Taking down individuals for a sport needs to have some type of logical reasoning behind it. Whether it is over beliefs, religion or some moral consensus, hunting individuals down would be unequivocally frowned upon in today’s society. The Hunt seeks to mirror the events that occur within modern America yet fails to properly institute any proper conviction due to a bland story and an overbooking of social satire.
Everyone seeks to choose their own sides in society whether you refrain or involve yourself in the government’s tactics, and that is fine. Nothing makes sense in this film’s storyline as you have to go apolitical and just acknowledge all the explosions and dead bodies that fly carelessly around. The political nature that is subtly spelled out is very spry and shallow to the point it’s better off not even thinking about it.
The film’s main premise is a group of wealthy white folks (or elite liberals) kidnap several Southern Americans (or conservatives) and hunt them down. They wake up in the first act in a field with muzzles on their faces and a large crate containing multiple weapons for their usage. Immediately after, it becomes a chaotic dogfight with multiple traps and instant deaths. Getting attached to most of these characters become impractical as the film considers a more satirical tone throughout.
It pushes the idea that if you fight against something that doesn’t exist for long enough, it’ll come to light in a much more murderous fashion. The Hunt doesn’t speak to another provoking ideology many share other than online cultures and fake news. Speaking of satire, this film pulls out all the stops and whistles with a mediocre result of laughs and dead silence. Gags of NPR, “actors” floating around and an Avatar reference when a guy gets shot with an arrow is very odd and tasteless. Almost as if the screenwriters needed a coffee break multiple times just to decide how they could make this humorous on some level.
Director Craig Zobel makes a film that is negligent with its action pieces, acknowledges the presence of political beliefs and cracks some corny jokes that sound as if they were consolidated from the 2000s. The only memorable aspect of it is the character of Crystal (played by Betty Gilpin). She is remarkable here, going for enjoyable physical interactions with others and commanding the screen with a sense of awareness. If she doesn’t land the primary role as the star of some franchise, this writer will indeed be shocked.
The film serves to entertain, but also spread a message. It goes too far in trying to satiate as a satirical feature for the audience and moves too quickly with little thought on political standards. Betty Gilpin is the only thing salvaging about this feature. Other than that, you would be better off staying at home away from this film, similar to the COVID-19.
