Trailerwatch: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire

This year will see some highly anticipated follow ups to successful movies. And the next ‘Hunger Games’ movie is pretty high on that anticipation-list (at least mine). Last night the first teaser trailer (though thankfully longer than just 30 seconds) has been unveiled at the MTV Movie Awards and boy does it deliver:

 

The freshly crowned Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence seems to bring charm to Katniss that I personally missed from the books while Donald Sutherland is just awesome at being mean. This looks so amazing – I can hardly wait. But we have to since the movie won’t be released until November 22nd 2013.

Review: Hunger Games

As much as I love books and usually read 2-3 at the same time (currently one in the handbag for the train ride to work, one at the bedside table and one at the breakfast table) somehow the “Hunger Games” phenomenon totally passed me. I only started to realize I should read into this when the development of movie-version of the book filled the blogs across the spectrum of the industry. When I heard about the story I was pretty surprised to learn that this was targeted at teens: young adults killing themselves in futuristic gladiator-style games. Charming but nothing that hasn’t been discussed before. Already 1954 William Golding published the widely acclaimed “Lord of the Flies” where a group of 6-to-12 year old boys are stranded on a deserted island. It displays the dramatic consequences of struggling for survival – turning kids into killers.

So really “Hunger Games” takes an old topic but turns it into an up-to-date version with its display of societies current addiction to reality TV. The kids that are thrown in the arena with only one survivor winning the Hunger Games are constantly followed by cameras for the pleasure and entertainment of the viewers in the capital as well as to the agony of the parents of the children in their home districts. The Hunger Games are an invention by the totalitarian futuristic state Panem of what is left of the USA in order to remind the 12 districts of what happens when they try to start another rebellion. The last has left the 13th district in shatters and ever since each district has to send 2 children (chosen by a lottery) into the games.

While “Lord of the Flies” had only boys as protagonists and we weren’t really treated to a female lead worthy of being described as a heroine “Hunger Games” finally changes this: Katniss Everdeen is a heroine, girls can look up to and boys can admire for her courage and fighting skills while still being a little girl at the heart of the story, afraid and in need of protection.

The first movie serves as an introduction to the history of Panem, the protagonists and the Games and it will be interesting to see Jennifer Lawrence playing the torn Katniss of the upcoming sequels. You don’t have to read the books in order to enjoy the movie but I found it very helpful to understand the characters even more. The reason why Katniss feels so indebted towards her district-tribute Peeta is only lightly touched upon in the movie while the book explains it in-depth. When in the end you see the beginning of Katniss torments having to face the disturbing results of her actions, Jennifer Lawrence turns this movie into something special and it is clear why she has already received an Oscar nomination at the tender age of 20.

Surprisingly the scenes where the kids fight to the death are less cruel than I would have expected and the books describe them much more graphic than the movie shows. Still I wouldn’t want to watch it being 12 but then again I also found the first Harry Potter extremely frightening and I was 18 when I read it. There has been a lot of talk about the weird paring of the tall Jennifer Lawrence and the pretty short Josh Hutcherson (he is 5cm shorter than her) clever camera angles and good editing don’t make it very visible. Just refrain from seeing press picture of Lawrence, Hutcherson and Hemsworth (playing the some times love interest of Katniss) next to each other! But the two leads have great chemistry and are also supported by the always charming Woody Harrelson. The one thing that didn’t work for me on reading his casting and then seeing him on the screen is Lenny Krevitz. He might be a handsome bloke and some find him a great musician (not me) but he NOT an actor and I couldn’t take him seriously at all throughout his scenes which is a shame because his Cinna has quite a pivotal role in the books.

Donald Sutherland shines as the really, really bad guy though his mumbling seems to be getting worse with every movie. Next to Woody Harrelson Elizabeth Banks (nearly unrecognizable) has another supporting role prepping the tributes for the games and as ever Stanley Tucci shines in his role as Games-Show host. I remember after watching the first trailer asking one of my friends who read the books if they were serious with those wigs and make up – indeed they are. Another crucial theme of the book (unfortunately less explained in the movie) is the extreme shallowness and addiction to beauty of the inhabitants of the capitol – the people to be entertained by the Hunger Games. Only the starved and deprived people from the districts can see how ridiculous those capitol people actually look like but their opinion is dismissed as unknowing.

So when reading the book or watching the movie you find yourself shaking your head in disbelief about what is displayed I urge you to imagine looking 20 years back being shown the latest episode of “Jersey Shore”, “This is Essex” or “The Kardashians” and tell me that you would have believed those having a lasting impact on our society turning those people into “stars”. And as much as “Hunger Games” is an enjoyable piece of entertainment it is more than that – it makes you think and question our current state of “reality-addiction” and ever-increasing cruelty making me feat that real-life Hunger Games might not be that far off.

Trailerwatch: The Hunger Games

I read a lot of blogs and news sites in order to keep up to date with the latest movies, releases and castings. So when the movie blogosphere got into this whirl wind about who is going to be cast for “The Hunger Games” and some of the most prolific names were read out during this time, I got a bit confused because I have never heard of “The Hunger Games” before. In my defense – in German the books are called “The Tributes of Panem” … won’t get into ridiculous translations here. But also this is a children’s book aimed at the mid teens so I am not really meeting this demographic.

But with the names attached to this movie this looks quite intriguing and I will probably check it out (and maybe read the books before hand). I am eager to see how Jennifer Lawrence develops and if she uses here immense talent wisely.

So here is the trailer:

 

I am wondering if that wig that Woody Harrelson is wearing was actually described as being that badly in the book but other than that it looks quite interesting. It will be released in March 2012.

Trailerwatch: The Hunger Games

For a while every single blog I read was about casting for “The Hunger Games” and I had no idea what all the fuzz is about. I still don’t but I asked around. “The Hunger Games” are a very successful book series by Suzanne Collins. So here is the first teaser trailer with the great Jennifer Lawrence as the lead.

Well – not much to say from that, I guess we’ll have to wait for March 2012 for a final verdict.