The Hunger Games

The main issue with books that are turned into films, are that more often than not the films struggle to stand alone, without relying on the audience having some prior knowledge of the story elements. The Hunger Games is no different. I imagine the books were such cash cows that the producers of the film did not want to mess with the formula. For example, when the main girl, Catness or whatever her silly name is, is running around looking for her blonde muscle boy, she just picks up on a spot of blood and finds him dressed up as a rock and lying on the ground in a river bed. Maybe there was some inner monologue in the book that explains how she found her little blonde muscle boy in this giant state forest, why the fuck he had taken the time to paint himself as a rock rather than just hiding behind one, where he had gotten the paint, etc. No explanation in the film, just shut up and watch them kiss, woo-hoo porn for tweens.

Then there is the scene where the little nigglet girl dies. She's in the film for about two minutes before she gets topped, but then the scene with Catness crying and arranging flowers around her goes for about ten minutes. Why was I supposed to give so many fucks about this character who had about two lines of mediocre dialogue before she stupidly gets killed? Just because she's a child? Because of her big brown eyes? The whole scene was really hokey, even for a film aimed at teens.

The actress who plays Catness has usurped Kristen Stewart as the queen of numb faced bitches who seem to have a phobia of showing emotions other than "I'm a serious girl, take me serious, but also a little bit sad." I actually don't have a huge problem with these actresses as role models, I'd rather teenage girls sit in the corner with a stern face than all that other crap they get up to, cyber bullying and shooting bath salts or whatever those dang kids are doing these days.

The film had its good sides. The suspense worked, the sets and costumes were top notch, many other boxes were ticked that a movie with this kind of budget should be ticking. Clearly, I am not the target demographic for this film, but still. The whole thing felt rushed and relied way too much on the audience having read the book.