I don't really know what to say about it. I definitly didn't hate it or dislike it. But I don't know if I like it... But it was a series of weird stuff put together so probably when I think about it I'll realize that I like it.
It was the Jim Henson company that also created Labyrinth. First I thought about Never Ending Story but something didn't feel right about that... No, it wasn't like the Never Ending Story. Then Labyrinth came to mind and yes. This was like Labyrinth but with a much better twist. I'm not gonna tell you the twist because it's REALLY good to my oppinion and I don't want to ruin it. So I'm gonna try and tell you the story.
This girl is pretty unhappy with the life she has... well, at first it appears that way, but due to her mother being sick and getting to the hospital she gets a reality check and is concerned when her mother is getting an operation. Suddenly she wakes up one night and finds that her world isn't what she thinks it is. She had woken up in a mysterious and weird world where darkness threaten to swallow the whole kingdom. We discover pretty fast that the things that are happening in this world are pretty simular to a story our main character came up with in the beginning. So it is pretty simular to Labyrinth but where in Labyrinth they only left a few hints that it was her imagination she was reliving this movie shows that it's her imagination. And that's pretty much the story. She of course comes across many different people on her journey to solve the clues to get home and to save the kingdom and it's very entertaining.
So the bad thing about it... It's fast paced. It threw me off very much and that's a major thing to why I'm a little confused on what I think about it. It's many "and then suddenly this happens!" and it throws you off, especially in the beginning.
The other thing I didn't like.... I'm not sure that I like the main character. She's not really interesting and it feels like she's just playing a role. That can be because it's so fast paced because she changes expression pretty fast. She can go from exploring seriousness to giggle and enjoying. So that threw me off too.
Also the music some times doesn't mach but it's not that many times I felt like that so it's just a nippick.
So what's good about it? Two major things.. That is the artistic way they shot it and the story. Damn! This is a VERY good looking movie. The lighting and the make up in this movie are FANTASTIC! It looks great! Also even though it's fast paced the story really is good. The twist I loved and you can never guess what's happening. I tried to guess but never figured it out and the use of the MirrorMask... I thought it was brilliant. I was impressed that they actually could come to this conclusion. Lately I think movies are forgetting the little details they have in the movies because it's little details. But here, I didn't have any question left in my mind because all the questions I had were answered... OK, maybe not all, but most of them. So I really liked that!
So that's my review. I don't really know what to think of it because of the disturbences, but I'd say GO SEE IT!! I'm gonna recomend it to many of my friends, don't know if they'll like it but it's an art that you need to see, doesn't matter if you like it or not. So! There you go! See you next time!
(I appolgize if there's gramatic mistakes and spelling mistakes and everything but... I'm writing this when I'm sick and yeah... I apologize but hope you enjoy it anyway ^^ Good night!)
All right... This movie... I don't know what to think of it. It isn't bad... It isn't great, but it's... Ok... I think I like it.. the first half anyway. And of course I'm gonna tell you why.
First a quick sum up of what the movie is about. It's pretty much Battle Royal. Although I don't remember that movie too well, there was a lot going on that I didn't understand. And for you who haven't seen it yet... Go see it! If you wanna stay here and read my review further first, but you have to promise me that you'll see Battle Royal. Good. But this sets around the future pretty much, but a future that have ranks... Kind of. There are those district that are poor and don't have much at their feets while others are pretty rich and have all that futuristic things. So one woman and one man are being chosen for a thing called the Hunger Games... Why they have a game like this I don't know... They explain it briefly in the movie and yeah... After a two hour movie you've forgotten what that reason was because a lot of other things happened. Why is it called Hunger Games? They don't explain. So that was a little disappointing. But yeah! Anyway... They send this woman and man to a city where the games take place and what is this game? 24 people is put together in the same stadium but there's only 1 that comes out. It's a game of survival and kill. So a lot of stuff happens in between as you can guess but that's the summary of the plot pretty much. If you want to know more, proceed, but the next context have spoilers in them so if you don't want to ruin the movie go see it. For the others... I'm gonna sum up now what I liked and disliked.
What I really liked about this movie was that they could get the feeling across in some of the scenes. The first scenes are put there to see how our main character is living her life and what she deals with everyday. She is pretty much living in the past, with old clothes, bathtubes and houses. Those scenes are pretty long, but they're there to build up what she experience later. They're not too long though, but yeah. you get the feeling of how she sees the world. Then she valonteers to the hunger games and is send off to this futuristic world with... Yeah, those houses you pretty much can see today and in Star Wars. And I really felt what she was going through. The running scenes they did great. They went by quick and the camera angles are great, I didn't feel dizzy like I can feel in some movies when they run and have a moving camera, but this movie did that great. There is a sadful deathscene in this which they handled great, but I have a little nippick about it, I'm putting that to the things I didn't like, and you really felt the sorrow out main character was going through. And she wasn't sad in like five minutes and then she forgets it, no. She is sad in about twenty minutes and then she forgets about it....... She had taken out her sorrow, so it's fine! She was still in the game and that pretty much distracted her. But yeah.. They got the emotions in the movie really well and I think that's what makes it SO good.
The music I liked. It fits in with the tone it was going and it helped with the story and I didn't felt distracted by it. It's not like with Tron where I only thought of the music because it was so damn good, but it's not like with 7 Ghost where the music was so bad that I got distracted by it. So the music was good, especially the end song. That I actually pointed at the screen and said: I want that!
The makeup was good, the clothes design was good and yeah, the design in generall I liked. So yeah... Nothing groundbreaking but it was OK. Although the make up artist must have extra credit because that was great. There were many times I thought it was good make up.
All right... Now to the things I didn't like..... The small ones first. This is to my personal oppinion and so here goes. I didn't like the first action scene. There was this first battle and think about that. So far they've played with this is a new world for our main character, she used to a crappy bathtub and old clothes and suddenly she comes into this world where everything is bright and big and stuff like that, the clothes are on fire and she's fine! ... Then to the first battle... They plat music over it! ... What? This is the time where you should have no music playing and we only hear screams and bones getting wrecked and.. This is a serious moment, because before this everything was happy, they were just nervous over the games but everything was bright and they still had time and so on and so on.. The first battle is the sign of "this shit just got real" and you don't play music over that scene! The sound of the battle should play there to show the reality of it. You were so good with the emotions in the rest of the movie, why not there? Was the guy sick that day or something? I don't know, but that threw me off a little...
The other little thing was the death of that one caracter where you should feel sad... Yeah, the main character mourns and stuff and calms the person down and then screams... But then she picks flowers and lay them around the body and puts a BUQUET on the chest.... Did you just forget that you're in a freaking killing game? Where everyone is trying to haunt you down? When did you have the time to do this? And after that she sits down on the ground and cries.. Ok, fine, do that but look for shelter first!! Find a safe spot to cry! Then you can cry how much you want! ... That threw me off too, sure they were trying to get the emotion down, but... Calm the audience down first! If it's open they're just gonna look at the background or wait for one of the other game players to sneak up and kill her. That's the best way of getting this emotion down to the audience.
Yeah.... Now we come to the third thing I didn't like.... This thing is pretty much making me dislike this movie... But the first half is so good that I can't ignore it. Damn you movie! Oh well! The supporting character.... The man from the same district... I HATE HIM!! All he is a dumb fake smile. Through the entire movie and he's just unpleasant to follow. I shall explain why. The first time we see him is when they pick his name for the games. There he looks like a scared little boy who just want to wake up from this nightmare. The second time we see him, he is trying to get through to his survival, he's talking with everyone, he's tring to be optimistic and stuff like that, he get's on a TV show and pretty much says that he's in love with our main character. OK... We have no idea who you are, our main character doesn't really seem to know who you are... How can you say that you're in love with her? But they do explain it so it's OK. But then the game starts... The first thing we see him do is co-operating with the other team and tries to haunt her down... The woman you said you loved in TV.. you are just trying to kill the first thing you do! All right, maybe he did for just the crowd, playing with their heads to his advantage, Ok, I'll by it... It's not. They don't explain why he suddenly changes, they don't even talk about it. But wait! There's more! After the sadful death they announce that there can be two winners if they're both from the same district. So our main character naturally thinks of this man.... She just forgets that he was trying to kill her, wanted her dead, when the game started. Just forget about trying to co-operate with him and just kill him! You can't trust him! So just go out and try to win.... No. She finds him of course, and even he has forgotten that he wanted her dead in the beginning of the game.... He's not sayind sorry, he's not explaining why he did that nothing! They just forgets about it! All together!! .... I HATE HIM!!! He was pretty much unnecessary!! Stupid character...
Oh well! The last thing I'm gonna talk about is the ending. I didn't like it. It just stopes in the middle so it feels like it's going to be a sequal... But I don't know how they're going to continue it while keeping the tradition of "hunger games" The game is over and if you're having a sequal where they go through the game again... You can't do that. Because then you wouldn't continue on this story. You would create another story! But yeah... There were a lot of questions I didn't get an answer to and I hated the last part.... But the first part is so good!! It really is a split movie, it's a schizo movie! One side is good while the other is bad! That's what I really think about it.
So.. Do I recomend it? ... I'm split about that. The first part I recomend but the second part I think you shouldn't see. There is nothing there worth seeing. So... Go see it and get your own oppinion.
