What The Flick?!: What Didn't Work For The Hunger Games

So we're done with the good stuff. Now, on to the other end of the spectrum - the ugly truth, at least in my book.

We know that The Hunger Games has continued to make history. It raked $155 million in US and Canada during its opening debut, making it the 3rd best debut of all time behind Harry Potter Potter and the Deathy Hallows Part 2 ($169.2 million) and The Dark Knight ($158.4 million) while surpassing highly successful films such as Spiderman 3 ($151.1 million), The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8 million) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($138.1 million).

Despite these record-breaking feats, I weigh in on the things that just didn't work for The Hunger Games:

Cast

Publicity photo of The Hunger Games

Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne was just... okaaaaay. His exposure (or lack thereof) in the movie stayed true to what's in the book though, contrary to what went around about him getting more airtime for the love triangle's sake. But that's not to say he was in any way lesser of a character than say, Cato. Just by hearing the girls scream in the cinema, you know they're enjoying his very little movie exposure, even if it only includes moping to Katniss and Peeta kissing in the arena. Grade: D

Amandla Stenberg's (Rue) case was different. She had one of the most anticipated scenes in the movie and again, she did okaaaaay. Sadly, doing okay for this scene doesn't cut it in my book. She could have done way better. Grade:D

Cinna and Katniss at the tribute's holding area
Photo courtesy of www.digitalspy.co.uk

I was most intrigued to know about Lenny Kravitz doing Cinna. After watching it, Cinna was  great... as a wallpaper and was highly forgettable, more like Portia (which in her case was fine, she wasn't a big character anyway). Not sure if Lenny Kravitz was perfect for the role. Grade: D

PG-13 (not R-18)

Generally, I was looking for the graphic scenes that were ingrained in my mind while reading the book. It was obvious that the producers went for the quantity of movie-goers when they decided to soften the violent scenes. On second thought, it seemed to be a great decision because the movie wouldn't have achieved what it did on its opening weekend worldwide (read this: $214 million worldwide) had it stayed true to how the book narrated it. Just not my cup of tea.

Musical Scoring and Direction

What do you make of the slow-motioned approach on the blood bath? Blah! Big downer for me!
The musical score didn't help either. What about the Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-esque scoring while Katniss was looking for Peeta? These were the funny moments for me.

Worst Scenes

Bloodbath at the Cornucopia
Photo courtesy of popspoken.com

• Bloodbath at the Cornucopia - The prime example of anti-climax. Before this scene, the movie managed to make my heart beat so fast  as the tributes ascend the arena. I was even partly covering my eyes (no kidding there) only to find my biggest surprise of the movie. I was expecting some graphic stuff and I didn't see anything at all, not even one. I wouldn't even call this scene a bloodbath - how about blood stain? That's how this scene disappointed me. It's probably best that I stop here since I can go over and over with my all my frustrations with it.
• Rue's Death - I honestly couldn't pinpoint my problem with this scene but it appeared to be underwhelming for me. This part in the book is overly emotional, I just didn't get the same from the movie. Could be the musical score, the poorly sang song, the acting, could be everything.
• The Tributes' Parade - To be honest, I didn't expect much of this scene. But that's the problem. The fact that my expectations weren't particularly high and it didn't even cut it, there's certainly a problem with it. I sense that it lacked drama that should come along the grandness of the event. On the brighter side, I like District 12's costume.

Overall grade: 7 snaps out of 10 

I'm so looking forward to the sequel, "Catching Fire". Rumors have been going around that it's slated to be shown by November 2013. I can't wait!

P.S. I'm glad that I watched this movie again. The movie seemed so much better the second time around, probably because I didn't have high expectations anymore. So do I change the movie's overall grade? Maybe not. It's the first time of watching it that matters more.


By the way, on second thought, I hope the producers allot more budget for the 2nd book. Some scenes in this movie looked somewhat amateurish. Haha!