Went to the theater yesterday with my niece, Leah, who had already seen this film, but was very enthusiastic to see it again, having read all three novels. I had seen the first Hunger Games film, and quite honestly if it wasn’t for her, I might have skipped this one. I am a big fan of Jennifer Lawrence after seeing her award-winning performance in ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘. There is just something about her, great acting skills, beauty, attitude, she just has the ‘X’ factor. But can she carry this film by herself? Well, in this case, she doesn’t have to. She has Woody Harrelson, the legendary Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, and let’s not forget the riveting performance put in by Lenny Kravitz, all supporting her.
Overall, I think this might have been a better movie than the first one, but at its core, it’s nearly the exact same film, with a few different tweaks, here and there. In this one, Katniss, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and Peeta, had been elevated to celebrity status in their weird sort of futuristic socialist society. They had to pretend they were in love, with the world population and television. Since they showed defiant behavior toward the government, the mighty President Snow wanted them both dead and had ensured they would be in this year’s Hunger Games. A game in which random people from several districts are placed into an arena against their will, for the purpose of fighting each other to death, the goal being only the last man standing survives. In the first film, Katniss and Peeta both survived, breaking the pattern of only one person surviving. In order to last longer, they form alliances and battle it out against each other. This is not a new idea, it has been explored many times before in several films, but I doubt those films were backed up by several highly popular novels.
Spoilers…
The entire arena is computer controlled, including the environment, weather, obstacles, everything. They quickly discover they are surrounded by an electrical force field, which confines them to the arena, including the sky, which is a dome-shaped force field. There is a lightning strike every hour, hitting a central tree within the arena, which marks the cause of an environmental change every hour. A couple of people within their team concoct an idea to electrocute members of the other alliances by stringing together a wire from the lightning tree to the central water area. The idea is quashed, when a battle ensues quicker than expected, cutting the wire short of the destination. Near the last 10 minutes of the film, Katniss decides to attempt to destroy the dome, and hence end the games, by tying the wire to an arrow and shooting the ceiling at the exact moment the lightning strikes, endangering her life in the process. Her attempt was successful, short-circuiting the entire arena and blasting a hole into the top of the dome. When Katniss comes to, she discovers that the government destroyed the district where she grew up in (district 12) and now she will be going to a new district, district 13.
Even though the film was two and a half hours long, it didn’t feel like it. I did enjoy the film, but I do not think it is one of the best films of the year as I have read others do. One thing that struck me was there was not one lick of comedy in this movie. I don’t think I laughed even once during my viewing. This is probably normal for a serious drama, but I did find it strange here. If you are a fan of Jennifer Lawrence as I am, then this is a must-see. After the credits roll, a song is played which is performed by Coldplay (Atlas), so it has that going for it as well, which is nice. Recommended.
****
