The Hunger Games (2012)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 142m
Director: Gary Ross
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis:
In an America of the future, divided into twelve districts following a failed popular uprising, an annual contest is televised in which a male and female youth from each district are tribute in a massed fight to the death.
Review:
Logan's Run, The Running Man, The Island, Battle Royale - we have been here so many times before. The gimmick this time is partly in the demographic, targeting a youth audience already captive from reading Suzanne Collins's books, but also in the handling, which adopts an arthouse aesthetic for most, but not all, of its length, with handheld camera, restless editing and interpolated 'memory shots'. The irony is that, while purporting to extol the virtues of courage and self-sacrifice, the games respond to the discovery of an uncommonly virtuous contestant by loading the odds against her. The problem for audiences is that even if the film would have its moral stance and compunctious heroine, it is still what it is: a last man standing exercise in brute survival skills; and in that we are no different to the audience within the film: we wait for the scene in which she will use that bow and arrow to kill another human. Pussyfooting around these issues, and leaving us with an irritatingly coy conclusion, the picture does rather outstay its welcome, whatever the contribution of the redoubtable Miss Lawrence.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 142m
Director: Gary Ross
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis:
In an America of the future, divided into twelve districts following a failed popular uprising, an annual contest is televised in which a male and female youth from each district are tribute in a massed fight to the death.
Review:
Logan's Run, The Running Man, The Island, Battle Royale - we have been here so many times before. The gimmick this time is partly in the demographic, targeting a youth audience already captive from reading Suzanne Collins's books, but also in the handling, which adopts an arthouse aesthetic for most, but not all, of its length, with handheld camera, restless editing and interpolated 'memory shots'. The irony is that, while purporting to extol the virtues of courage and self-sacrifice, the games respond to the discovery of an uncommonly virtuous contestant by loading the odds against her. The problem for audiences is that even if the film would have its moral stance and compunctious heroine, it is still what it is: a last man standing exercise in brute survival skills; and in that we are no different to the audience within the film: we wait for the scene in which she will use that bow and arrow to kill another human. Pussyfooting around these issues, and leaving us with an irritatingly coy conclusion, the picture does rather outstay its welcome, whatever the contribution of the redoubtable Miss Lawrence.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 142m
Director: Gary Ross
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis:
In an America of the future, divided into twelve districts following a failed popular uprising, an annual contest is televised in which a male and female youth from each district are tribute in a massed fight to the death.
Review:
Logan's Run, The Running Man, The Island, Battle Royale - we have been here so many times before. The gimmick this time is partly in the demographic, targeting a youth audience already captive from reading Suzanne Collins's books, but also in the handling, which adopts an arthouse aesthetic for most, but not all, of its length, with handheld camera, restless editing and interpolated 'memory shots'. The irony is that, while purporting to extol the virtues of courage and self-sacrifice, the games respond to the discovery of an uncommonly virtuous contestant by loading the odds against her. The problem for audiences is that even if the film would have its moral stance and compunctious heroine, it is still what it is: a last man standing exercise in brute survival skills; and in that we are no different to the audience within the film: we wait for the scene in which she will use that bow and arrow to kill another human. Pussyfooting around these issues, and leaving us with an irritatingly coy conclusion, the picture does rather outstay its welcome, whatever the contribution of the redoubtable Miss Lawrence.