Oh the Irony of the American Audience

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2012)

I considered dressing up for the Hunger Games. But as always, it would have took too much effort, so I didn't bother. Only after seeing pictures on Facebook about people going all out to dress up for this event, did it strike me. How ironic is it that there is so much effort to dress up for a movie that is critiquing this very culture?
Yes, the movie is a critique on entertainment culture and of mindlessly giving into this culture, especially the one on reality TV. The book is also critiquing this, but I was pleasantly surprised that the movie played up this critique. I afraid it would sell out and focus on the love triangle, which in my opinion was the biggest problem with the book. There was too much at stake to expect the reader to be invested in the love story. Yet the book really focuses on it. (I also disliked the characterization of Peeta in the book who went from very interesting to very boring, and you don't really get that in the movie, so points for the movie.) Everything about the trailers and billing Liam Hemsworth in the first three of the cast suggested they were going to play up the romance, but really, Gale was in like 5 minutes of this 2.5 hour movie.
The movie shifts its focus to the cruelty and inhumanity in Panem. It opens with the MC and the Gamemaker discussing the upcoming Games like they were discussing the upcoming football season. It was disgusting.
The movie shows you clips of life in District 12 - of complete and abject poverty. Ten minutes later we see the opulent life in the Capitol (where people dress like its Halloween and have completely given in to the entertainment culture). The contrast was jarring. (Btw, the shots of the Capitol and of the train traveling to the Capitol were breathtaking. Just saying.)
I applaud the filmmakers for bringing out these details. The book was so fast paced, I didn't get a chance to feel so revolted. The movie gave me some of the emotions the book didn't provide. The Reaping was terrifying. The book is from Katniss' perspective, and she wasn't terrified of the Reaping, having been to it several times already. But the movie shifts the focus to Prim at times, and she was trembling. I felt sick to the stomach as I looked at all these kids and realized what must be going on in their minds. If their name is picked, they are being sentenced to die.
Shifting the focus between Katniss and the Capitol was a good choice, because it would have been hard to otherwise convey Collins' gripping voice through Katniss' thoughts. The present tense narrative of the book is excellent and it works really well, but it's hard to translate that to film.
When we get to the Games themselves, the brutality was of course largely toned down. If they had went all out and made an R-rated film, it would have conveyed the inhuman nature of the Games much more effectively. But it did a good job as it is, and I don't know if I personally could have handled any more! The movie didn't need the actual brutality to stress me out - the context of the brutality was enough to make me want to stop watching.
Yet I wondered, did all this go over the audience's head? I was shocked when my theater clapped - clapped - when two of the Tributes were killed. (These were the two most brutal Tributes who were trained to kill, so yes, they were evil, but still!) Yes I know they clapped out of different emotions than the Capitol dwellers (who were clapping out of entertainment), but this is not something to go fangirly about - "Yay Katniss did not die!"
Jennifer Lawrence told the director at some point (or so I read in a magazine) that when Katniss killed someone, her face should not be bad-ass; it should be broken. ---> Respect.
I haven't cried or trembled this much at the movies since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But this was a whole new ball game. In Deathly Hallows I cried because it had been like watching your friends die - I grew up with those characters. But in the Hunger Games, I cried at the cruelty and I cried at the inhumanity. This is not a feel-good movie. Don't expect to come out happy. But if you do come out excited and talking about how Peeta wasn't tall enough, and that there was no passion in the love story (like I heard coming out of the movie), then I imagine the whole point of the movie must have gone over your head.