There was so much hype flying around regarding the release
of the feature film adaptation of The
Hunger Games that it was almost suffocating toward the end of 2011 and the
beginning of 2012. I had never heard of the book or the fact that there was
even a following for it since I haven’t been targeted for the teen reader
demographic for about 20 years. Once I heard that the movie was based on a
young adult novel I completely lost interest because the first thing that came
to mind was Twilight, and I will not
give that property one moment of my time. I ignored stories about it on my
favorite movie websites, tuned out when I heard conversations about it amongst
friends and avoided looking at the novels whenever at book stores.
But then something funny happened. I was perusing the local
Half Price Books and I overheard two employees who were stocking shelves in the
next row talking about the newest novels they’d read. One said, and I quote
“Some of the most fucked up shit I’ve ever read happens in that book.” I was
immediately interested in whatever book they were talking about. The other
responded simply with “The next time someone turns in a copy of The Hunger Games put it aside for me.” I
was genuinely taken aback since I had known nothing about the novel. Within the
next week I had all three books in the series in my possession… and they were
awesome (including Mockingjay).
The story takes place in a future where a civil war has left
the United States, now called Panem, divided into twelve districts. Each district
is filled to capacity with the destitute and poor who work non-stop to provide
amenities for the wealthy and decadent occupants of The Capital. In order to
quell another possible insurrection The Capital hosts an annual event called
“The Hunger Games” in which a young boy and girl from each district are thrown
into an arena to fight to the death until one is left standing. When the young
sister of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a teenager from District 12, is
chosen to participate in the games she steps in and offers to be tribute
instead. She now must fight for her life.
When the movie was released I was ready. I had just finished
reading the first book the night before I saw it and my hype level was at
DefCon 1. I was not disappointed. The movie was just as I envisioned it in my
mind. The casting was perfect, the set design and costumes were spot on and the
in-your-face filming style worked wonders to pull you into the world of Panem.
Director Gary Ross came out of nowhere (the last film I saw of his was Pleasantville back in the late 90s) and
knocked it out of the park in every conceivable way.
Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for an Oscar at age 20
for her performance in Winter’s Bone,
is a revelation as the lead. Not only does she have the acting chops to take on
this complex character but she excels at her action scenes as well. She gives
Katniss a nice amount of vulnerability that I didn’t think would come through
in a feature adaptation, and some minor issues aside I think she found the
defining role of her career.
Josh Hutcherson takes on the equally important role of Peeta
with a great deal of enthusiasm, which is a nice contrast to Lawrence’s more
internal performance. He pulls off the character’s immense charm from the novel
without a hitch and you really get involved in his world view where he doesn’t
want to become a product of the system and remain true to himself during all
the media hype surrounding the games. There is a minor issue I have with him as
well that I will discuss later.
The casting of Woody Harrelson as their mentor Haymitch is
not quite what I expected since I envisioned the character as a sort of drunken
buffoon and he comes off as more of a hard ass alcoholic. But regardless, he is
great as Haymitch and makes him extremely likable.
The rest of the supporting cast, be it Elizabeth Banks as
Effie Trinket, Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Stanely Tucci as Caesar Flickerman or
even Wes Bentley as Gamemaster Seneca Crane (who really didn’t have a prominent
role in the novel), is all pitch perfect.
I have to give props to Lenny Kravitz however. His
performance as Cinna is spot on and is probably one of the main highlights of
the film for me. He IS that character and I never thought this
ex-rocker-turned-actor would be able to take me by surprise the way he did.
Kudos sir!
The violence has been toned down in the extreme, but it’s
understandable that it would have to be in order to for the teenagers who are
the target audience to be able to turn out in droves. The book would definitely
have an “R” rating, but this needed to be “PG-13” to be successful. We do get
to see just enough of all the messed up stuff going on during the games to
drive the point home. It’s still a brutal movie regardless.
My issues, which I mentioned earlier, are how certain events
aren’t explored enough to make them believable. The main topic is the
relationship between Katniss and Peeta. We do get a feeling for the unspoken
love between Katniss and Gale at the start of the film, or at least the fact
that they respect each other immensely. Katniss realizes that in order
to survive in the games and win the audience’s admiration she needs to appear
to be in love with Peeta since earlier in the story he proclaimed his feelings
for her publicly. But all we get is one scene where she just spoons him while
he’s injured in a cave and that’s it. It doesn’t feel like there was any real
thought put into it on her part, just that Haymitch left her a cryptic note
about it and the next thing you know she’s throwing googly eyes his way. There
should have been a shot or two of her realizing that there was a camera filming
them in the cave, and that she decided to play up to the audience by pretending
to love Peeta. Out of all the events that take place in the film it’s this part
that irks me the most. I never bought into it at all.
I’m not comparing the movie to the book at all since I’ve
always felt that they are two different mediums and things that work wonders on
the page don’t always come off the same way on the screen and vice versa. I’m
just saying as an audience member that in the movie certain plot points aren’t
given enough time to breathe. The pacing is so swift that events that should be
explored are glossed over to keep the story moving forward and the runtime
below 2 ½ hours.
Outside of that this is a fantastically adapted film that
definitely captures the spirit of the novel on which it’s based. Technically
it’s a marvel. It looks amazing, sounds even better (the score is pretty rad),
features crazy action (that firestorm scene is nuts) and the casting is almost
perfect. A few tiny glitches aside it’s one of my favorite films of 2012.
Bring on the next chapter, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire!!!
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