4. The Hunger Games
I wasn't a real fan of this film from a variety of points of view, I never read the books, and my expectation of the timing of it's release was opportunistic of a market deprived of Harry Potter and Twilight. However, I did give it a look and found it generally entertaining. It accomplished what I was not expecting, an emotional response. So in effect, it did what it was supposed to, even if that emotion was still anger. I can muster respect for films that get a rise out of me in terms of extreme representations of what could happen to us. This film on the other hand drove me mad because I couldn't ever come to accept any terms where we as a society ever place our children in such dire harm. I'm also that guy that can rationalize killing one person to save five under a variety of principles given by world renowned psychologist, Kevin Dutton, (my former military profile also stated the same thing). "This is a movie Camacho! Stop being a pretentious prick" I can hear you all yelling into your laptop mics. True, but films are supposed to make us feel something, right? So why is it that hard science says I can relate to this situation, yet abhor its interpretation in film? Probably because I have two children. In essence, it makes me feel more toward the characters than anything else, because I see my daughters in their place. Some of you might be saying, "Wait, wait, wait...but Battle Royale came first as was far more vicious." and I'd agree, but if any of you reading are also anime, j-drama, or even k-drama fans (live action Japanese or Korean Dramas) chances are you are already used to that style of storytelling, which is derived from Anime's need to convert children into heroes, warriors, saviors, villains...etc. Hunger Games is not based in those themes, it takes itself quite seriously, not to say some of those JDramas are not serious, but they're not comparable apples-to-apples in the same vein of emotional content. The film itself was well done, with many characters carrying themselves appropriately over the top as caricatures of themselves. Parker Posey and Stanley Tucci did this with amazing flair, and I hate to say that my mind wandered to a memory of the Running Man's Damon Killian in comparison to Tucci's Ceaser Flickerman. However with a sequel on the horizon, this is, in effect, a film of deep imbalance with society. I'm eager to see the films move forward toward the revolutionary aspect of the storylines, and I am curious to see the impacts their society are taking from that oncoming storm.