I Can Think Of At Least Two Things Wrong With The Title Of "The Hunger Games"

I'm gonna head this off at the pass before it gets brought up; I haven't read the books, I don't care if they were "better" than the movie, I don't care if it explores the characters better. I don't care. Lately the hot ticket has been movie adaptions of incredibly popular books and series marketed directly at fans of the books. This wasn't always the case. Did you know Fight Club was a book before it was a movie? Yeah, true story. The movie has to be one of my favourite films of all time yet I haven't read the book, because I don't need to, because they are two separate pieces of art. Film is a different medium to books, with different strengths, weaknesses and approaches. A good adaption stands alone from the material it was derived from. With that in mind, let's review The Hunger Games, shall we?

The Hunger Games is a beautiful film to be bitchy about, because it did a lot of little things badly. Overall it was an enjoyable film, and by all means I encourage you to see it if you have nothing better to do, but it's the little things that prevent me from saying it was actually "good." It was shot quite nicely, especially the archery scenes. I liked how personal it felt when Katniss shot arrows, in such a way that it wasn't mechanical, nor aggressive. The close angles and avoiding the whole "camera following the arrow really fast" gimmick really gave you a sense of control and calm that reflects Katniss' personality. And on the subject of Katniss, can I get a hell yeah for positive female role models? Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss Everdeen (what a stupid fucking name) was a high point for me, largely because of the fine balance she struck between vulnerability and strength. It would have been very easy to portray her as an aloof ice-queen, but instead Lawrence gives the character incredible depth. Her Katniss is incredibly warm and almost maternal in her interactions with her younger sister and later a young tribute in the arena, strong and independent in hunting/battle scenes and awkward yet oddly endearing in personal scenes, especially with the character Peeta. The result is that she comes off like a real person, with complex underlying motivations, opinions and feelings. She's scared shitless of what she faces, but isn't a whiny bitch about it. Admittedly near the end the movie drops the "strong female character" ball, but that's a fault of the writing and not the performance.

That ball-dropping is one of the major issues I had with the film, however. Pretty much up until the final quarter of the movie, Katniss is everything you could want in a female heroine. Strong enough to go toe to toe with any other competitor, never in thrall to some dude, never a damsel in distress even when she is in distress... then Peeta is wounded and oh, what's that? She loves him now? Since fucking when? You just spent the entire previous part of the movie establishing that she doesn't feel about Peeta the way he feels about her, that she has a guy she likes back home, that she's a strong independent woman who don't need no man, but then suddenly, for no reason other than he apologises for something awful he did to her in the past (I won't explain what that is but it was seriously a dick move), oh shit, love happens. I shit you not, it's like the writers realised that they had written themselves into a corner in that there was no obvious resolution to this weird romantic subplot they tried to shoehorn in, so they just defaulted to her falling in love with the only dude in the area that wasn't trying to kill her. She had quite literally tried to kill him in the previous act for professing to have a crush on her. I'm not saying that her character would never fall in love, we had previously established how empathetic she can be, but the way the romance was established and executed was... well, it was a detriment to an otherwise incredibly strong character.

When I said the movie was shot well, that doesn't mean it necessarily looked good all the time. Any scene with CGI looked about as smooth and elegant as the fucking Phantom Menace, which is pretty much unforgivable in 2012. The outside shots of the airships looked so out of place to the organic feel of the trees and woods that surrounded them, the futuristic city was had no depth or feel in panoramic shots and seriously, how hard is it to make a convincing flame effect these days? The two scenes that involved clothes with flames on them looked like a friggin' 1st year computer animation student's last-minute-final assignment. For a movie with such hype and budget, it was disappointing to say the least.

Speaking of aesthetic inconsistencies, this movie has a love affair with them. I'm more than willing to accept the whole "it's the future and people dress weird" thing, but why then do Woody Harrelson's and Christopher Plummer's characters dress really... normally? Everyone around them is dressed in clothes of weird colours and cuts, with both genders slathered in foppish makeup, yet two of the main characters that you see quite regularly dress in modern-day suits and waistcoats. Why? Why would those clothes be available in this clearly very bizarre time? It just makes them look... well, out of place, really. Despite being experienced denizens of this future world, their costumes don't reflect it. That's a very specific nitpick but I just can't believe it fell through the cracks. Even Wes Bentley's character dresses tastefully, albiet with a weird beard design, so I guess it's OK? Maybe? The food was strangely schizophrenic as well, flitting between weird futuristic pastel coloured goops and more standard, traditional fare like fish and roast chicken, although food doesn't evolve like fashion, so it's probably not a fair and equivalent bitch.

I'd like us all to admit right now that shakey-cam fight scenes are the worst kind of fight scenes. "But Last Whiny Man! They give you a sense of being in the battle! It's immersive and you feel every clang of the swords!" Hey, guess what? Go fuck yourself. It's not fucking immersive when I'm sitting in an uncomfortable chair, sipping watered down Coke Zero and getting dizzy because I can't focus on any action whatsoever. The final battle on the Cornucopia (I did like that they used that word, then designed a giant metal one... that was nice) is a particularly seizure-inducing clusterfuck. Three people in a space that couldn't be more than 5 square metres and the camera is still flying around like a housefly on PCP. I literally had no idea what was happening to who until it abruptly stops so Katniss, Peeta and obligatory-Aryan-beefcake-villain Kato can have a Mexican standoff. Then Kato, a trained killing machine from birth, who has joked about killing children earlier in the movie, gets his first piece of character development to tell us that he's dead inside? What? You spent absolutely no time establishing his character as anything but heartless killing machine, then expect us to accept that he actually feels remorse and now doesn't want to win The Hunger Games, the exact thing he's been trained to do since birth. Sorry dude, no sale.

Also, what the fuck is the point of making a "game" out of something where oustide entities can assist players? If people like players enough, they can send them shit to help them win... so wouldn't the favourites always win (assuming no freak accidents or the favourites just sucking at staying alive)? It makes no sense.

So yeah, a few glaring faults, sure, but other than everything I just mentioned, the movie is a pretty fun time. Definitely not in the "great" pile, but certainly not in the "suck" pile.

Soundwave 2012: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Yep, it's that time again. First, the good.

With the exception of Dream On, Dreamer, every band I saw played an excellent set. I'm sure Dream On, Dreamer's fans thought they did an excellent job, but metalcore is not my scene and I despise the stupid straightened-hair-and-fringe look so I suppose I'm a tad biased against them. Saves The Day were pretty shameless in their use of one of the best albums ever (the first 40 minutes of their set was Weezer's Pinkerton in its entirety) to promote their relatively bland emo-pop, but they played it pretty respectfully so they are forgiven. Gojira and Meshuggah were tight and mercilessly heavy, In Flames were a pleasant surprise for a skeptic, Mastodon remain a favourite for anyone who likes their metal to be interesting and Slipknot were at their most camp, over the top best. The act who takes the day was, as they always are, The Dillinger Escape Plan, whose destructive antics were matched only by the incredible tightness with which they played. Most disappointing show goes to headliners System Of a Down, who played a functional but relatively uninteresting set. Great songs, sure, but nothing to write home about.

The inevitable bad.

The Perth organisers of Soundwave 2012 must have been huffing some sort of industrial solvent, because changing the timetable after the program has been printed, then changing it again the evening before is, without a doubt, the most retarded shit any organisers could pull. It was effectively impossible to properly plan your day and led to people missing the first few songs of bands they wanted to see all day. You dropped the ball, you pack of spastics, don't do it again.

Although it was no-one's fault, the heat put something of a damper on proceedings, with my pale companion getting some vicious sunstroke. To be fair, it's partly his own fault for drinking nothing but Coke and Lift all day when water was free, plentiful and better for you, but I'm not a complete arsehole.

Now, the serious part, the ugly.

I understand that working security is a tough gig. I understand the pay isn't great and you have to deal with drunk idiots. I understand you're under some pretty strict instructions to not let anyone get on stage and to eject potential trouble makers. I get it. But seriously, don't be a dick, security guys. If the band says to let a guy come on stage, just let him. Seriously, it's one guy. If a guy is getting rowdy, don't four of you jump on him and start kicking him while he's on the ground. That probably won't calm him down. Quite the opposite, in fact. Security is (to my understanding, at least) about keeping people secure, not giving fans a hard time just for getting excited. Chill the fuck out, guys.