The official trailer for The Hunger Games was released today and while it had a lot of the Internet buzzing with excitement, I was not impressed. The costumes and sets seemed less than the epic images conjured up in the book, the tone was not nearly dark enough and the casting choices still seem totally bizarre (with the odd exception of Lenny Kravitz, who for some strange reason might just work). I'm concerned that the greatness of the film will simply be the greatness of the story, and in that case, why not just tell people to read the freakin' book? I'm all for the cinematic interpretations of great literature, but I always hope for them to be great films as well. Hunger Games is incredibly visual and there is a lot that can be, should be, on the screen. I'm just not so sure that it is.
The actual cut of the trailer didn't help matters much either. They seemed to worry about spoiling anything, stopping short of the games actually beginning...and yet I could not help but feel that the trailer was only for those of us who has in fact read the book already. I have always been fascinated by the distopian world of this story and here it is merely glossed over. I wonder if a casual viewer who saw this trailer in the theaters would ever truly understand what the games are. So if it isn't for the non Hunger Games reader but it also isn't exclusively for fans of the book, then, well, I'm at a loss. I hope this intended audience issue is just a trailer thing, and that the film itself knows exactly what it is.
Despite all of these things, I'm holding out hope for the film because, let's face it...I'm going to see it anyway. Maybe Jennifer Lawrence will be so good at being a different kind of Katniss that I will except that she isn't the "right" kind, and maybe the games themselves will be so stunning, gruesome and emotional that I'll totally be entranced. Maybe they just got all the crappy stuff out of the way. That's what I'm going with. Because I would really like it not to suck.
Check out the trailer here:
I actually kind of dig the trailer. I'm not at all sold on Lenny Kravitz though. I think Wes Bentley looks more how Cinna is supposed to look.
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