Welp, I was hoping the overblown hype of this movie wouldn't make an appearance on this blog, but I guess I was wrong because after having watched it for free, I feel compelled to just write about it.
I have to hand it to the producers, they did a great job of sterilizing the concept of child gladiators to the point where it's boring as all fuck. I mean, I heard the book's prose wasn't good, but it must have given the act of children killing children more than a shaky cam and bloodstains.
What I'm trying to tell you is that this is a really bad and sanitized version of Battle Royale. So you should probably just watch that instead. What the fuck is The Hunger Games, anyway. I mean, I didn't see at any kid try to eat each other through the whole mess.
It's also a bit strange how they introduce "psychotic" kids from the better districts as people to root against. You know, despite that you were told that they're raised from a young age to kill or be killed. and just as much a victim in this society. But hey, it's all good to kill them.
In this flick, there are "good kids" and "bad kids" without any kind of nuance for who they are or what they are all about. So, even though you have this potentially subversive storyline, you end up with an audience cheering for teenager on teenager beating each other to death because it's so sanitized and we are so detached that it's suppose to be good winning over evil, even in the most despicable of forms. What really is savage about this film is the audiences being presented with child murder and it being so benumbed that it reacts as if someone just hit a home run.
Not to mention that it managed to insert black and white morality, to the point where people in the theater cheered when one kid was forced to kill another kid in a bloodsport. Might I add, how progressive of this film to show last year's winner as a black kid who just finished beating up an asian kid with a bloody brick.
Then again, maybe I shouldn't even address the whole race issue with this film....
I think the ones that have "no offense or anything" or "I'm not racist but..." make me so much more upset. But that's because "I'm not racist but.." is followed by a heinously racist comment 100% of the time. So these idiots genuinely think they aren't racist because they preface their comments with that qualifier.
A side note to anyone who didn't read the books, The supposedly feminist hero who abhors the idea of marriage and spawning children to such a political situation ends the series happily married with two kids. This is portrayed as some sort of natural, healthy maturation. Even though Katniss does not love Peeta in the book and is actually pretending to love him throughout it so that she could pander to the sponsors. I guess that's all part of a good job by the actors.
Also in the book they straight up say that the stated purpose of population control doesn't make sense and the actual purpose of the hunger game is so that the viewers will watch the betrayals in the game and not trust each of the other districts enough to organize against the government ever again.
But hey, I guess there's a lot of movies about archery and feudalism and feminism coming out this year. It must be some sort of theme.
Just what we needed, a Disney movie about a red headed woman who finds independence through the wonders of shooting a pointed stick at something. On a final note, Ariel was more independent before she got legs and it's just pretty fucked up to teach kids that the only way to land the man of your dreams is to get reconstructive surgery, stop talking and move away from your home.
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