The Hunger Game movie comes out in
theaters today and even though the movie is a quality production,
most fans claim to be a little disappointed, or 'hungry for more' as
many movie critics wittily wrote. Did the promotion material gave a
wrong impression of what the movie was going to be?
I have seen a lot of blog posts, mostly
by women writing excitedly about this new movie and its female
characters. The need for a complex and empowering female character is
a reality for teenage girls who are exposed to romantic movies
portraying young girls focusing on relationships – which creates a
lot of pressure when these characters are approached as role models.
However, the Hunger Game is still a
super-production. The young girl who portrays the main character has
been selected according to Hollywood's standards for actresses and
might not be very convincing. She is not ruining the movie with her
performance, but the unimaginative direction and the poor dialogue do
not make her job easier. The empowering values of the Hunger Game
books were not successfully represented in this blockbuster, probably
because it belongs to a genre I like to call the 'modern teenage
epic'. Think Harry Potter, Twilight or Narnia. These major
productions are directed by people who have a very stereotypical view
of teenagers – but the marketing is definitely a success. The
disappointed reactions following the release of the Hunger Games
makes me wonder if this is the end of this genre, or at least a
wake-up call for producers.
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