Saturday, March 24, 2012

‘The Hunger Games’: Never Go See a Teen-Targeted Film on Opening Weekend

I saw The Hunger Games on opening night yesterday which was probably a big mistake. It wasn’t a mistake seeing the movie itself, because it was actually a very good and faithful adaptation of the novel. It feels wrong to say that I enjoyed it because it’s such a disturbing story about children killing children, but as a Hunger Games fan, I appreciated it. Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic, as always, and more than carried the film with her powerful on-screen presence. 

However, I do have two points to make. One, do yourself a favour and never go see a preteen-targeted film when it’s first released, because anytime a boy appears on-screen and there’s anything even remotely romantic, there will be unwarranted amounts of squealing and shrieking, which is not only very annoying, it ruins the mood. So whether you’re Teem Peeta or Teem Gale, shut the hell up because amidst all of the oohing and aahing, dialogue gets lost.

Two, it was extremely disturbing to witness a theatre full of children cheering when the so-called villainous tributes were killed. Yes, there was actual clapping when children were being slain onscreen. Obviously there’s been a disconnect of sorts between what author Suzanne Collins intended and how the audience was reacting. It seems like the audience kind of got lost in the drama of it all and forgot that the story is about how unjust and wrong the Hunger Games are. It’s supposed to show that no matter who is being killed, it’s horrific and sad to subject children to murder for sport. But somehow the movie audience was doing exactly what the Capital’s residents were – getting off on watching kids killing kids.

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