Hunger Games

Yay or Nay? Sounds like it might be way too cheesy

I thought the movie was pretty good, despite having blatantly stolen the idea from “Battle Royale”. It’s definitely more enjoyable than some pretentious Oscar bait like “Tree of Life”, which my wife forced me to watch. Seriously, wtf happened in that movie?

Anyway, if you go see Hunger Games in a theater, keep in mind that the audience will be comprised of mostly female preteens. Edit: this is supposed to be a negative.

Respect. Battle Royale remains one of my favorite books, and while I liked the Hunger Games trilogy, it was disappointingly tame compared to how brutal Royale was. On a high level, Battle Royale is a chilling allegory for the hyper-competitive Japanese school system, but you can just read it as an action book and it’s still a great read.

I agree with SuperSadFace with regards to a) Battle Royale and b) the tameness.

This is a chick flick disguised as Battle Royale.

In fact the movie is “Gayer” than BrokeBack Mountain. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way but just as a factual one.

The first 60 percent of the movie is essentially something like the Oscar Red Carpet / Mixed with High School prom. The girl discovers that being incredibly vain and winning the fashion contest can save her life. It reaffirms High School values of every adolescent chick: to be popular and wanted.

It goes from one scene, about her wearing yet another dress/costume to another to “Get Noticed,” to yet another scene about her wearing a dress “To Get Noticed,” to yet another scene about her wearing yet another dress to to “Get Noticed.” If you’re a general fan of Lady Gaga, not so much for her music, but for her “Outfits” this movie will really appeal to you. Like I said, GAY!

The last 40 minutes, when I was expecting to get my masculine share of brutality which I had been promised was filled with fleeting cutaways just about everytime there is blood. A rather rediculous Romeo and Juliet analogy surfaces. They spend most of it talking about “feelings.”

Finally, and I suppose this is a spoiler, but if you have gonads you don’t want to watch this movie anyway, the second movie will no doubt be about a love triangle where she spurs one suitor for another and runs away with the handsome rebel to live in exile. I haven’t read the books but this is foreshadowed. I know it because this is also the plot of As you Like It, by Shakespeare and just about every other sequel in literary history. The third one will be about beating the evil empire. Tired.