Don't Tell Me the Odds

Yup, that time has finally arrived. Only two things kept me from going to the midnight release of The Hunger Games and writing my review it this past Friday. One, midnight releases, in my eyes, are a group thing. I've gone to midnight release showings by myself in the past, but there's simply no replacing the experience of that frantic conversation you have at 2 a.m. with the people who witnessed it all alongside you. That's what makes going to a midnight release so much fun, often even more than the film itself. Second, Todd had become interested in the highly-anticipated film, but as she was unable to attend a midnight release show (the downside of any typical office job) we instead saw it on Saturday. We still didn't avoid the crowds, though. In fact, I ran late getting to the theater, and so we were lucky to get good seats at all. I don't think I have to go into just how popular the teen novel trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins, has become the past few years. My day job is at a bookstore, and I estimate that every third customer the past month has been buying The Hunger games or one of its sequels, on average. There was no doubt that the film adaptation would be just as successful, and with an opening weekend of $155 million, it's the owner of the largest opening weekend for a non-sequel film, besting former leader Alice in Wonderland by a healthy margin.

One of you must die... who shall it be?

But that's not the whole story. Despite being all the rage with teens and young adults these past few years, more than a few experienced readers/movie lovers (myself included) will tell you that The Hunger Games is little more than a poorly-transcribed copy of Battle Royale, written by Japanese author Koushun Takami, which spawned a film and manga series in its own right. Certainly, there are a number of easy comparisons between the two, most notably corrupt governments enforcing their hold on the huddled masses by pitting the children of their citizens against one another in a fight to the death. To appeal to teens exclusively, however, Collins did make some changes, including a strong female lead and a love triangle for the teens to focus on, almost Twilight-like in its execution. In fact, the supernatural series has been mentioned often in comparison to the Hunger Games franchise, almost exclusively because of that romance story. That doesn't mean you can only like one if you enjoy the other (or dislike for the same reason). While Twilight held no interest for me, my reading of The Hunger Games was quick and enjoyable, and I'll certainly read the sequels before too much time has passed. I can definitely understand why teens get so excited about the series, but it makes one wonder what the result will be when what worked so well on paper gets transferred to the big screen?

"Wait... you mean we're not here for a disco dance-off?"

Seventy-four years ago, the Civil War against the Capitol of Panem ended with the government forces utterly defeating those of the twelve rebelling provinces. As retribution and a constant reminder not to rise against their leaders, the capital holds an event called the Hunger Games. In it, a male and female child between the ages of 12 and 18 is picked at random as "Tributes" from every district and brought to the city, where they are trained in combat and wilderness survival. After that, they are dropped into an arena filled with weapons and other dangers and forced to fight to the death, with the whole event televised in every district. Of twenty-four teenagers, there can only be one victor. This year, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself the female contestant for District 12, and while she is a talented hunter with a strong will, the measure of any Tribute can only be measured by what they are willing to do and sacrifice in order to survive.

Yuck it up, kids; you're all dead soon enough.

It's obvious from the start why The Hunger Games wasn't slated for a mid-summer release. Usually films released in June and July sport the kind of special effects that draw most of the attention from the director, rather than a script or acting. Just look at last year's Transformers: Dark of the Moon for a perfect example of a film that made a ton of money just for looking pretty, what I call the "Victoria's Secret" method of filmmaking. However, Lionsgate Films is an upstart film production company, without the financial resources of the big studios. They scored a coup by securing the rights to The Hunger Games (trending on a focus towards teen films), but they only spent $78 million to make this film, and to be brutally honest, it looks it. The actual visual effects are sparse, usually looking every bit the green screen or CGI abominations they are. To obscure the violence, director Gary Ross employs the evil tactic of "shaky-cam" to make sure you can't tell what the hell is happening at any given time. Note to directors: this only confuses and frustrates your audience. STOP IT. The sets feel small-scale as well, with scenes like the early ones of District 12 feeling too compact to be whole communities. However, the effects department shines when it comes to its use of makeup, which helps perfectly convey the attitudes and nature of the people who live in this universe. From the dirty coal miners of District 12 to the insane amount of opulence of the citizens of the Capitol, you really get a feel for the personalities of these areas thanks just to even the merest glance.

"Of course, I care about you, Jacob... I mean Gale."

However, it's a shame that the makeup is the best thing I have to say about this film. The overall acting is fine (and in some cases even better), but marred far too much by the trite dialogue the main actors are forced to recite. Let's face it: this was never going to be Hamlet, but I expected much more with this cast. Some of the actors are simply perfect in their roles. Liam Hemsworth doesn't get to do much but exist in the beginning, but you can easily see why he was chosen to play the strong Gale, one of Katniss's two potential love interests. Elizabeth Banks also stands out as Effie Trinket, Katniss's insufferable escort in preparation for the Games. Banks has been pretty consistent lately, and hopefully casting directors will give her more challenging roles in the future as a reward. Other solid and enjoyable performances come from Donald Sutherland as the Capitol President, Lenny Kravitz as the stylist Cinna, Stanley Tucci as a famous television personality, and Amandla Stenberg as a fellow Tribute named Rue.

Woody Harrelson; perfectly cast, imperfectly directed

But other roles were not done nearly as well, mostly due to how poorly they were written. When Woody Harrelson was cast as alcoholic former Hunger Games winner Haymitch Abernathy, it was widely accepted that this was a good call. However, the role never really fleshes out despite Harrelson's best efforts, and the result is a character that we just don't care about, or wouldn't if we hadn't read the book. Journey 2's Josh Hutcherson is fine as District 12 Tribute and love interest Peeta Mellark but doesn't really look the "strong baker's boy" part he's supposed to portray. But the most disappointing might be Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, when all is said and done. The problem with Lawrence is not her ability but indeed what she's given for material. There's very little that makes Katniss a character worth rooting for, despite care made to make her a strong, solitary young woman. A natural hunter and used to being on her own, Katniss makes for a better contestant than she does a regular human being, and that's the character's problem; while Peeta is not as strong a combatant or survivalist, he does have the easygoing charm that people gravitate towards, making him imminently sympathetic to audiences. Not so with Katniss, who lacks anything akin to a personality despite the best efforts of Lawrence as an actress. I was honestly worried that Lawrence wouldn't live up to her Academy Award-nominated breakout in Winter's Bone after she stunk up X-Men: First Class, but it seems my fears were unfounded. Now if only Katniss Everdeen could be as well-written as she should be, and Lawrence (and the franchise) would be all set.

The new Crocodile Hunter, anyone?

Finally, there are a few more serious issues with this film. Some have to do with the film itself, the others having to do with the tale-telling of The Hunger Games in general. The ending. which wraps up much too quickly and with far too many holes in the tale left unclosed, is a disaster, and can be laid directly at the feet of Ross, who was obviously unprepared for this type of film after directing more family-friendly fare such as Seabiscuit and Pleasantville in his career. That he's already slated to direct the upcoming sequel is a head-scratcher, as he doesn't do this franchise any favors in this first installment. His attempts to escape Collins's Katniss-only narrative (arguably the book's weakest aspect) are poorly conceived and executed, the only tangible benefit being more Sutherland than I had at first expected. Finally, I had a criticism that Todd herself brought up: the whole method of using the Games to keep the Districts down simply makes no sense. If the Capitol had demanded that adults be tributes, then it makes sense, because at least that could be argued to be fair and just, even if it was morally wrong. But putting children in danger would present a whole host of side effects, from the rising risk of rebellion (what parents would do to protect their children), to drastically reducing populations (who would want to have kids to risk losing them in the games?) in areas that provide necessary resources for the Capitol. It's almost as if they make the teens compete to artificially create a story appealing to young readers/viewers, and to Hell with the cultural likelihood. Huh.

For the record, Mr. Anderson likes the ponytail look.

Despite what must seem like a scathing review (Already I can hear a crowd of fangirls outside my window, baying for blood), I actually enjoyed The Hunger Games as a decent sort of action film, despite its glaring issues. Obviously, this is no masterpiece, and I'm not sure anyone was expecting otherwise. I can at least appreciate The Hunger Games for its fantasy, as I liked The Woman in Black for its scares and Safe House for its acting, ignoring their other flaws. The only thing I can hope is that Ross and Lionsgate recognize what the problems were, and rectify them in the upcoming sequels. This was a film I really wanted to like, but sadly turns out to be just another okay 2012 release, debuting at #9 for the year. This film had a lot of potential, but lapsed thanks to an overly-chopped narrative, mediocre effects and a rabid fandom that overly-hyped it into oblivion. I expect and demand better from them in the future. If you're a fan of these books, you should too.

Latin Fever

Sometimes you see a trailer so flawed, so flush with derivative story and character, awash in wanton violence and sexual innuendo, that you can tell it is not a film worth spending your time or money on. 90% of the time that is true. On the other hand, sometimes you see a trailer with those same qualities, and despite knowing that the movie will have its issues, you still can't wait for it to come out in theaters so you can catch it yourself. That tangible difference between them may be slight, but for some reason most titles in that vein are nigh unwatchable, while Colombiana intrigued me to the point where I couldn't see myself NOT watching it. As if featuring a kick-ass Zoe Saldana in a role similar to La Femme Nikita was not enough, the film was produced by Luc Besson, who if nothing else knows how to make interesting looking movies. Colombiana caught a lot of flak for its portrayal of a lawless Colombia and the organized crime that infests it, but none of that had any bearing on my wanting to see it. If anything, it was Saldana who is guilty of that, as the star has taken her career to another level the past few years with starring turns in Star Trek, Avatar, and even last year's The Losers even if not enough people watched it. She was the primary (if not only) reason to see Colombiana in the theaters, as achieving a leading role is an even bigger step forward than this particular talent has taken so far.

First rule for dating Zoe: Don't get on her bad side

After her parents are murdered by Colombian drug lord Don Luis (Benito Benites) and his right hand man Marco (Jordi Molla) at nine years of age, Cataleya (Saldana) escapes to America where her uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis) takes her in and eventually trains her to become a lethal assassin. Twenty years later, Cataleya is one of the world's deadliest women, and her attention has shifted to flushing out the men responsible for taking her family away, while balancing that with the facade of a "normal" life and her romantic involvement with artist Danny (Michael Vartan). Soon, the FBI, CIA and Don Luis are all after Cataleya, and she must use every weapon in her arsenal just to survive, if not escape her life completely.

Some people take peeping into toilets to a whole other level

As you can tell by the actors I mentioned above, there's hardly anyone of note beyond Saldana in the cast notes. While several of them are indeed talented performers and character actors, only Saldana could be considered a star, not surprising considering the heavy Latin American casting needed to make this film. It's only recently that Latin American performers have been successful in more mainstream roles, as in the past they've had to settle small, stereotypical parts or "genre" flicks with no widespread appeal. Michael Pena is one actor who has vaulted that barrier, as is Saldana, who is captivating in every scene she enters in Colombiana. Since that's almost the entire film, she had to be on for every moment, and she emotes sexuality, intensity and intelligence perfectly. She had some help from the filmmakers, as one scene with her sucking on a lollypop while performing maintenance on a firearm elegantly captures the dichotomy of her innocent childhood with her murderous adult life, but it is mostly her ability to become this dangerous character that makes her so valuable to the film in question. Running a close second is British actor Lennie James, the guy we all wanted to see more of after the series premiere of The Walking Dead. As an FBI agent tracking Cataleya's murders, James is a good alternate to leading the scenes which Saldana herself can't be part of. Cliff Curtis is also solid as Cataleya's uncle, a professional hitman who at times regrets introducing her to this life. Curtis has put up good performances in recent films Push and Sunshine, and I always like seeing him on the big screen. Michael Vartan thankfully doesn't have as much of an impact on the story as he could have; he's fine as an actor but the romance angle was overcooked from the start and predictable in its execution. Molla and Benites are campy villains, more dangerous in their off-screen doings than in anything we actually see ourselves. Most impressive on the cast might be Amandla Stenberg, who plays the young Cataleya. While I thought the opening featuring her was a bit overlong, Stenberg impressed me greatly with her ability and her character's inner strength. Easily the surprise of the entire film.

The most kick-ass girl in cinema right now

Unfortunately, there are far too few surprises in Colombiana. Despite the great acting involved, it barely makes up for the overused femme fatale construct that wrote the screenplay and made the film what it is. While the action sequences are indeed exciting thanks to director Olivier Megaton (which sounds like a rejected Transformers character), they are incredibly one-sided, and never do we believe that anything besides Cataleya's victory is possible. Besides transporting La Femme Nikita to Colombia and the US, and making the heroine of Latin descent, there is little to differentiate between Cataleya and her hit-woman predecessors. Sure, it's great that she is a strong woman from the start and wanted to grow up to be Xena, Warrior Princess, but as she develops her sociopathic tendencies one has to wonder that this is the person we're rooting for. Then again, this is the same woman who prances around in skintight catsuits with heavy weaponry, and upon doing so our self-reflective insights are lost to other imagery.

She does construction too? That is so hot.

Still, despite Colombiana's obvious issues with itself, Saldana and cast manage to create an enjoyable, thrilling and sometimes funny film out of the rendered husks of Femme Fatales past. You might want to wait on a rental, as it's only barely worth a full-priced ticket, but Cataleya is one of the few female action heroes in a world where 2010's Salt was a big deal sociologically despite being at best an okay movie. It's a shame Colombiana hasn't garnered as much attention as that Angelina Jolie piece did, but I still found myself entertained, as did a surprisingly full theater a week after it was released. If anyone deserves stardom, it's Saldana, and I can only hope that if she fails to reach that highest tier it is not the color of her skin that deprives her of it.