The Hunger Games - A Review
First and foremost, let me say that I have never read The Hunger Games.
When I first heard about it sometime in late 2009 or early 2010, my mind immediately went to Battle Royale, a Japanese novel-turned-film-turned-manga series by Koushun Takami. The story takes place in a dystopian future and focuses on a group of high schoolers who are kidnapped and thrown into an event simply known as "the Program". Basically, they all have to kill each other using a variety of weapons in a multitude of climates until one person survives and is declared the victor. Now, to rant about the similarities in the subject matter would be beating a dead horse at this point. Hell, if you google Battle Royale, one of the search suggestions is some variation of "Battle Royale vs. Hunger Games". But when I had first heard of The Hunger Games, I didn't want anything to do with it because of these apparent similarities.
But after a while, I realized that's kind of stupid.
Before I move onto the actual movie review, I'll just say that while the two stories do share some similarities, the execution and the overall message differs quite a bit from one another. Battle Royale speaks more on the violent tendencies of man and their inherent desire to destroy. The Hunger Games speaks more on the dangers of an authoritarian state and what that environment creates. Plus, the kids in Battle Royale had no idea what the tournament was before being sprung into it and haled from a universe that is slightly more relatable to our own. The kids in The Hunger Games are raised in a distant future combining elements of extreme deprivation and enormous technological advances where they are well aware of the highly glamorized hunger games.
tl;dr- Hunger Games and Battle Royale are sort of similar, but not really.
At any rate, I wasn't all that hyped when The Hunger Games film was announced. I had a lot of friends who were super stoked for it, which is all well and good, as they were avid fans of the series. I figured I would see it eventually, and I finally got around to viewing it in late April. My dad and I went on a Sunday afternoon to see it; surprisingly, the theater was pretty packed despite it being a full month after its original release. Shows what kind of hype the film was getting. Luckily, my dad had read the books and he would be there to help fill in the gaps. Knowing absolutely nothing about the story other than it being a blood fest with teenagers, I went in not really knowing what to expect.
It was pretty clear from the get-go that we were in a poverty-stricken district of the continent of Panem. We first get a look at Katniss and what her life consists of, which seems to be taking care of her sister Prim, doing a lot of brooding and illegally hunting for wild game. We meet her hunky man-friend Gale as she's about to shoot a doe and after a quick exchange, they frolick and discuss the upcoming hunger games. Eventually, we get to the actual raffle-thing for the games and despite Katniss assuring her sister that she won't be picked, what do you know, Prim is picked. Katniss volunteers as her tribute to fight in her place and before she knows it, she's shipped off to the capitol with her fellow tribute Peeta to fight to the death for all of Panem to see.
One of my main problems with the movie was the pacing. They would often spend a lot of time on certain things that varied in their importance (why so long for all of these explosions? why so much build up from the train to the actual training?) where as some more important elements seemed to get gyped (oh nice to meet you Rue, oh wait you're dead). Again, I haven't read The Hunger Games so maybe that's how the pacing actually is in the book. But as a movie, it seemed kind of disjointed and hard to follow at times.
Although there was quite a bit of information shoved in there, it seems as if a lot of explanations were cut out. For instance, after the burial of Rue, Katniss presses the first three fingers of her hand to her lips and holds it out to the camera for all the districts to see. Rue's district mimicks Katniss, and then they rebel against the peacekeepers. The significance of the gesture wasn't ever explained and seemed a bit out of nowhere. There were quite a few times like this where I was scratching my head. I remember leaning over to my dad various times, whispering to him that I didn't know what was going on.
Perhaps it's my own fault that I watched the movie without reading the series. Then again, one should be able to watch a movie and be able to understand it without having read or known something prior to viewing. The movie felt bit bloated as it was with all the events they managed to squeeze in there. This was pretty apparent in Peeta's sudden love for Katniss, which was only given some context through some shaky flashbacks and finally an explanation toward the end of the movie. In general, it was a bit hard to absorb everything and follow all that was going down.
In terms of acting, Jennifer Lawrence did deliver a pretty solid performance for the character of Katniss. As far as I know, Katniss is relatively stoic and strong-willed. Her performance was strong and she could hold her own with other actors such as Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson. I admit, I did giggle a couple of times when she had her signature gape going on. She had a pretty consistent expression of "huh?" throughout the movie. Yet she and Josh Hutcherson had some nice chemistry and, equipt with some nice plot armor, were able to both win the games with a relatively low headcount.
My problems with the performances would probably be related back to the characters themselves. I found that to be true with most of my issues with the movies; they always seemed to relate back to the book. For instance, the reason for the rebellion against the capitol was never explained, nor really was the history of Panem. Why Katniss' relationship with her mother and sister were the way they were and why her mother was so distant from them also seemed to be relatively unexplained. The relationship between Peeta and Katniss seemed kind of forced and a bit odd at times (why is he confessing his love for her in the interview what).
But I'm not saying that it was a bad movie. That's not the case at all. If anything, it had the potential to go farther but stayed safe in certain areas and was pretty ambiguous in others. I left the theater not inspired to read the books, but rather felt I had to in order to gain more understanding. Which is not the desired effect. But hey, I'm currently reading the first book. So, maybe that's what they were scheming the entire time.
Overall...
6/10
-For some solid acting with a somewhat shaky plot and an even shakier camera.
