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Featuring: Ladee Danger

Filmed by: Joseph Pereira

I recently began going through my old belongings in an effort to clear out the excess that I’d accumulated over the years, and in doing so, I encountered a particular item that proved problematic. You see, the item in question was a 3 1/2 floppy drive, you know, the old technology that no one uses these days. I specifically remembered that I had never actually tested it – so it was highly possible that the thing wasn’t even functional to begin with. Not only that, but the drive had other flaws: it was beige (a color that most people aren’t interested in), and plus, it was wrapped in plastic wrap – a material that may conduct low amounts of static electricity. I clearly recalled wrapping it, way back when, and the idea was to protect it from dust; unfortunately, I failed to consider the damage the static electricity might do.

In any case, what this all meant was that I had a highly undesirable item that might not even work – but yet, I wasn’t the type to just throw stuff away. So instead of just popping it into the recycling bin in the hopes that the city’s services would know what to do, I figured I’d have some fun with it. The result was the following: an ad I posted on Kijiji, a classified ad site.

Here’s the text if you rather read off this page:

“Old and Most Probably Broken Floppy Drive

I offer you one of the last known survivors of a dying race, the common floppy drive. This mighty warrior has a long history of interpreting complex arrangements of 0s and 1s, the twisted language of machines. After such a illustrious career, he had but one wish in life: to die with dignity. Instead, he was found wrapped in plastic wrap, a material that may very well conduct small amounts of static electricity, the one weakness of his kind. This offer is therefore made with a certain sadness, as the aforementioned hero may not actually be alive, behind his clingy but transparent coffin. But one thing is certain, my friends… he has written, and he has read.”

The little joke resulted in some really amusing e-mails from the people that caught sight of it. One guy replied with:

“Nice. What about to send it to the garbage?”

To which I replied:

“A hero deserves a chance at rebirth, or at the very least, the finest of funerals.”

Naturally, I didn’t really care that much about the drive – but I had invested myself in the romantic tale of a dying warrior, and I figured I’d continue having fun with it. It seemed like a better alternative than just chucking it in the trash and calling it a day.

If you enjoyed this post, I highly recommend you read Understanding the Balloon.

This is one of two reviews from All Too Convenient, a project I recently cancelled. It was originally published on October 18th, 2012, and features a humor-based writing style. Hope you enjoy!

Spoiler Level: Mild

Yep, a zombie TV show – a slightly different take on a genre that’s been done to death, so to speak. When I heard about it, I liked the fact that it was a TV show, not a movie, and that it was based in Atlanta (a city I frequent yearly), so I bought the first season and got to watching. Here’s a brief description I got off Wikipedia in case you never heard of it:

The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma to find the world dominated by flesh-eating “walkers,” resembling the zombies of George A. Romero’s horror movies. He sets out to find his family and encounters other survivors along the way.

The episode starts off with the main character, Rick, looking for gas while walking through a field that’s full of broken cars. He sees plenty of overturned vehicles, a rotting corpse, an empty donut box (sorry, Rick), but not much else. It’s pretty clear that no one’s throwing a party in there, it’s silent, it’s creepy, and there doesn’t appear to be any gas around. Then he hears a sound, and eventually identifies the source: a little girl that’s slowly trudging along in a pair of bunny slippers and a bathrobe, both of which are dirty. In her left hand is a stuffed animal, but there’s one catch: Rick can’t see her face, only her back. He tries to tell her he’s friendly, and a cop, but she doesn’t react immediately. There’s a lot of screen time devoted to the sequence, and the silence plays a major role in building an ambiance. But then, the expected happens – the girl stops walking.

UH-OH, THIS SHIT’S ABOUT TO GET REAL. Message received, writers, it’s all lining up to be a shocking zombie reveal. The signs are all there: the creepy silence, the fact that the girl had her head conveniently turned away from us the whole time (while being perfectly centered in the screen), and finally, they spend a lot of screen time focusing on her. If there’s one thing I dislike, it’s predictable storylines. I remember hoping that she would turn around and have a golden retriever’s face, that way I would actually be taken aback. But instead, she turns around to reveal that she’s… wait for it… a zombie! SURPRISE. Really, guys? Why not do something creative where she’s a human, or a human that’s right about to turn into a zombie, something like that? Why do exactly what everyone expects you to do?

Well, anyway, it wasn’t long until the little girl realized that she had a sudden craving for some pork, and started shuffling forward to get her first bite. Rick, clearly disturbed by someone so young having been transformed, reluctantly (but violently) puts a hole in her forehead using his magnum. The scene then cuts to a bad computer generated (CG) death sequence, one that shows the zombie girl falling to the ground, her stuffed animal rolling away. It’s at that moment that the dramatic theme music starts, and the intro sequence for The Walking Dead begins.

As you can see, the writers were trying to show how dramatic the zombie illness was, and used a little girl as a way to shock the audience. Unfortunately, in my case, the scene was too predictable, and it took away from the realism of the show, something that I value greatly. Now, there’s something else I’d like to mention: normally, a bad CG scene can bring a potentially good show to its knees, realism-wise, but in this case, I really didn’t mind. You see, it’s not often that kids are killed on-screen, as it’s understandably a bit disturbing for people to see – even video games typically shy away from such violence (not that I, uh, tried). Therefore, I don’t mind that it was clearly a faked death sequence. As an animator, wouldn’t that be a really creepy thing to have on your resume, too? “Little girl getting shot in the face.” Dude, it’s a child.

Aside from the first scene’s predictability, I do have positive things to say about the show. First of all, it has one of the best title sequences I’ve seen, and a great soundtrack by Bear McCreary (best known for Battlestar Galactica). But also, there was a point in the episode where I genuinely thought that the main character would die, and that, ladies and gents, is not something that happens often. It also seemed that The Walking Dead had a fairly high budget, despite the bad CG scene I mentioned earlier. I won’t get into details, but I can say that both the zombies and the violence generally looked awesome.

In the end, it’s best to approach this type of show expecting a typical zombie story, because that’s pretty much what it is. It’s sometimes flawed, sometimes predictable, and sometimes impressive – a fine mix for this type of blog.

This is one of two reviews from All Too Convenient, a project I recently cancelled. It was originally published on October 13th, 2012, and features a humor-based writing style. Hope you enjoy!

Spoiler Level: Mild

I finally got around to watching Continuum in the last few days, and felt like sharing a little bit of the ridiculousness with you all. Ever since the creation of Corner Gas, I’ve been desperately awaiting the arrival of a TV-show that would allow us Canadians to regain some of our dignity. Yes, I realize that it’s a comedy, and Continuum isn’t, and I also realize some of you actually like Brent Butt‘s monstrosity of a TV-series, but can’t quite understand why that is. But, you know, to each his own. Anyway, I felt like Canada had a chance after the drunken arrival of the so-called Trailer Park Boys, and although Continuum isn’t a comedy, it’s one of the most recent examples of a Canadian show that I felt had some hope of being respected and watched beyond the border. In case you haven’t heard of it, here’s what they’re saying on Wikipedia:

When a group of rebels convicted as terrorists escape execution by fleeing from the year 2077 to 2012, Kiera Cameron, a future Vancouver law enforcement officer (called Protector), is involuntarily transported with them. In order to track them down and keep them from changing the past (and presumably future), Kiera joins the Vancouver Police Department and uses the skills of a young tech expert [to help locate and apprehend the criminals].

A high-tech “Protector” finds herself in our time, and has to cope with all of our old-school silliness while fighting a highly skilled team of evildoers. It didn’t take long for me to like the concept, but there’s this one scene at the start of the pilot that really made me roll my eyes. You see, the ass-kicking Kiera soon finds out she’ll need to go into work for one big event, the aforementioned execution. It’s at that time that we find out she has a little boy, Sam. We meet him when he walks up in his PJs, and asks his mother if she’s expecting to fight a galactic war anytime soon, or something like that. His mother crouches before him and assures him that no, everything will be fine, and soon the bad guys won’t be able to hurt anybody.

The camera then finds itself over Kiera’s shoulder, and we see the oh-so-cute little Sammy looking down at his Mom with an innocent and fragile gaze. “Do you have to go?” he asks, perhaps realizing that the galactic war would occur nonetheless, by way of TV destiny. Kiera explains that she’s simply doing her job, and little Sammy looks down at a little toy soldier he has in his hands, lifts it up, and figures he’ll do something totally adorable and predictable. He says the toy soldier is for her, and it’s in case she needs backup, which of course results in widespread AWWWs across the country. His mom smiles warmly, there’s this warm but slightly-dramatic music playing at the same time, and I can’t help but know with certainty that Sammy isn’t gonna see his mom for quite a while. Something’s gonna go down.

To me, it was very clear that they were trying to show the audience something: LOOK, KID ADORABLE, MOTHER WUV. Yes, writers and directors of Continuum, I get it. I see what you’re trying to show, but did you have to be so obvious about it? Do you think people typically have the chance to say proper goodbyes, when real tragic accidents or events occur? That’s not how real life works, in my experience, and there’s value in supporting a certain realism. The loss of Sammy could have been illustrated without spelling it out in such a way that everybody’s pets could understand it too. And that little toy soldier bit, give me a break. Ain’t it a little convenient that he whips out that little number right before his mother gets transported 65 years into the past?

We’re human! Show little Sammy in a natural, organic everyday moment with his mother, and then reveal the look on his mother’s face when she realizes that she won’t be able to see him again. To me, that’s one of the most fascinating things about acting – facial expressions, the show-but-don’t-tell method of conveying an emotion. Hell, if you want to drive the point home, just set up a scene with that little toy soldier, and have her look at it ever-so-briefly, and show her facial expression during the process. Subtle, you know? Not over-the-top by staging a scene where we all get to bathe in just how precious and fragile little Sammy is.

Oh, and in saying this, I’m talking to TV writers everywhere, not only the folks from Continuum. As a whole, Continuum remains an interesting show, and a Canadian one at that – so I’m certainly planning to continue watching. I just hope they try to stay away from moments of extreme convenience like the one I highlighted today. I want to be surprised and challenged, not placed on rails while waiting for cliché after cliché to hit me in the face.

A long time ago, I felt that perhaps I could expand into another medium. The idea was to create a web series called “All Too Convenient,” one where I reviewed TV shows and movies, me being the picky creature that I am. So I tried to make that happen, and despite some interesting lessons, it didn’t really work out. As a second attempt, I tried to simply create another blog out of it, but again, it just didn’t take. A few months after that, I tried to launch the blog again – but this time with a different approach. Rather than write in a serious fashion, I decided I’d let my humor run wild, and see how that worked. The main idea was to spend less time writing each post, and to have more fun while doing so. In that regard, I succeeded. The posts definitely had a different voice and energy to them, and it was quite liberating compared to the serious style of “Matt Refghi’s Blog.”

But yet, here we are, aren’t we? Despite that I succeeded in finding another style, the All Too Convenient blog was simply not getting updated often enough. It also prevented me from watching certain TV shows, as I felt that I should only continue with them once I’ve reviewed all episodes I’d seen. It’s not so much that I didn’t want to update it, but rather, I still felt that obsessive drive to perfect each post. Because of this, I needed to split my time between both blogs, which required twice the effort as before. Though I enjoyed writing, I didn’t want to spend multiple nights a week working on posts. Instead, I preferred getting life experiences that would easily translate into amusing posts – storytelling always came more naturally to me.

Thus, I must announce that the All Too Convenient project has been officially cancelled. It was, and still is a great idea (in my opinion) – but I haven’t found an approach that works for me quite yet. My attempts were useful in the overall learning process, though, and more importantly, it showed me that I enjoy writing with humor more than do in my serious tone. Each have their place, of course, but you can expect to see this new comedy influence more often. For example, my recent post titled “So Apparently I’m a Complete Slacker” makes use of this new voice to a certain degree – hopefully you’ll all enjoy it as much as I do.

You never know when the idea might re-surface… but for now, I feel I’m doing exactly what I need to do. If a project isn’t working, it’s important to put it down – rather than let it bring everything else to a crawl. The good news is that the two All Too Convenient posts have been migrated to this blog, and will hopefully entertain people despite the fact that their ship sunk:

• TV Review: Continuum – S01E01 – A Shift in Time
• TV Review: The Walking Dead – S01E01 – Days Gone Bye

Hope you enjoy.

I attended college at a very turbulent time in my life, and though it resulted in many negative experiences, it also provided me with great stories to laugh about and share with others. Today, I’d like to tell you about this one class that I had… I don’t remember the name, exactly, but it can be best described as a physical education class that focused on nutrition. In case you haven’t read my previous posts, I’ll set the stage by explaining that it took me somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 hours to get to the campus in the morning, and the same at night. Because of this, most of my efforts were focused on my core Computer Science classes – the others weren’t my priority, but I certainly wanted to get decent marks.

So this gym class was actually simple, but varied. We did some weight training, cardio, figured out how to plan completely balanced meals, and were even taught to calculate our levels of fat in probably the most uncomfortable way ever: we measured our fat flaps. Yep, fat flap measurement is a thing, folks – there’s a better name for it, of course, but it evades me at this moment. I’m also fairly certain that nothing can meet the eloquence of “fat flap measurement,” so I won’t bother to find the right term. You’re welcome. But, altogether, it was a standard physical education class – I liked certain things, and wasn’t totally enthusiastic with others. However, I carried the torch like a good college kid, and always felt I did a pretty decent job in that class.

Fate had another plan, it seems. In general, I get along with most people I meet – but this teacher, we’ll call him Franz, was a bit different. It’s not that I had anything against the man, but I just felt that I didn’t really connect with him like I did other teachers. In college, I always tried to know my professors to at least a basic degree. My logic was the following: if the teacher knew me, they would be less likely to give me bad marks. Now, keep in mind, I wasn’t out to deceive or give myself an unfair advantage. I simply wanted my teachers to know how my brain worked so that they would understand that deep down, I meant well, and actually cared about my results. I mean, sure, I didn’t give my 100% in non-Computer Science classes, but I was still aiming to get decent marks, so there was effort invested. And the way I saw it, it was easier to flunk a guy that they never met and seemed to keep to himself, rather than “Matt Refghi,” the guy who’s in Computer Science and who appreciated weight training, and actually cared about the class – despite keeping to himself. But, alas, Franz was a weird one to get along with… so I mostly kept to myself and did everything that was asked of me. I wasn’t getting top marks, but I was doing decently in most assignments.

Then there was this one weight training class where we had to do bench pressing, among other things. When it was my turn, I found an area that wasn’t being used, and did my reps. The teacher had said that we could take 1-2 minute breaks in between sets, and since I was particularly tired that day, I was very adamant about using that time. So I would do a set, then sit, and monitor the clock. Though I never sat idle for more than 2 minutes at a time, it seemed that Franz had a tendency look my way only when I was resting, not when I was doing my reps. At one point, he even stopped by and asked me if I was doing anything, and I assured him that I was. But he just kept looking at the wrong moments. I laughed at the luck I was having, but I knew deep down that I had done absolutely everything that I was asked, and that I had followed his rules. My timing wasn’t even slightly off, by the way – I was taking 2 minute breaks, then immediately returning to my reps – no slacking. Unfortunately, Franz always seemed to look at the wrong time.

That was the first hint of trouble, in my eyes. Then came one of the field trips – we were to hike a local mountain, and do these treasure hunt type challenges while there. Given that I lived far away from the city, I had to get up really early to leave for such an event. Still living with my parents, I went to look in their fridge to see what was available to eat. In a hurry, and having found no appealing options, I prepared something really basic: two peanut butter sandwiches. I then ventured to Montreal, and proceeded to fulfill my hiking obligations. Since I didn’t spend much time in Montreal those days, I just did a combination of metro plus taxi to get me to where I needed to go that day. (When stressed, I often prefer simplicity at a cost, rather than complicating my life with bus schedules and stuff like that.) It was a rough hike for a guy who spent most of his time staring into a computer (especially back then), but I did it… even if it involved plenty of back and forth to wear us out. At lunch, the whole class got together to eat at a particular location on the mountain. Satisfied with my progress, I chewed like the triumphant computer nerd that I was, but then caught sight of Franz’s face.

Peanut butter sandwiches, two of them. Remember how I said Franz taught us NUTRITION? What’s nutritious about a lunch that comprises solely of two peanut butter sandwiches? Just from his expression, I understood: in that small moment, he had proof that I had not applied the stuff he taught in his class (building a nutritionally balanced meal). Once again, I proceeded to have a laugh internally, and tried to just shrug it off. I completed the day’s tasks, and arrived home where I plugged myself straight back into that glowing box. But you know what? I completed the hike, that day – Franz or not.

Then… the marks came in. Know what I got? 60%. SIXTY. PERCENT. You know, the lowest possible passing grade. I knew for a fact that I deserved to have more than that – after all, I remembered most of my grades from my assignments. In an effort to understand, I thought to back to where it could have gone wrong, and I always came back to the weight lifting incident, and the double peanut butter lunch. In those moments, he probably felt that he understood the essence of my being – a guy who didn’t really care, and just did whatever he needed to do to pass. He misunderstood, of course, but I began to see the 60% as what it probably was: Franz giving me the bird. He probably knew that he couldn’t fail me because I had the good grades, but he didn’t want me to do well either. There’s such significance in that specific grade; he made me pass, but only that… not a trickle more.

I was absolutely certain that I didn’t deserve such a shitty grade… but I was tired of fighting. I had way too much stress in my life back then, and my papers at home weren’t all that organized. The college allowed students to dispute their grades, but it was a gamble of sorts – three teachers would re-evaluate the grades, and a new grade would be elected. If the three teachers agreed that the grade should be lower, that would be the law. I had previously filed a dispute for another class, and it took my grade from a high 60 to a mid 80 – so I was confident in my instincts. But unfortunately, I wasn’t organized enough to gather all of my old assignments from that class, and I was stressed enough as it was, so I never disputed it. I also knew that my effort wasn’t as significant as it would have been for a core Computer Science class, so the potential gain was only about 10-15%. Still, to this day, whenever I see the list of my grades, I picture a tiny Franz next to the 60%, flipping me off. As always, it’s always better to laugh about such things – can you imagine the chances of him always seeing the worst possible moments of my performance? This world’s hilarious, at times.

Photo credit

First photo by Scott Adams.

Second photo by Jason Lengstorf.

Third photo by yaybiscuits123.

Fourth photo by Eamon Curry

Like many creatures of the web, I’ve been known to watch YouTube videos every now and then. For the last year or so, I’ve noticed something strange going on with Google’s advertising approach within YouTube. Initially, I just thought I was witnessing a mistake that their developers made, and I waited to see when they’d fix the issue. To my surprise, that day never came – so today, I’m going to describe the problem, as I perceive it. Let’s start with a screenshot:

Notice the message to the bottom right? It says “you can skip to video in,” and then has a countdown, in seconds. There’s nothing wrong with such an approach – in fact, it allows me to move my mouse to where I’ll have to click. When the countdown ends, here’s how the message box changes:

Do you notice anything different? The “Skip Ad” button is smaller, vertically. Why does this matter, you ask? Well, here’s the thing: sometimes, when I go to click the “Skip Ad” button, I find that I accidentally click the ad – not the button. How? Well, when the message changes to “you can skip to video,” I, as a user, usually move my mouse over the box, and eagerly await the moment it becomes clickable. The first few times I did this, I hovered my mouse pointer over it, and proceeded to click the box repeatedly, in anticipation. When it actually became clickable, it turned out that my mouse was hovering over the part that disappeared, and before I knew it, I had accidentally clicked the ad. If you’re doubting the significance of the box’s transformation, consider this comparison:

We’re not talking a minor difference here. A good ~40% of the “you can skip to video” box is lost, and instead the ad gains that territory. At first, I saw it as an attempt by Google to get more clicks – even though those clicks were most probably low in value. After all, if I click something accidentally, it’s extremely unlikely that I will be interested in the result of that click. And if it wasn’t about getting more clicks, then why did the box change size? As a company who (understandably) seems to put so much value into its advertisers, why would they do this? It was definitely an interesting question, to me, as it even had an impact on YouTube’s usability.

So I looked into it, and discovered that YouTube ads of that variety (Standard InStream Ads) were not being charged per click (CPC), and thus, the problem I noted above wasn’t as severe as it could have been. Still, I wondered why Google would make a design choice that would open the door to accidental clicks? After all, isn’t the amount of a clicks an important metric in the performance of an ad? Their documentation certainly brings attention to it (emphasis added):

Reporting Metrics

• Video Impressions
• Video Click Through
• 50% Midpoint Plays
• 100% Complete Plays

But, in the end, I’m certainly not an expert in Google’s advertising practices – so I could be wrong about this being a negative thing. Still, I’ll continue to wonder … so if anyone out there knows the truth, do let me know – I’m really curious. Oh, and you know what’s particularly interesting about this? YouTube’s new iOS app doesn’t have this problem – see the screenshots below. Could it have something to do with a mouse being more precise than touch? Fascinating question, in my opinion.

Now that I’ve dipped into the topic of Halloween, here’s a picture of me getting kicked by a guy in a SWAT costume:

Notice how I’m still holding a glass, despite being cuffed? I’m dressed as Julian from Trailer Park Boys, a character who always walks around with a glass of liquor. Even in the most ridiculous scenarios, he’ll keep his glass in hand. Given my hair color and overall body type, I felt I could do his character justice – the result can be seen below.

And finally, here’s a really specific reference to first Trailer Park Boys short that was ever created (which was in black and white). Important: While I’m pointing a toy gun at a cat, I am not advocating violence towards animals – those who saw the short will understand.

Some of you may remember that I wanted to expand into TV and movie reviews, with video as a delivery format. The idea was to have a review show named “All Too Convenient,” but despite some effort, I never seemed to find the right approach. It wasn’t a total loss, however, as it resulted in one YouTube video that detailed the experience. Today, I’d like to reveal another product of “All Too Convenient” experiments: a written review of The Hunger Games. I originally published it on April 20th, 2012, but it didn’t take long for me to pull the plug. It’s a good review, in my opinion, but I felt it took me too long to write, and I already had one blog that I needed to think about. To put it simply, the approach simply didn’t feel right, and I didn’t think it would be sustainable. Rather than let it disappear into nothingness, I thought I’d post it on this blog so it can at least be read by those that are interested. Enjoy!

Spoiler Warning: The review below should only be read after having seen The Hunger Games, as it contains massive spoilers. It was written for people who like to read an in-depth analysis after seeing a movie.

I approached The Hunger Games with no prior knowledge of the book, having never even seen a trailer. Instead, my introduction was from the movie poster, and a brief description. The premise reminded me of Battle Royale, a Japanese film that had students killing other students, controversial, as you can imagine. My only hope was that it would not follow the same formula, and instead provide a richer back story. In this regard, I was not disappointed. The Hunger Games story did manage to set itself apart from anything I’ve seen before. However, at a certain point, the movie took a turn for the worse, in my opinion.

It all started when the rules were changed to allow two people from the same district to win. This, in turn, triggered a romance, and in my opinion, it didn’t make much sense. Allow me to illustrate what I mean.

First off, consider the overall brutality of these Hunger Games, and how they have remained the way they are for a while. Early on, Katniss and Gale discuss the possibility of not going to the games, to help stop them from being successful. But the conclusion is that this would never work, at least from Gale’s perspective. The Hunger Games seem to be backed by many years of rituals and has an established procedure by which it functions. I found that the rules themselves were a big part of establishing a genuine sense of fear, allowing me to relate to the characters. So isn’t it a bit odd that the rules would change so easily, just because Katniss somehow triggered a riot in district 11? Seemed strange, at least to me. If I knew more about the previous Hunger Games, it might make more sense – perhaps they’ve done stuff like that in the past.

Either way, it made the Hunger Games producers (in the story) look like they weren’t really confident in what they were doing, almost like they were making emotional decisions rather than sticking with the proven procedures. Raw brutality is more interesting to me, because you can’t negotiate with it – survival instincts have to kick in. Peeta’s crush complicated things, for sure, and I wanted to see what Katniss would do about that. I was hoping for a creative ending that would suggest to the world that the games should be terminated. For example, Katniss is the only one left, and kills herself before she is released from the arena. That would make people think, especially if she said a few words prior to doing so, to clarify her motivations.

But, what can I say, the romance thing happened. What confused me the most was that she seemed particularly resistant to Peeta in the train, and yet, he had done something to help her, by tossing her the bread. Yes, it was similar to tossing bread to a pig, so it kind of degraded her, but still, he was helping in a desperate time. Katniss seemed pretty interested in Gale, and yet, as soon as the producers announce that the two people can win, from the same district, she immediately runs off to Peeta. She didn’t seem particularly interested in Peeta up until that point, at least not in a romantic way – but he was a friend from her own district. I can understand having an attachment to someone you know, but soon enough, she’s kissing him and all that. I guess you can say that the pressure of the game may have lowered her own resistance to Peeta’s affections. After all, when there’s a chance at love when all you have is death, why not opt for it? Well, for one, opting for it means you’re playing into what the audience wants, and as such, you’re kind of selling out. And what about Gale? It was pretty obvious that there was something there. It all seemed a bit too rushed, to me. If she had more time with Peeta, and was less resistant to him from the start, then yeah, I would have an easier time buying it. But no, it seems a desperate situation allows one to quickly eliminate such hesitation.

I also noticed two moments where characters made speeches before they actually took an action. I recognize that a lot of movies do this, but I’m not a fan. The best example is when Katniss was pinned by an enemy girl, and she brags about how they finally caught her, killed Rue, and now she’s next. Oooooooooo, scary. Then, of course, another tribute makes use of the conveniently long speech to pull her off of Katniss, and kills her in the name of Rue. While I liked that he did it in her honor, how did he know that Katniss was friends with her? Was he stalking them at one point? That question, in itself, is not a problem, but it did make me wonder. As for the dramatic speeches, they always make me roll my eyes. In this case, specifically, we’re talking life and death, with a very thin line in between. Why risk any time making a stupid speech? Once you have a chance to eliminate a threat that is looking to kill you, you don’t mess around, especially not after a big frantic fight where any person could have won. Survival instinct takes over, and the ego takes a back seat.

Having survived that close encounter, Katniss lives on to heal Peeta, and then they eventually had to deal with the finale. You know, those large beasts that looked like dogs. The cruel producers spawned a few copies of those just to spice up the action, while Katniss and Peeta rush to the structure at the center of the arena. When they get there, they climb onto the roof, and realize that another boy is up there. He and Peeta get in a fight, and there’s this big dramatic moment where the boy asks Katniss to kill him, so that Peeta can die too. I wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but Katniss shot the boy without Peeta falling with him. The dogs were happy to feast on his body for a few seconds, and then Katniss put him out of his misery. As soon as he died, the dogs lost interest, and wandered off. I found this particularly odd, as they still had two live targets on the roof. Just moments earlier, they were pretty interested in eating them, too. What changed? Surely, it couldn’t be the smell of blood, as the boy’s body had plenty. It made me think that perhaps the producers had called off their beasts, as the winners had been selected. Katniss and Peeta then have no problem jumping off the structure, despite the events that just occurred. I would have taken some time to catch my breath, and would have stayed in the vantage point, just in case.

I must also mention that I disliked some of the action scenes, as the camera work seemed particularly disorienting. With all the camera movement, the action was barely discernible – I would have liked a little more clarity into what was happening. Not a deal breaker in itself, but something I felt I should mention. As a whole, I liked the desperate brutality of The Hunger Games, and I felt that the initial rush for the weapons was particularly well done. It was a psychological exercise, and I enjoyed that. They did create an interesting universe, one that I hope to learn more about in future films, if they are made. There was a clear contrast between the rich, who were colourful, and the poor, who were not. There’s something to be said about that, and I feel that the film could have explored the political reasoning behind the existence of the Hunger Games.

In the end, I have to wonder if Katniss recognized the romantic potential as a tool for getting out alive. Perhaps she acted her part knowing that it would increase their chance at survival. It was all about sponsors, and gathering public approval, after all. I’d like to think that she was that intelligent, but without having read the books, I can’t conclude this. I recall a moment where she was speaking with her mentor, at the end, and he explained to her that she made the producers angry. This is probably the best proof against my theory, as I would have expected her to know that. Clearly, in that last scene where she and Peeta considered killing themselves, she must have realized that it was going to cause problems. Interestingly, this scene flew very close to being exactly what I had hoped, a suicide that would mark the games for what they are – an exercise in needless brutality, where there can be no true winner.

As you probably noticed, I’ve been mainly commenting on the story, without addressing the technical aspects of the film. This is because I was largely satisfied with the visuals, the audio, and the performances. I was specifically impressed with Jennifer Lawrence‘s portrayal of Katniss, as well as Elizabeth Banks‘ portrayal of the bizarre Effie Trinket. Woody Harrelson and Lenny Kravitz also did well in bringing their characters to life, so I’ll give them that. As I mentioned earlier, I have some problems with certain decisions made by the director, and clearly, I’m conflicted about the story. But aside from that, The Hunger Games is still a movie I can recommend to most people, flaws and all.

Rating: 7/10

Transcription

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Credits

Filmed by: Joseph Pereira