Shaky cam for the loss. Nothing pisses me off more than shaky camera work. We spend millions of dollars on research to figure out how to film movies better and then we hand a camcorder to some asshole and tell him to run around with it while filming. Okay, so it’s not as shitty as Cloverfield was in terms of camera stability, but it is still really bad.
Every scene is as zoomed in as it can possibly get, which sucks an ass because there are so many awesome costumes and outfits they have the characters wearing and you never really get to see them. It makes me wonder why they bothered hiring someone to make costumes in the first place if they were planning on filming the movie this way. If you thought Transformers sucked when seventy-five tons of steel roared by the camera and you couldn’t tell what the hell was even going on, you’ll be right at home hating this movie. Same god damn thing–characters roll past the camera and you can’t tell what’s happening in the scene. I assume the filmmakers thought it would lend a certain sense of urgency to the action–IT DOES NOT! It lends a certain sense of I just wasted money wanting to see this raging pile of shit and thanks to poor decisions by the creative staff I can’t even tell what I’m watching to begin with.
There was also zero character development outside of the primary actors. The little black girl who dies? I couldn’t have cared less because they didn’t bother to develop her character into something I gave two shits about. You literally get to see her twice for a total of ten seconds prior to Katniss saving her ass and then promptly not saving her ass five minutes later when she dies. Who. Cares.
My final complaint is “May the odds be ever in your favor.” Tag line, right? Seems fine. It’s used twice within five minutes. Then more as the movie goes on. The overuse of the saying reduces it to the realm of campy and stupid in a movie that’s not trying to be campy or stupid.
On the up side, Stanley Tucci was awesome, but that doesn’t surprise me and it shouldn’t surprise you either. The movie really is a shame because I could see what they wanted to do with it, they just never got there. The acting is decent and had the cinematography been worth a damn I would easily give the movie an above average rating. Unfortunately, someone didn’t get fired in time to save this mess and the movie descends into the realm of hard, unrelenting suck because of it.
One star.