Written by: Nolan Collins

I can’t remember a movie that has been more hyped in recent history than, “The Hunger Games.”  Part of this is because a good portion of it was filmed near Charlotte, NC and as someone who’s from a suburb in Charlotte,  it is hands-down the biggest film to be filmed in the Carolinas in a long time (possibly ever).  

But also, the hype stems from the popularity of the Suzanne Collins’ novels, which are supposed to be bigger than Twilight (if that’s even possible). So, with all that hype, the movie had better be epic! Right?? Wrong.  Before you get mad at me for “hating” on “The Hunger Games,” let me just say, I did thoroughly enjoy the film.  It simply wasn’t as good as it could have been; thus, it didn’t live up to the enormous amounts of hype it received.

The story is dark and dramatic, but still touching.  And the romance works pretty well too.  Acting-wise it is great, but with heavyweights like Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson in SUPPORTING ROLES… that was never even a question.  But the real star of the film is Jennifer Lawrence.  At 21, she is barely legal enough to drink, but she has been already nominated for an Oscar (for “Winter’s Bone”), and she has been in HUGE movies like “X-Men First Class” and now, “The Hunger Games.”  She does great as the strong, but somewhat vulnerable, Katniss Everdeen.

The film does have it’s problems, though.  At the beginning, the cinematography and editing is almost disorienting.  The shaky camera and needlessly quick cuts seem out of place, especially since they are employed in dramatic moments, rather than action moments.  As the film went on, I didn’t notice it as much for one of three reasons:

• As the action picked up, it didn’t seem so out of place
• The camera man had gotten rid of the jitters and had a more steady hand
• I got used to it…like you do a bad smell after being around it for long enough

Also, the mood of the film seemed a bit off.  The movie is about 12-18 year olds fighting each other to the death for the entertainment of other human beings.  People watch this on TV, bet on it, cheer for certain people, etc.  That is royally screwed up!  But the look and feel of the film is similar to that of something like “The Goonies.”  They don’t really delve into how disturbing this whole idea is, and how traumatic it would realistically be on children of this age.

Overall, it is very entertaining, albeit a bit predictable; but it is definitely uneven with it’s mood and themes.  The acting is fantastic, the scoring is great, and it will make boatloads of money… as will the next two films.

It has already made $155 million dollars in it’s first weekend. The third-best debut in HISTORY.

What did you think of the film??