I didn't catch last year's The Hunger Games in movie theaters. I suppose I was just too busy, though later that year I caught it on DVD and was reasonably entertained. I've always been a fan of dystopian, post apocalyptic fiction and this movie put a bit of new, if slightly disturbing, twist on the concept. It wasn't among my favorites of last year, but I was definitely entertained, so much so that I was more than willing to see the sequel in the movie theater. As much as I enjoyed the first one, the follow-up was head and shoulders the superior film.
The events of the story directly follow those of the first film, so knowledge of what came before is a must. Having won the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) have moved into the "Victor's Village" of District 12, and into relatively opulent houses. They're celebrities for life now, thanks not only to their victory but their sham "love story," something which irks Katniss' close friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) who is not entirely convinced it was a sham. Katniss has bigger problems, though, as her and Peeta's unique victory, as well as her widely televised act of sympathy for fallen tribute Rue, has sparked uprisings all throughout Panem, to the extent that the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) pays her a visit and basically threatens to kill her family and everyone she loves if she doesn't play ball and use her newly-won influence to tell everyone how wonderful the Capitol is. Key to selling this fiction is also selling her fake love story with Peeta...for the rest of her life. The uprisings, however, prove extremely difficult to suppress, and eventually Snow decides to recruit Katniss and Peeta into a "special edition" Hunger Games known as the "Quarter Quell" which only takes place once every 25 years. This time, every one of their opponents is a past winner of the games, and with a ruthless new game master Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman), frightening times lie ahead for Katniss and Peeta.
I have not read any of Suzanne Collins' bestselling Hunger Games books, and at this point that's deliberate; I want whatever surprises the films have to throw at me to remain surprises. What I appreciate most about the movies is how they serve as a graphic metaphor for class inequality, and considering that this was intended for American readers, many if not most of whom probably can't find any country other than their own a world map, the message these films convey remains quite relevant, if a little heavy-handed at times. I have no idea how the books read but for the most part the script by Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) and Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) exudes an intelligence which does justice to the book's underlying themes even as it keeps things easy to understand for younger viewers.
Of course, the material would still feel a little schlocky in some places were it not for the utter conviction of the performers, particularly Jennifer Lawrence in her role as Katniss, who does an amazing job at conveying her character's range of emotions from fear to inner conflict. Most of the key supporting players from the first film, including Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Lenny Kravitz are back, and this time they are joined by several welcome new additions like Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Amanda Plummer and Sam Claflin as former HG winners Beetee, Wiress and Finnick, to name a few. Of course, the problem with a cast this big is that not everyone will get the character development they arguably deserve, even with a two-and-a-half hour running time.
To director Francis Lawrence's credit, though, he manages to balance the most crucial of the characters and story elements while at the same time elevating the production value of this sequel well past its predecessor. Granted, the budget from the last film was basically doubled, but every last penny of that $140 million was well spent, from the computer-generated threats the tributes faced in the arena to the sets, to the hovercraft that actually showed up on screen this time. The first film told a good story, but the penny-pinching was quite evident, especially in the last few scenes in which laughably fake computer-generated wolves showed up. This time the producers went all-out. One thing that really struck me was the imposing architecture of the Capitol, which was embarrassingly minimalist in the first film. This film is bigger and better in every way than its predecessor, and from the look of things, audiences around the world think so too.
It wasn't flawless storytelling, though. I can point to one scene that really made me cringe: Katniss and Peeta are attending a party in the Capitol, when one of the guests invites Peeta to try some French macaroons. Peeta declares that he's too full to eat anymore, and the guest offers him a drink which is meant to make him vomit so that he can eat some more. This scene is considerably powerful given that, at this point in the story, the audience knows that people all over Panem are starving. Peeta blunts the impact of this obscenity by actually saying that people in the Districts are starving while people in the Capitol are throwing up their food. The writers either forgot the "show, don't tell rule" or figured the audience would be too slow to get the message without spelling it out in neon lights as bright as the wigs worn by Elizabeth Banks' Effie.
This little quibble notwithstanding this was easily one of the most engaging movies I've seen all year, and I find myself looking forward to the next installment in the saga of Panem.
4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment