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Before we start down the rabbit hole of a dystopian, science fiction franchise that seemed to trade on turbulent love triangles just as much as it does rebellion against fascism, I supposed I’d better lay some revelations on the ground. The first is my relative disinterest concerning the wealth of young adult novels that got made into movies in the wake of Harry Potter means that I mostly let the films based on the books of Suzanne Collins pass me by. Secondly, I’d always written off The Hunger Games as something of a toothless ripoff of Kinji Fukasaku’s superlative Battle Royale, that also pitched the concept of children fighting to the death in order to appease both a warped government and a restless public.
However, I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong, and while Battle Royale will always reign supreme in my mind, Gary Ross’ The Hunger Games turns out to be a much more mature slice of dystopia than I originally thought – despite all those fucking ridiculous names…
Welcome to Panem, a nation that has been divided into twelve districts that’s ruled by the Capitol, and due to an attempted uprising that occurred 74 years ago, the long standing punishment is that every year, each district must offer up two young tributes to participate in the Hunger Games. The games are a televised event that sees the 24 chosen youths fight to the death until only one remains – but while this seems like a barbaric practice, President Coriolanus Snow has ensured that it has become a nationwide sensation loaded with sparkly bells and glittering whistles.
Meanwhile, in the rather dreary mining community of District 12, we find the resourceful Katniss Everdeen mulling over life with possible romantic intrest Gale Hawthone, until the Hunger Games lottery (aka. the Reaping) takes a massive dump on her entire world when her younger, more delicate sister, Primrose, is chosen in the draw. Instinctively offering herself up as tribute instead, both Katniss and local Baker, Peeta Mellark, are soon whisked off the the Capitol under the watchful eye of socialite, Effie Trinket and mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, a survivor of a previous games who quells his past trauma with large amounts of booze. But before the games even begin, both Katniss and Peeta have to run the gauntlet of all the pre-game events, such as training, the opportunity to woo sponsors to gain resources during the game, and some glitzy interviews by toothy Master Of Ceremonies, Caesar Flickerman.
However, the preamble can’t last forever, and sooner or later the games will have to begin. Faced with some tributes from richer Districts who have been trained specifically for the games, can even Katniss’ prowess with a bow ensure she can make it to the bitter, bloody end? But as the death toll mounts, and Katniss and Peeta persevere against all odds, President Snow seems disturbed how their efforts are motivating the other districts.
Some once argued (me among them) that The Hunger Games’ young adult past could have been a hinderence when delivering a sprawling, dystopian world that’s caught in the chokehold of a ruthless dictatorship. In case we’ve forgotten, the main crux of the plot involved actual children being plucked out of a lottery to fight for the death in front of a televised audience, so to pull punches in order to target that all important, teen demographic seemed a little counterintuitive. But while a lot of the rougher edges of a fascist dystopia have indeed been sanded down for a teen friendly rating, director Gary Ross actually ensured that the overall tone of the film maintained the seriousness required, even when the violence levels couldn’t. The bloodshed may have been tastefully handled with cutaways, angels and a noticable lack of the red stuff, but for the most part, The Hunger Games performed it’s set-up so well, the emotional attachment for the characters did some admirable heavy lifting.
Utilising the kind of handheld camerawork that invokes hastily shot news reel footage, the movie surreptitiously picks through building this world from the ground up and if you can get through a collection of character names more feathery than the Coen Brothers and David Cronenberg eccentric choice of monikers combined, it proves to be a fairly intriguing experience. While we don’t exactly get a chance to tour of all twelve districts, the film wisely focuses on the most downtrodden (District 12’s grey-tinted, grim-oop-north stylings) and the most decadent, with the exaggerated fashions of the Capitol proving to be a smart juxtaposition. Amidst all this world building is a typically off-the-wall supporting cast who uses their award-winning clout to set the stage for the leads. Sitting at the top of the tree is Donald Sutherland who has set his grandfatherly tones to sinister as Snow, and Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson both deliver fine work as the gaudily dressed Effie and the burned out Haymitch respectively – however, out of all the veterans, it’s Stanley Tucci and his pitch perfect, blazing grin that turns the most heads, while in comparison, Wes Bentley’s scheming Seneca Crane is mostly out performed by his own elaborate facial hair.
However, it’s the younger members of the cast that has to do the most heavy lifting and it’s easy to see how the role of Katniss helped cement the career of Jennifer Lawrence. It would have been easy to just go “pretty and tough” with the character (although Lawrence is most certainly both), but one of the most fascinating aspects about her performance is how she turns her from a prickly, stand offish girl into a savvy political manipulator, while still keeping her character impressively consistent. In comparison, Josh Hutcherson has to struggle a little to make a dent, but while he manages to make the more delicate Peeta (can’t help but hear Lois Griffin’s voice everytime Lawrence says his name) something of a more subtle manipulator, he’s way more interesting than Liam Hemsworth’s righteous, but static himbo, Gale.
However, when the film shifts from the set up to the payoff, the Hunger Games itself proves to be slightly less satisfying than everything leading up to it. Already clocking in at a hefty 142 minutes, the film simply can’t introduce an entirely new world, deliver the titular games, and give all the players the appropriate amount of depth in the alloted time, and Katniss manages to escape death on more than one occasion due to some conspicuous plot armour. But considering that some of that armour is genuinely part of the plot (last minute rule changes, sponsor packages), I guess I can forgive a fair amount. In fact, I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by how well the film sweeps you up into this world, and my fears of an attention diverting, Twilight-esque, irritating love triangle were ill founded.
While it still isn’t a patch on Battle Royale (never letting that go) The Hunger Games manages to stand tall as an adaption of a young adult novel that admirably sticks to the point while not letting any potential soap opera allow to dilute the film any more than the relaxed violence already has. Lawrence stands tall, the supporting cast are well deployed and a beloved franchise finds that all-important, solid launching point. May this film be ever in my favour.
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Where to watch The Hunger Games:
For one of the few films of this century to show how far the dystopian future genre could still go, I found The Hunger Games and a couple of its sequels interesting enough before I lost interest. It’s a most remarkable change of course from how the last century gave us with A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green and Blade Runner. Mainly for how it can uniquely center on youthful characters. It may not give its characters some particularly engaging names. But the worthy talents in the roles like Jennifer, Donald, Woody and Stanley can help us all get past that. Thank you for your review.