Breathe It In, Children -- Or Else Just Die, Die, My Darling!

Rating: 4/10 (29 November 2013)

So disappointing! I was truly blown away by the first HUNGER GAMES movie, mainly because Jennifer Lawrence was utterly sensational as Katniss Everdene, the tough, resilient girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
There's something stunningly new and fresh about the way Jennifer Lawrence fills up the screen. She's so classically beautiful, and she really owns that beauty in the relaxed, sensual manner of great female icons like Elizabeth Taylor or Grace Kelly. Yet when the action scenes begin, she's as tough and menacing as Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, without sacrificing any of her natural feminine allure. And when the story turns serious, and she's the spokesperson for an oppressed people in a starving nation, she has the same kind of moral dignity we used to see in male stars like Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck.
Yet with all that, this formulaic sequel can't even approach the impact of the first film. How? How can you make Jennifer Lawrence look bad in a ground-breaking role in a new genre she literally invented? I hate the fact that this movie actually takes Katniss backwards. She's less in control, less courageous, less defiant, less warm-hearted, and less respected than in the first film. It's so horribly obvious that even the characters in the movie joke about it. "See, this is why we don't let you make the plans," says Haymitch, at the very end of the movie, when Katniss is actually asserting herself (for a change.) It's a good joke, but it shows just how badly this franchise has lost its way. Clumsy plot, lousy dialog, stupid special effects and music that just sounds like an endless elevator ride at the mall.
Two stars for Jennifer Lawrence and the way she fills up the screen. And two stars for Jena Malone, whose character comes out of nowhere and actually generates a little humor and energy in the endless, seen-it-all-before action sequences. But other than that, my God it was dull and slow.
Oh, and one special note about Donald Sutherland. He is a very, very old man. He really should hang it up and retire. Back when he was Jennifer Lawrence's age, he was in a grade-Z thriller called DIE, DIE, MY DARLING, supporting a decrepit and decaying Tallulah Bankhead. He played a mentally challenged boy raised by a crazy old woman, and all he had to do was make moronic facial expressions and moan "praise ye the Lord!" while the old woman read the Bible.
But that role was positively dignified compared to this.