Re: What was the last movie you watched?
I personally find the Hunger Games extremely bland and lacklustre. I read the first part of the first book, and although it wasn't bad it still failed to captivate me. I also watched the first movie, and it's just.... dull. You already know Katniss is going to win before the film started. And the numerous plot-holes: The whole Tracker-Jacker Nest thing (which is painfully Deus ex Machina), the fact nobody questions how Katniss is such an amazing archer despite the fact weapons are supposed to be banned in District 12, and Peeta's disguise/camouflage, which is just downright ridiculous (and made even worse by the fact he supposedly gained his expertise from decorating cakes. How, exactly, do you get a job like that in a place where people have to hunt squirrels with bows and arrows to survive?!). Also, how Katniss spends hours collecting flowers
Spoiler (click to read)
and arranging them around Rue's dead body, even though there are about half-a-dozen heavily armed homicidal teenagers in close proximity who hate her guts and are doing their utmost to kill her.
But what bothered me most is how "normal"/everyday the Hunger Games are portrayed to be. This is one of the few movies where I would actually want more violence. There's barely any blood, and if there was any the excessive shaky-cam made me so dizzy I didn't see any. If there was more violence, it would show how horrifying the Hunger Games are supposed to be, but it seems that nobody making the film had the guts (pardon the pun) to actually give it more violence--and in typical Hollywood fashion makes it PG-13/12A so they can sell more tickets. This is supposed to be a political satire, but there is basically nothing satirical, or it's so watered-down there's nothing left. Everybody acts like the Hunger Games are like any other sporting event or competition, to the point where it makes me involuntarily think of "Cake or Death" ("Death, death, death, lunch, death, death, death, afternoon tea..."). Which, if you think about it, is actually a lot more horrifying than having excessive violence, because they're basically implying it's perfectly normal and OK to kill kids. Of course, given that the Hunger Games have been happening a long time, I suppose it isn't unlikely that many people do view it as another sporting event, but the fact that we're not shown how nasty this actually is misses what is apparently the entire point of the film.
Although, then again, maybe I'm just biased because I've always disliked the Hunger Games, since it's basically a book about kids killing other kids being marketed to kids.
By the way, if you want to see "flawed" female action-heroes/protagonists done very well, I'd recommend watching the 2010 TV show Nikita, which has several main characters who are women. The rather cringe-worthy tagline aside ("Looks do kill") it's a really good show, and does a great job of portraying female characters in a balanced and realistic way. One of the things I actually like most about it is how there is pretty much an even ratio of male-female characters, and how they're balanced really well.
&Smeagol make the most of being surrounded by single, educated women your own age on a regular basis in college
AquaMorph I dunno women are expensive
I know it was already 2 hours, but a lot of the movie went by pretty quickly, and some parts could have really used more screen time and explanation/introduction/etc. Also, the part where the tour guide is talking about the spiders didn't really work, since it most movies tour guides are there for background noise while the students talk about something important, and I missed what the guide was saying which was kind of important to where Peter got his powers from. And it would have been nice for Spiderman to have made more quips while fighting.
