The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is the first of three books written by Suzanne Collins, the other two being Catching Fire and Mockingjay. With a huge opening weekend predicted there is little doubt that the studios will green light the other two movies to have them made as soon as possible. For those who have not read the book I suggest you do as not only is it a quick read but frankly this movie is made more for fans of the book than it is for someone going in knowing nothing about the series. In fact I went to see the movie with someone who had not read the books (along with two huge fans of the series) and while he loved the film there were some details that were lost on him such as what are sponsors, or why Gale had his name in the drawing so much, or for that matter why Gale was such an important character to the story. Fans of The Hunger Games will no doubt love the movie as it is a very well done and entertaining, but having just finished the book a couple months ago I found myself comparing the source material to the movie throughout the story.

With a need to satisfy fans of the series there is a lot that needs to be put into the movie, but by putting so much in the filmmakers often short change the detail. From the grandiose Capitol to the chariot rides you lose much of the detail the author puts in. This is compounded by the fact that so many of the bigger scenes were created using CGI and looks far too animated from the scenes shot on location. While the detail may have not been in the picture, the main bullet points were all hit, and maybe to a debilitating degree. While the movie wraps up after 142 minutes with many in the audience wanting more there were scenes bogged down especially before we get inside the arena. The pacing was inconsistent throughout the movie. In the beginning there was not enough development involved with major information being lost in the beginning left for the audience to infer or for readers to already know. An early example being the lack of time dedicated to showing Katniss Everdeen as a strong hunter which is what makes her such a strong favorite in the arena. From there we get to the Capitol, it just seems to take too long to get inside the arena. Once inside the arena the movie pace quickens again, but lost is the struggle to survive. I don't know how I could have done it better as it is not all that visually interesting to show dehydration but it just felt like director Gary Ross kept accelerating and then slamming on the brakes throughout the story and any driver can tell you just how frustrating that is to follow.

The most frustrating thing not shown in the movie is the brutal murder of children. Who didn’t want to see kids killing each other, in fact it is what I was looking forward to most. There is no getting around the themes of this first book, it is a post apocalyptic America having their children forced to fight each other to the death, this is dark subject matter and I wanted to see it. Now because this is a young adults book there are many kids out there who are going to want to see this movie, so maybe you don't want your nine-year old to see a child slit another child's throat. And while I knew it wasn’t going to be as gritty as I wanted it to be with a PG-13 rating I still had a small bit of hope to see the massive amounts of violence the book promised me. Instead what we see is a lot of close ups, quick cuts, shaky camera work. This usually helps to show a non violent form of death and chaos but using all three techniques became distracting and really took you out of the action. Most noticeably once they enter the arena and during the climax. With all that said the story from the novel is so strong, fast paced, and filled with so many great characters that it seems impossible for this movie to fail.

Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely perfect as Katniss Everdeen, with just enough charm to still be likable to the audience and with the perfect amount of fuck off written on her face. She can capture an audience by simply doing what she is asked to do. She is such a natural actress that it becomes easy to see her as the strong female lead that the role demands. She does not need to carry this film alone as she is accompanied by a star studded cast. Stanley Tucci plays Caesar Flickerman, the charismatic host of the event; he is more engaging and charming than most hosts currently on reality television right now. Woody Harrelson plays most people's favorite character, Haymitch. A perfectly cast drunk and can mix in the sincere when need be. The only thing lacking is his relationship with Katniss, but that seemed more like a conscious choice by the writers to leave out than anything Harrelson did. Then there is Lenny Kravitz as Cinna who proved to be a fantastic casting choice and took his role and played it with the perfect combination of sympathy and seriousness in order to pull off charming. This is all without mentioning solid performances by Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, and Wes Bentley who did much more with Seneca Crane then was originally intended but it was great to see inside the production of it all and what those on the outside thought about the tributes.

With all this terrific acting the only two people who didn't benefit from this amazing casting were the two male leads, who looked awful in comparison. Josh Hutchinson is wholly unremarkable and unmemorable as Peeta. He delivers his lines either so matter of factually or so overdone many people in the audience actually laughed at scenes I know should have been taken much more seriously. Then there was Liam Hemsworth who is often cut away to during the action to remind us he is there and we should care about him, but visually there is no reason to care unless you want to see a brooding teenager. While one of the great discussions from the book came from all the "romance," neither male lead is strong or compelling enough to maintain an interest in. And without an outright declaration of what Katniss is thinking a lot of the “romance” is left by the wayside.

While it seems like I bitched a lot about what The Hunger Games were missing, it was when it seemed like they were doing nothing at all that they got everything right. Most of my frustration, as any reader will tell you, is the inability to separate what the movie lacked. The book itself reads like a film and it is easy to visualize how the scenes should play out. So rather than sit back and enjoy this terrific story, which it really was, I got bogged down in the minutia. Lesson from it all, stop reading and assume the Hollywood is so far gone out of ideas that the adaptations from popular novels will come out within a couple of years. B

Like Crazy

The movie opens on a young couple beginning their relationship. After their first date he goes to leave her apartment and places his hand on the door, she does likewise as if the artist is attempting to say there will always be something that comes between their love. It becomes immediately obvious at this point that these two people are going to be one of those insufferable couples that everyone else hates. Nailed it. Like Crazy explores the trapping and difficulties involved with a long distance relationship and shows just how annoying watching a couple explore personal moments in public can be for everyone else.

While I did not like the movie that is not to say everyone will hate it. I’m sure there are many people in the audience who will connect with the movie whether they are currently in a long distance relationship, part of a new relationship, just getting out of a relationship, etc. Director Drake Doremus shows an honest and personal look inside almost any relationship from the cutesy moments to the bickering. The reason these moments are so personal is because no one else wants to see it. He shows his two leads being overly affectionate and annoyingly cutesy just as often as he shows the couple fighting in public. As anyone who has seen couples fight, it is an uncomfortable experience that you just hope ends without being dragged into it. Why would you want to pay for an experience that in real life you see almost any Friday night and try desperately to look away from?

The problems begin to stack up after Anna allows her student visa to expire, despite everyone telling her if she left for the summer it would be much easier to gain entry back into the country she decides to forgo that in order to spend a couple extra nights just laying in bed. It seems that most of their problems could be solved with a skype account and a couple extra plane tickets which they can obviously afford since Jacob graduated to become an instant success as a furniture designer and they can afford to make international calls on their cell phones. Many of you may respond that this is young love and everyone makes stupid mistakes at this age or without these problems there probably wouldn’t be a movie. That is all fine and well but it doesn’t mean we need to feel bad for them either. The main characters are completely unsympathetic and get everything they deserve. Besides being completely insufferable to watch they are also quick to betray each other’s trust. The most sympathetic character is Sam played by Jennifer Lawrence whose biggest fault is that she keeps falling for Jacob who keeps ditching her every time Anna becomes available. Which begs the question what is he bringing to the table that he is able to bag two girls like this, is building furniture a really sexy occupation and no one told me? If that is the case well then I have a table from Ikea that I can put together for all the ladies out there. Lawrence is without question the biggest talent in the movie and her performance is mostly tossed to the side in order to show Jacob and Anna in more montages. In fact all of the supporting actors excel in their effort to prop up their leads and are far more likeable characters; from Anna’s whiskey loving parents played by Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead to both of their ex’s played by Lawrence and Charlie Bewley.

It is tough to tell how much time passes between each fight but it doesn’t matter, Doremus feels it is more important to show the major moments than showing the timeline of the events and I won’t disagree. In fact Doremus made a lot of stylistic choices throughout the movie whether they match with his artistic vision or due to cost restraints it is tough to tell. They all help the story and help to give an intimate look into the relationship. He provides small moments that any audience member can connect to such as waiting for a reply from a text or sending more than one text in a neurotic hope that you’re special someone isn’t dodging you.

Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones churn out very strong performances, especially considering most of the dialogue was improvised. They really show just how frustrating young love can be, which turns out to be the main reason why this movie is hard to watch. It is just tough to get past how maddening it was to watch these two make up and break up over the smallest trivialities. Where are these character’s friends to tell them to stay away from each other. I imagine they alienated any friends they may have had by being awful to be around.

Without sympathetic lead characters or living in a similar situation it is going to be tough to like this movie. I do suggest that if you are a couple that likes to argue in front of people I think you should see this movie, in order for you to understand how we all feel. D+

X-Men: First Class

Before becoming enemies Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr were allies and good friends. That is till they realized that their views on human-mutant relations were so inherently different that they could no longer work together. You don't need to be a fanboy to know this. Anyone who has seen the previous movies know just by watching, which any decent screenwriter will tell you is the objective, show don’t tell. However the producers decided this was neither clear enough nor a completely profitable explanation. So they have given us the back story to all of the questions no one ever asked. And you still think that the World War Three was avoided through diplomacy during a very tense thirteen days. Pssh.

Matthew Vaughn takes the helm on this version of X-men. Bryan Singer returns to help with the story and while he was offered the directing chair had to turn it down due to other commitments (Jack the Giant Killer). It would have been nice to see what he could do with the story. The first two movies helped propel superheros from men in tights to stories that could crossover into mass appeal. Expectations were high for Vaughn who did good work with ‘Kick Ass’ if you’re into watching a 12-year-old swear like a sailor and get the shit kicked out of her, and who isn’t. With all of these elements and a high rating on rotten tomatoes it seemed the series was making a return to what we loved. What we got instead was a movie that seemed over run with characters, nostalgia, and alienated minority metaphors.

The movie opens with both men as children feeling isolated, not knowing there are more out there just like them. That changes very quickly as Vaughn likes working with as many characters as he can, that way if he feels that the action is moving too slowly he can just switch over to another story. Besides Mystique, who is overshadowed by her leading men, most of the other recruits are one note characters that you could probably understand as soon as you hear their mutant name. Meanwhile Kevin Bacon takes on the role of super villain Sebastian Shaw trying to rid the world of the dominant species and make room for the next evolution of mankind. He takes up most of the screen time for the opposition force, well besides January Jones playing the role of Emma Frost, her casting in Mad Man as the empty porcelain doll housewife Betty Draper is now completely clear. I would have liked to see more of, or at the very least one line of dialogue, from Bacon’s henchmen Azazel and Riptide as they have some bad ass scenes. There are so many characters that come in and out of the movie that it is hard to keep track of who and where they are, and even tougher to feel any level of connection as a member of the audience.

The movie isn't all bad; in fact there are moments that are downright enjoyable. A big part of that are James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender performances. When they are allowed a little wiggle room to riff off each other it seems like there is great potential for the movie. Even in some of the goofier scenes, they make it work. I mean they can't work miracles, forcing McAvoy to put his fingers to his head to show that he is using his telekinetic powers still looks silly and something Patrick Stewart didn't have to put up with. The scenes of them together debating competing philosophies were wonderful, but even when the scene or music, which was so often too cheesy for its own good, called for something ridiculous the two men still had enough charm for the scene to not seem out of place.

The most frustrating part of the movie was trying to follow all of the rules that prequels feel the need to follow: trying to explain everything. When the movie was allowed to just be, and tell its story it was much more enjoyable then when the writers needed to show why Beast was blue. But at the same time, I'm sure there were plenty of fan boys mad that we didn't see Magneto and Charles build Cerebro themselves. So that is a tough line to walk, and it seems the producers were looking to appeal to fans of the X-men more than a wider audience so questions needed answers. I suppose this desire for more original story really goes back to the last paragraph and my enjoyment of seeing these two actors together. I would have loved to see the movie deal more with these two competing philosophies than the creation of the X-men, but I didn't write the script so I'll have to take what I can get.

Don't mistake all the criticism to think that I didn't enjoy the movie; it was fun and a good popcorn flick. Maybe I just had this movie on a pedestal from all the high expectations I had going in. There wasn't too much to laugh about in the previous ones, which I enjoyed in the originals, or at least the laughs that were to be had all fit the characters who were delivering them. There are a couple very funny scenes, including a great cameo and a well placed F-bomb but 'First class' gets a little too campy to be taken seriously. C-