Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

The Hunger Games

I will admit first off that I struggled to find faults with the film. I didn’t want to come off as some fanboy whose admiration of the book transferred to the movie where obvious issues were found. I did find some minor inconveniences, but for the most part, I think this is a fine, well crafted film that has the potential to last in peoples’ minds and hearts for decades.

The story is simple, yet grim. In an act of dominance over the people who rebelled against the Capitol and brought purportedly endless strife, the remaining twelve districts of Panem are required to send one male and one female tribute to a gladiatorial arena where the 24 youngsters (they must be between ages 12 and 18) will fight to the death with the last man standing declared the winner. Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, played with assuredness by Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, guides the audience through the tumultuous selection and preparation process into the vast, forested arena that will mean the deaths of twenty-three innocent teens, some even by her own hand.

Gary Ross, whose work on Pleasantville still brings back fond memories, does well bringing the vastly different regions of Panem to life. From the coal-mining district that Katniss calls home to the garish Capitol where the Tributes will be given every special treatment before being sent to fight for their deaths. There are many things that I could say about the film, most of which must be left to my full length review, but what transpires is a brilliant dual-themed feature that highlights the destructive nature of Authoritarian governments (parallels could easily be drawn to several modern nations) and a dissection of the voyeuristic nature of reality television and its ultimate corrupting and dangerous influence. Lawrence isn’t the only actor stepping up their game for the film, the likes of Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right), Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia), singer Lenny Kravitz, Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Elizabeth Banks (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Woody Harrelson (The People vs. Larry Flynt) Toby Jones (Infamous) and the unmatched Donald Sutherland are all superb.