You already saw The Hunger Games this weekend. You don’t need my opinion of it.

Okay: it’s really good, it definitely evokes the spirit of the book, Jennifer Lawrence is clearly a little too old to play Katniss but she’s really good and there are few if any 16 year old actresses who could have done this role. All the movie forgot with the ending was the title card: “Coming next summer: Catching Fire.”

You know that movie execs have been prostrate in front of Suzanne Collins all weekend, begging her to add 5 or 15 more books to the Hunger Games trilogy.

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The previews before The Hunger Games were interesting for how the audience reacted:

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter made the audience laugh. The movie will have to be really good to overcome the audience’s reaction that this idea is too silly for words. The preview is expanded over the initial one, with more explanation of just what in the hell this movie is about.
• The new Spider-Man reminds us that it’s never too soon for a reboot! In fact, I think the reboot of The Hunger Games should be in theaters this fall. Andrew Garfield looks pretty good as Spidey. I have no idea of who the villains are or why they felt it necessary to bring Spidey back again, but I’ll probably be there.
• The Avengers preview I’ve just seen one too many times now. I don’t want to see this again before the movie comes out.
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part II… I don’t even know how to gauge the audience reaction on this one. Embarrassed giggles? People talking right through it? Explosive laughter when Kristin Stewart is eyeing the deer as a tasty, tasty snack?

 

Much has been made in the past week or two about how huge of a bomb the movie John Carter is for Disney. Like anyone here should care except Disney’s accountants. (Seriously: why do people pay so much attention to a company’s financials if they themselves don’t have a horse in the race? I can understand wanting to find out if your favorite company’s going out of business but…if that’s going to happen, a)there will be new companies to enjoy and b)they’ll send a memo around, honest.)

Forget the stupid financials. As many people pointed out, John Carter bombed because it had an amazingly sucky ad campaign. This is one of the few times that I think having the wrong ad campaign really strangled a movie in the cradle, because John Carter is a fun, goofy flick that you can take the whole family to. I’m actually really sorry that Darin and I saw it without the kids, because now one of us in two or three weeks is going to have to go see it again (if, of course, any theaters still have it).

John Carter is the story of a guy in the American Old West (whose name is…wait for it…John Carter) who finds a portal to Mars. There he discovers all manner of strange and crazy creatures, and he gets involved in the middle of a planet-wide civil war, where he promptly falls in love with Princess Dejah, who has to marry someone else. Huge epic battles! Crazy non-terrestrial machines! Mark Strong as the bad guy! (I know, right? Like that came as a huge surprise — I think he’s contractually obligated to be the bad guy in every picture these days.)

The movie isn’t deep. It’s not educational. It was a lot of fun, however. The movie rarely stops to explain anything, figuring the audience will just pick it up as we go along, and since it’s not especially layered or confusing, we do. I really liked Taylor Kitsch as John Carter — he seems like he’s having a great deal of fun, even if he does have to spend most of the movie half-undressed. (Ladies.) The female lead is nothing to write home about, but they so rarely are these days, and that’s a topic for a rant another time.

There is a lot of fighting, but all of the blood spilled is a turquoise blue, not red (which doesn’t explain why everyone is clearly red-tinted, not…oh forget about it), so I don’t think kids would be especially grossed out. There are cute alien babies and giant machines and people wearing crazy costumes. It’s a fun weekend serial.

I’m just sorry it had such a sucky trailer.

Arrietty is 14 and about to go on her first “borrowing”: accompanying her father as they go spelunking through the house they live under “borrowing” items such as sugar and tissue. Arrietty and her parents are Borrowers, who are little tiny people who live right underneath the noses of “beans” — the humans who live in the world above.

Shawn is a sickly teenaged human boy who needs to rest up before his big heart operation, and he comes to stay in the house Arietty and her family live under — and the second he arrives he notices tiny Arietty. And the cardinal rule of the Borrowers, of course is “Don’t get noticed.”

The Secret World of Arrietty comes from Studio Ghibli, which has produced Totoro (still the best…in fact, I could go watch this right now), Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo… The movie was written and produced by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (as I said to Darin, I knew it couldn’t be Miyazaki directing, because the story was too focused and coherent), and it’s really quite good: there’s a lot of tension about what’s going to happen, and there are a lot of very exciting scenes. Trust me, knowing there could be giant rats around any corner waiting to pounce: very, very exciting. The movie’s gorgeous in the typical Ghibli style.

Both kids said they enjoyed it, and Darin and I were both entertained. It was Arrietty or The Lorax and we were both deeply thrilled when the kids chose Arrietty.

Edited to add: Mike in the comments points out that the movie is based on the Borrowers book series by Mary Norton.