Directed by: Gary Ross
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson
The Hunger Games is a movie that’s based on a book that’s based on an idea that nerds have been arguing over the origin of for decades. Katniss Everdeen volunteers as Tribute from one of the poorer districts of a dystopian country named Panem in place of her super adorable younger sister. As Tribute, she is whisked away from her Amish slummy hunter-gatherer lifestyle into the upper echelons of a fabulously wealthy society where people consume shitloads of calories and have weird hair. Here she prepares for the titular Hunger Games competition in which teenagers annually slaughter each other while the crowd screams for their blood. The winner are declared when only one is left standing.
The movie is split into two parts. Part one is what I like to call “The Exposition.” It is here we get a good look at a totally crapsack world where poor people live in squalor and filth while the rich people live in utopias (a utopia?) far removed from those who suffer. It gives a sense of why the Games exist and just how fucked the lower classes of Panem are, even though it looks like these lower classes do all the labor. And then there’s part two: what I like to call “The Ol’ Ultra Violence.” In which The Hunger Games begins in earnest and a bunch of teenagers start to murder each other with sparkling medieval weaponry and unusual enthusiasm.
Overall, The Hunger Games is a film that works in both concept and execution. Jennifer Lawrence lives as Katniss both in poise and personality. As for the rest of the cast, I have no misgivings about any of them; they all do a fine job, though Ms. Lawrence clearly carries the majority of the runtime. It has more grit than the typical young-adult film especially once the Games begin. Allowing teenagers to be killed violently on screen was an important and interesting move. I’m mostly sure other directors or editors would have liberally used jump cuts to communicate this necessary roughness down to a mere implication. But amping the stakes this way made the hour long build-up to part two really matter.
One more thought: someone else mentioned that this film should have served as some kind of commentary about our society. I don’t think it should be held to that standard. If you ask me, this film doesn’t have that kind of responsibility. Yes, there are some creepy visuals about some nuclear war or whatever but this is more of an underdog story than it is anything political. The people have all accepted this bizarre reality in which they were bred. It’s too early to rise against it right now. Let’s have an adventure and push that particular melodrama onto the sequels. That’s what sequels are for: for when the initial shock wears off and for when these impressionable young teenagers become boring old adults.
ThomFiles 