. They are also usually critiques of the present society. I could see that very well. I have to constantly change the channel from the various idiotic reality shows that are mostly just porn and a bunch of people pretending so that they can be the most popular. Of course, in The Hunger Games it's their lives at stake. In dystopias, that is usually the case.
Katniss is the archetypal protagonist of dystopias. She's the kind of person who is playing along to survive under awful and impossible circumstances. She is generally a good person, someone who doesn't subscribe to the popular culture. However, the fate of these people is to have their lives changed in a way that they can no longer sit idly by and have to go against the establishment. We could already see that towards the end of the movie and I'm assuming in the following two that is going to be the theme. The only thing I'm wondering about is whether the author followed the genre to the end. The sad thing about dystopias is that the protagonist inevitably fails. The odds are just too great against them. I'm curious to see the story to the end.
All-in-all, I did enjoy the movie from an intellectual standpoint. I do have to admit that I like dystopias as a whole, so that was my bias.