I Finally Saw It!

Dave and I had another movie date.  If you recall, the last one we saw was 21 Jump Street and it blew my socks off!  I knew we would be hard pressed to beat that movie date, but we went anyway.  I wanted to see The Dictator because it looks horribly hilarious, but Dave thought we should see Hunger Games before it's out of theaters.

We both read the books and I agreed we should go to the theater and get the whole experience.  I knew it was going to be long, two and a half hours, and that's always tough for me.   I hate sitting in one spot for that long and if the movie sucks, I start thinking of all the other things I could be doing with this amount of babysitter time.

Ten minutes into the show, I start  thinking this may have been a bad decision.  The content of the movie was fine.  The setting looked about like what I'd pictured and the story was very near that of the book, but there was one huge problem.  I could barely see what was happening on the screen because the camera man was having the worlds longest epileptic seizure.  I hate this "effect"!

I first noticed Hollywood's newest obsession with jiggly camera work on the second Bourne Identity movie.  If Jason Bourne ran, the camera man ran.  If Jason was riding driving on a  bumpy road, the camera was bouncing all over the place.   Nothing was steady, nothing was focused.  I think we are supposed to feel like we're really in on all the action when they do this, but I think it's cheap and easy and that's the only reason it's used.  Nothing has to look good because no one will ever see it.  Matt Damons stunt double could have been Dogg the Bounty Hunter and I would never have noticed, because every action scene was a big, bouncing blur.  I hate it.  It almost makes me feel sick.

I had to ride on a school bus with a bunch of Kindergartners last week and I experienced the same sensation.  Everything was very loud and bumpy and I wanted to barf.  Yes, this is a good way to explain it.  Car sick!!!!!  I was so bummed out that I paid to watch two plus hours of fast paced car sickness.

We stuck it out and watched the entire movie, but that camera man kind of wrecked it for us.  After the show, on the drive home, we were joking about how stupid that camera effect is and we both guessed that Hollywood will award this movie with a "Best Cinematography" award.  I know they are going to make two more movies for the other books and I hope they stop shaking the camera like crazy.  I swear that my 3 year old could have been steadier and that is a huge problem for me. 

Final review, fairly good movie...........from what I could see.  I do wish I'd gone to see The Dictator instead.  I'm way more interested in paying to see something low brow and hilarious.