THE HUNGER GAMES REVIEW

A bit late, very, very late but what the hell, this film isn’t as overly complicated to discuss and analysis than the majority of others that have been released over the last few months. Let’s get started…

The Hunger Games, slips right off your tongue doesn’t it? So do titles like Battle Royale and The Running Man. Why do I mention those two specific old films? Because Hunger Games is what you get when you merge the plot of children killing each other to stay alive until one comes out a victor while in the background you have a world ruled by the rich and using the poor to create a horrifying gladiator like game show out of it. 

Of cause I’m not saying its an obvious rip-off, because it is, but it tries its hands at adding some originality to it too, like a love triangle between the main female character and her two one skinny and another buff looking boyfriends…oh wait…Twilight already did that. 

Okay, so the narrative doesn’t scream out original but see it like the modern day version of those two stories and the stories those books and films were inspired by. What I’m trying to overall say is, The Hunger Games is this decade’s Battle Royale or Running Man, just without the sweet over the top violence and blood. But it still gets the job done, to some extent.

The story is as straightforward and predictable as the previous predecessors before it but with some added in elements that make it stand out ever so slightly from those stories.

The story begins in District Twelve; one of thirteen Districts that resemble a slum or war tore like village. The Main Character is Katniss who lives with her mother and little sister. Their father died in a mining accident and Katniss pretty much looks after her family. She goes out hunting with her best friend and obvious love interest Gale where they catch wild animals for food. 

During a traditional event called the Harvest, the children of each district are forced to put their names into a drawing contest for the chance to win supplies and food while at the same time risking the chance of also been picked for the Hunger Games that finds one boy and girl of each district battling it out with the children of the other districts for survival.

Katniss’ sister gets picked and faced with a decision that will change her live and those around her, Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place in the games. The Boy picked is Peeta who secretly has a crush on Katniss and this creates an interesting element that finds friends having to either fight each other or become unlikely allies. 

And that’s pretty much the basic outline of the plot but its what comes before the conclusion and the obstacles the characters face that makes this so interesting and surreal.

We travel with Katniss to the rich capital where the people there look like clowns and Goths with over the top make up and fashion. It’s a ridiculous lifestyle where the rich look like freaks and the poor look and act like normal people. The Rich look stupid (at least some of them) and this is visually presented from the dark and grey poor real life like environment of District Twelve to the colourful and digitally enhanced visuals of the rich Capital and its people.

The story also involves the chosen contesters to make sure they look good, act surprising and are interesting to the Capital Audience so as to attract sponsors who will support them with supplies during their time in the games.

This is done through the use of several moments in the story where each district boy and girl is given their own unique fashion look, to live Interviews where they gather the interest of the audience and finally their training where the game masters observe and score them the points they need for the Audience and possible Sponsors to gain interest.

All of this is done through the first hour of the film. It feels long and developed and breezes through until we get to the main event of the story, The Hunger Games themselves and this is where the second hour of the film falls short.

Where the first hour set up the characters and developed the plot threads to come, the second hour is the action duration of the story plus the bonding and relationship between Katniss and Peeta. And this is where the story slightly treads into Twilight territory and becomes pretty much a teen romance story.

However, unlike those films the romance here is done with a somewhat twist. You have Peeta who loves and wants to protect Katniss and you have Katniss who pretends to love Peeta in return, creating a fake love couple situation for Audiences in the Capital watching to feel emotionally invested in them as much as we, the real audience are emotionally invested in seeing what happens next.

And right there is a major compliant I have for both film and book. We are only ever invested in Katniss and Peeta’s characters. The rest of the cast of children never get any major development. We don’t really understand them or who they are and why we should feel sorry for them. They are just cannon fodder and obstacles in the way.

The Book did this and the film follows it and this is the disappointing aspect of it. The film takes the time to have extra scenes between the villains of the film and developing them and their reactions and understandings of what is happening in the games and their attitudes towards Katniss and the effect she is having. But it never takes the time to have personal scenes with the other supporting characters.

How fun would it have been to see a brawl between Thresh and Cato and actually seeing Cato kill Thresh or a scene between Cato and Clove and how their relationship mirrors that of Katniss and Peeta?

The film is already round two hours long and as an adaptation from a book it pretty much has all the major and important events in it with some alterations but overall book purists should be overjoyed and happy with the completed product but the film could’ve been so much more but that doesn’t stop it from been a entertaining and intelligent piece of work.

The idea of combing all the elements of media entertainment to create a game show out of it that both entertains the rich and is used to punish and keep the poor at bay is something seen before but add in the visual representation of it between how the two sides are different and already you have something original to show for it and the film never treats the audience as stupid. It may have the gagging romance that some people will love or hate but in the end the product comes off as very serious and horrifying at times.

The thing that let it down is the way the action scenes are shot. The first time all the contesters appear in the arena and the countdown ends there is a real sense of panic as the camera and shots move all over the place in a chaotic manner, expressing the horror that is occurring in a visual presentation.

But after that the majority of the action scenes are shot the same way and you can’t see what is happening at all. It’s all over the place and it gets annoying very quick, very fast. Not to mention one or two scenes occur in the night-time, making it even harder to determine what is happening.

For a story that is meant to up the excitement with action in the second half it never really delivers. There are moments that work but most of it just doesn’t and we’re left with the characters and their ongoing struggle to invest and be excited in and that is the main strength of the film because we as an audience become so emotionally invested in Katniss and Peeta’s journey of survival. 

Performance wise every single person in the cast does a great job. Stand outs include Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane who gets much more development as a character than he his mentioned appearances in the novels along with Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, the drunken and yet knowledgeable mentor to Katniss and Peeta.

There’s also Donald Sutherland whose role as the Character of President Snow gets a much-needed introduction, development and understanding behind the scenes of the games before his more direct villainous approach in the coming sequels. 

It is however Elizabeth Banks’ unrecognizable appearance in make-up and costume as the character of Effie Trinket that makes her stand out from her fellow cast members, truly losing herself in a role that one would not been able to tell its her.

But it is the performances of Jennifier Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson as the characters of Katniss and Peeta that makes the audience emotionally invested in their plight, showing off remarkable chemistry and staying true to the characters of the book while adding a bit of originality into it to give off that real sense of pain and love to each other.

In conclusion The Hunger Games is a film adaptation that keeps true to the hook of its source material while at the same time giving off a unique bland of realism and visuals to create a contrast between poor and rich elements of the this film’s world while balancing between telling a story of love, trust and survival interwoven along with the message of horror that this interest in fame and competition that all forms of media can bring to a rich world that seeks to only be entertained while letting the less fortunate suffer for their amusement.

A flawed film on all accounts but an adaption done well with strong performances and somewhat entertaining action that gets the tension going. 
Overall Score in Total is…8/10
 

LIKES:

·      All the Performances in the film.

·      Great Visual Story telling with the realistic settings of the Districts and Games with the more special effects visuals of the Capital to create a difference between the three.

·      Good Adaptation.

HATES:

·      Shaking Cam in Action Scenes and sometimes to quick or dark to see what’s happening during Action Scenes.

·      Lack of Development for any of the other Characters in the Games.