Katniss watches the carnage
unfold in a daze, as we see kids hacking and stabbing each other to
death. It's done with no sound effects and only a muted score,
making it all the more harrowing. She finally snaps back to reality
and runs into the nearby forest, grabbing a backpack along the way.
Twelve tributes die in the opening carnage, each death signaled by a
blast from a cannon. With nothing better to do, Katniss ties herself
high up in a tree and rests. This is where the movie is at its
weakest, as in the book we got several chapters of Katniss trying to
come up with a survival plan while she scavenged for food and water.
It was very captivating stuff, as it really allowed us to get into
her mind state and the desperation she was going through. Here, she
just hangs out in a tree.
She gets woken up that night
by some voices beneath her, as she sees a gang of career tributes has
banded together to take out everyone else. They're comprised of two
hulks named Cato and Marvel, two femme fatales named Glimmer and
Clove, and... Peeta?! Oh snap! The next day Seneca, who is watching
everything unfold via cameras hidden everywhere in the environment,
summons up a batch of flames to move Katniss back into competition.
She runs afoul of the pack, climbing a nearby tree to escape them.
Cato tries to climb after her but lacks her nimbleness, so the group
tries to shoot her down with arrows. However they all suck and miss
her, leading Katniss to taunt them. Hahah, in the face of
insurmountable odds she ain't backing down!
Peeta suggests they set up
shop and wait til she's forced to come down, because she can't stay
up there forever. The rest agree, and make camp for the night.
Morning comes and Katniss finds Rue is in a tree across from her,
gesturing at a gigantic wasp nest hanging in the branches above the
pack. I'd make a snide comment about how convenient that is, but
since we've seen Seneca can conjure things out of thin air to keep
the game moving, I'm giving this one a pass. Caesar, doing
commentary on the games along with the equally ridiculously dressed
Claudius Templesmith, announces those just aren't ANY wasps but
tracker jackers, lethal creations whose sting can cause
hallucinations in small doses, death in larger ones.
Katniss climbs over to the
branch and silently cuts it down, doing her best not to wake up the
pack despite getting stung numerous times. The hive crashes to the
ground and sends everyone scattering, except for Glimmer who is
unlucky enough to receive the brunt of the tracker jackers' wrath.
She gets stung into FUCKING OBLIVION, a tripping Katniss climbing
down the tree and having the wherewithal to pry to bow out of her
puffy hands. Peeta runs up to her and tells her to GTFO, making
absolutely no attempt to kill her despite her being completely at his
mercy. She takes his advice, but soon passes out from all of the
tracker jack venom in her system. She regains consciousness two days
later, finding out Rue has been taking care of her the entire time.
Rue tells her Cato's crew
has all their supplies in a small camp down by the lake, Katniss
cooking up a plan to raid it. She has Rue set a bunch of fires to
draw them away while she sneaks down, finding they've left one guard
behind. Before she can act, another tribute (nicknamed Foxface)
sneaks into the field and grabs some supplies of their own. The
entire area has been mined, but Foxface dances through all of them to
safety. The guards sees her and takes off in pursuit, leaving
Katniss free to set off the mines and explodinate everything in
sight. She returns to find Rue being attacked by Marvel, who stabs
the young girl with a spear before Katniss takes him out with an
arrow. She slowly dies in Katniss' arms, asking her to sing her a
song.
Katniss despairs over her
fallen friend, arranging flowers over her body and giving a three
finger salute to the cameras before leaving. We see the residents of
District 11 watching this over a giant TV screen in the center of
their village, returning the salute. This leads to a full out riot,
which wasn't present in the book but actually makes sense here in the
grand scheme of things as we'll see in the next movie. This is one
of the advantages to filming a movie series AFTER the books have all
been published, you can insert foreshadowing to great effect. But
you can also stick in flat out WEIRD scenes, like the next one of
Haymitch trying to sell Seneca on the idea of making the competition
all about the “love” between Katniss and Peeta. Why the hell is
Haymitch even allowed to talk to Seneca? Better yet, why would
Seneca listen to him?
This is made even more
batshit crazy when Seneca brings this idea up to President Snow, who
warns him against it so he does it anyway. WHAT THE FUCK. There's
been several Snow/Seneca scenes in the movie, and they're all weird
as hell. They barely add anything to the film, I guess Snow's actor,
the legendary Donald Sutherland, had to have SOMETHING to do since he
was barely in the book. Seneca's grand idea is to announce to the
arena they're amending the games and there can now be TWO victors as
long as they're from the same district. Thinking of Peeta, Katniss
goes looking for him... and finds him within a minute. That's, um,
pretty fucking impressive.
I should amend that, he
finds her in a manner of speaking, as he has- deep breath here-
painting himself to blend in with the rocks on the ground. I don't
even... sure, they're being ONE HUNDRED PERCENT loyal to the book
here, but is that a good thing when that was stupid as hell in the
first place? Discounting how he had the time to paint himself up in
such an elaborate manner, WHY did he do this? What was his endgame?
Was he just planning on lying out in the open for the rest of the
tournament instead of trying to find a cave or something to hide in?
Did he KNOW Katniss was going to magically find him? Bah! Stupidity
is stupid.
Peeta has a nasty gash in
his leg, Katniss taking him to a cave to hide. WOW, she really
thinks outside of the box, this one! What's the matter, they
couldn't find some mud to go lie in? Oh by the way, did you forget
that this is a Young Adult movie? Katniss suddenly remembers and
kisses him on the cheek, so NATURALLY we cut to Gale back at home
watching this and looking agonized. LOVE TRIANGLE IN THE
MOTHERFUCKING HOUSE! Wow, it's been a LONG time since we've had one
of those, eh? A strange tone begins pulsing outside, Katniss
investigating and finding a gift from a sponsor. Inside is a note
from Haymitch that says “You call that a kiss?”, along with a
bowl of soup. She goes back inside to feed it to Peeta, where he
tells her about how he's had feelings for her since the moment he
first saw her.
Another announcement rings
out, saying at sunrise the Cornucopia will have a “feast”,
containing something that each contest desperately needs. Katniss
concludes this will include medicine for Peeta's leg, readying up her
gear to go get it. Peeta tries to stop her so she kisses him full on
the lips, the movie instantly cutting back to Gale. Hahah, oh Hunger
Games... He eventually falls asleep and she sneaks out, finding
the Cornucopia has four backpacks on table, each labeled with a
number of the remaining districts: 2, 5, 11, and 12. Foxface runs
out and grabs 5 with no fanfare so Katniss attempts the same, only
she finds Clove not too far away. They get into a vicious looking
brawl, Clove gaining the upper hand and slitting Katniss' throat. No
wait, that's what she SHOULD have done. Instead, she remembers her
Bond Villain training and begins to monologue.
On hour five of her
megalomaniac rant, Thresh, the other tribute from District 11 shows
up and- hold on. THRESH IS ALSO BLACK?!? FUCK THIS MOVIE SO HARD!
I'm so sick of it ruining all these characters by making them-
The boy tribute from
District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue...
-nevermind, carry on.
Thresh grabs Clove and BRUTALLY smashes her head against the side of
the Cornucopia to kill her. That is something I haven't mentioned
yet, this is one of the hardest PG-13 movies of the last decade. In
this world of school shootings and 9/11 where movies get censored for
the most moronic things imaginable, it's even a miracle this movie
got made since most of these characters are YOUNG teenagers, let
alone the fact most of their killing takes place fully on camera.
Ross directed this with utmost class, letting the savage actions of
the contestants speak for themselves without glorifying it or making
it too gratuitous like a lesser director surely would have done.
Thresh does not kill Katniss
however, saying he's letting her live this one time “for Rue”.
Katniss takes her backpack and returns to Peeta, applying the
medicine and falling asleep next to him. In the morning his wound
has almost completely healed, all of the infection it was causing
gone. They talk about how they're going to win this thing and go
home together, which is lacking one of the biggest narratives from
the book. See, the entire time Katniss was trying to put on a show
for the sponsors by buying into Peeta's story and faking falling into
love with him. She was torn about it, as she slowly began to develop
genuine feelings for him, which again gave us a very personal
connection with her. Here, it seems like she is simply falling for
him with none of the machinations she attempted in the book. You
could make the case all of this was due to Haymitch's note, but it'd
be one VERY weak case.
They go out to forage for
food, Katniss going hunting while Peeta picks berries. When she
hears a cannon go off she freaks out and goes running to find him,
relived when he's still standing. She slaps the berries out of his
hand he was holding, telling him they're toxic nightlock berries.
They discover the cannon was for Foxface, who made the mistake of
sampling some of the berries Peeta had already picked. That only
leaves us with Cato and Thresh still out there, Katniss bringing some
berries along with her in case Cato is a fan of them. Whoops, spoke
too soon. Just Cato remains, because another cannon blast signals
Thresh has met his end.
Cato isn't the only danger
out there though, as they get attacked by mutant CGI dogs that shrug
off Katniss' arrows. They make it to the Cornucopia, climbing on top
to get away from the Resident Evil rejects. Ah, THERE'S Cato!
That all worked out marvelously well. After a short battle Katniss
shoots him off the roof and into the pack of dogs who begin to devour
him, our heroine firing one more arrow at him to put him out of his
misery. Well hey, that's that, right? The 74th Annual
Hunger Games are done, and for the first time we have two win-
PSYCHE! One more announcement rings out, saying they were just
kidding about that whole dual winners thing and now one of them has
to die. Peeta tells her to shoot him, but she's all “fuck that!”
and pulls out the berries.
Claudius hastily cuts in
over the intercom and implores them to stop, declaring them the
winners of the event. With the credits looming, the film goes
through a rapid fire succession of scenes. Haymitch warns Katniss
that Snow is going to be livid at her for showing him up with her
berry stunt, coaching her on what she should say for their upcoming
interview on Caesar's show. Seneca gets led by two guards into a
room that he is locked, finding it empty save a bowl of the nightlock
berries. Katniss and Peeta return to the train, taking it to an
uncertain future where the Erudite are surely planning more mischief
to fuck with the Dauntless- wait, I think I already made that joke somewhere else. The two arrive in District
12 to a hero's welcome, while Snow ominously watches them on a
monitor.
Cue the credits, set to the
Arcade's Fire SUH-WEET track “Abraham's Daughter”.
I DESPISE that ending,
because it's BY FAR the most “Hollywood” change of the entire
story. In the book Peeta learns that nearly everything Katniss did
after finding him was a show for the sponsors, giving it a
magnificently beautiful downer ending. Peeta believed every word and
action she did was because she shared his feelings, and when he finds
out she didn't at his utmost happiness is what I call a PERFECT
ending. Life never works out that way, despite what so many of these
Young Adult stories would have you believe. Suzanne Collins' entire
trilogy is a deconstruction of these tropes and by-the-numbers
structures, which is why I cherish them.
But we can't end our movie
like that, can we? Everyone has to go home with some sense of
happiness, right? Rhaargh! However, the ending isn't bad enough to
ruin the movie for me, so it's not THAT offensive. This is probably
my fifth time seeing the movie, and I think it only gets better with
time. It's not without its large flaws as I pointed out, but for the
level of craftsmanship put into it, it sits very high on the
blockbuster throne. Despite everyone putting on a fantastic
performance, the entire thing would have fallen apart without
Jennifer Lawrence there to tie everything together in a neat little
bow. To say she was the MVP of the film is the understatement of the
decade, this is one of those films I couldn't imagine ANYONE else
with the talent to carry it like she did. PERHAPS Shailene Woodley,
because her Tris in Divergent was pretty special, but it
didn't have the older/younger sister dynamic that Katniss and Prim
shared.
Even with so much of her
character left on the editing room floor, Lawrence was able to infuse
Katniss with more emotion and substance than virtually all of today's
action heroes. She is, quite simply, the Real Deal and we're lucky
to witness her talent unfold. Josh Hutcherson's Peeta fell short of
that level as all of his best dialogue from the book didn't make it
in due to his reduced screen time, but at least I BELIEVED he was in
love with Katniss. Their maybe half hour relationship captured more
depth than freaking FIVE MOVIES of Bella and Edward, although that
isn't saying much. Physical cues and body language can go a long
way, that's a lesson maybe more directors and actors should learn.
The film was rightfully a
hit in every since of the word, steamrolling its way to the third
largest box office opening of ALL TIME, trailing only Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the Dark Knight Returns,
both of which already had a large built in audience due to the fact
they were sequels. It went on to gross nearly 700 million dollars
worldwide, AND even pleased numerous critics to earn a very healthy
84% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. But enough about those minor
accomplishments, how does it score on the Twilight Meter?
Step One. Start
off with a completely bland boring uninteresting dark haired young
woman who starts off as nothing special. She has to be a loner who
only has one interest/hobby in her life.
This definitely doesn't
apply to book Katniss, but I'm afraid it does sum up movie Katniss
pretty well. +1 point for a score of 1/7.
Step Two. She will
have a single male best friend that she only thinks of “as a friend
or like a brother”. He, of course, pines for her daily to love him
like he secretly loves her.
Yikes! How ya doing, Gale?
We're off to a terrible start at 2/7.
Step Three. Have
her suddenly become the most important person in the world through a
combination of the supernatural, a hidden talent she didn't know she
had, or an indomitable will.
While this will apply in the
later films, it certainly doesn't here. You knew Katniss wasn't going
to die, but I never felt she was this Super Magical Hero that was
going to conquer all. No points to keep the score at 2/7.
Step Four. Make
sure she only has one parent, usually a mother but that's flexible.
The other parent is gone either through divorce, death, or
mysteriously vanishing when she was young.
Geez, it's kind of amazing
how formulaic this movie was when you look back at it... +1 point
for a score of 3/7.
Step Five. Throw
her into a Love Triangle with two men, one of whom is the
aforementioned best friend she's known her entire life and the other
an enigmatic stranger she instantly prefers. Bonus if the stranger is
introduced saving her life.
I joked about there being a
Love Triangle, but in reality it was no such thing. Score stays at
3/7.
Step Six. Add a
villain. The villain isn't important at all so we don't need any kind
of development for him. In fact, the more faceless and generic he is
the better because that's just taking time away from the Love
Triangle.
This wasn't that kind of
story. No points for a score of 3/7 still.
Step Seven. Make
sure whatever world changing events going on in the story are
minimized so they can take a backseat to the Love Triangle.
No Love Triangle to speak
of, so that gives us a final score of 3/7. This score is rather
deceptive, as the film certainly had more things to say than that
score would indicate. Like I said earlier, Collins really subverted
A LOT of these common tropes.
0: Congratulations! Your
fictional world is so original and creative it's almost guaranteed
it'll get ignored by mainstream audiences!
1 – 2: A very nice breath
of fresh air, it was great to see a unique spin on well worn
material.
3 – 4: I feel like I've
seen this a million times already, and will see it a million more.
5 – 6: Seriously, why even
bother making this when you should have just been working on new
features for Twilight: The Tenth Anniversary Blu-Ray?
7: You should be expecting a
call from Stephenie Meyer's lawyers ANY minute now.
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