Carl the Critic: Reviews "The Hunger Games" [Caution: May Contain Plot Spoilers]

I've been super busy with school to watch a movie let alone review one that I almost lost hope that I would never be able to review again. That is until last Saturday when I actually had the opportunity to finally see "The Hunger Games".

From what I understand about "The Hunger Games" it is a well written novel by Suzanne Collins that deal with issues of feminism, politics, reality T.V., and kids killing kids. I haven't read the novels myself you see, but my friends certainly had, and I think I understand the basic story.

In a post-apocalyptic future, America has been divided into 12 ghettos- I mean "districts", that are being punished for rebelling against the capital city of "Who-the-hell-cares city" because... who the hell cares. As a result of the rebellion children from each district, between the ages of 12-18, must submit their names into a drawing to be picked to represent their district at this years Hunger Games, an event that I can best describe as "American Idol" meets "The Most Dangerous Game". One boy and one girl must be picked from each district, and once in the Hunger Games the objective is to not die, and kill the other kids.

We follow the life of Katniss Everdeen, a girl who was named after some sort of vaginal disease. "Kactus" has a little sister, Primrose, who just turned 12 and is scared that her name is going to get picked at "the reaping". "Katnest" assures her little sister that her name will not be picked, and five minutes later... we watch some propaganda video, and THEN Primrose's name is picked to represent at this years Hunger Games. "Katchest" then volunteers as "tribute" or the players of "The Hunger Games". With Katniss is a boy named Peeta Mellark, who was probably a bastard child considering that his parents gave him such a ridiculous name. Peeta and "Katmess" are then taken to the capital and meet their mentor Tallahassee... Oh oops I mean Hatmitch Abernathy, who was once a winner of the Hunger Games. From here Katniss and Peeta embark on a terrifying journey that might cost them their lives.

Now I understand that many critics have been complaining that the hand-held camera work on this film was just awful, and I admit that it was very distracting, but if your are going to make a film about kids killing kids, it only makes sense that the camera is constantly jerking so that we don't see the actual killings. In addition to that, it wasn't like the camera was handheld the entire time like say "Insidious", however the cinematography was still pretty bad in this film. The editing was very weird, one instant "Kactus" was walking from left to right but in the next cut she was walking from right to left, then the next cut she was climbing a tree, then the next shot there was Stanley Tucci as a representation of how celebrities work... wait where was I going with this again?... Ah yeah, so at times the editing was kind of crazy.

Other critics feel that the film feels a little too long, and I can agree with that, mostly because for me there was a lot of drama. Every few minutes there was either the reveal of something that I knew was going to happen, or someone was on the brink of death, or the film's "star-crossed lovers" were about to kill themselves, or Rue dies, or Wes Bentley sends his CGI dog-pigs-lion-things after Katniss and Peeta and it all feels very cluttered. Oh and before I forget Katniss has a boyfriend named Gail Hawthorne and she never tells this to Peeta even though she knows that he really likes her, which doesn't seem fair to either boy and it's frustrating because if you have never read the books, you might begin to wonder "what is the point of Gail in this movie? He only shows up like 5-6 times and has very few speaking lines, and he doesn't really do anything in the film." All of this is true, but assuming you HAVE read the books you know this builds up to more drama in the future films where Katniss has to choose between- you don't care any more do you? I didn't think so.

Any way, other than that which I have just complained about, I love "The Hunger Games", it has great atmosphere, acting, music, and a great use of color. I found the film to be very interesting, memorable, and definitely worth my time.

So in conclusion, check it out and see what you think. I can't guarantee you will love the film but it's worth the two hours and twenty two minutes of your time. I give "The Hunger Games" an 9.1 out of 10

Carl the Critic © 2012 HubPages.com