In case you don't know, The Hunger Games series follows the trials Katniss Everdeen, a teenager living in the futuristic society known as Panem, which is most likely a post-apocalyptic North America. She resides with her mother and younger sister in District 12, the coal mining district and bottom-of-the-totem-pole area. Every year, Panem puts on The Hunger Games, a battle to the death between young men and women from each of the 12 districts who must fight to the death on live television, to remind the citizens of Panem of the war that created the new government. Katniss volunteers in place of her sister, and is thrust into a world she tries so mightily to survive, while, unknowingly, sets the wheels in motion for a revolution.
Needless to say, the source material is a pretty dark affair. It's about kids killing kids for goodness sake. It's brutal, bloody, and shocking. The material in the book could have made the film a very hard rated R; however, the books are geared toward more mature teenagers. It was obvious the movie needed to be the same. While the movie is PG-13, it is, in some ways, not as dark as it could have been. I felt as if many of the secondary characters, including President Snow (played wonderfully by Donald Sutherland) didn't get as much screen time as he probably could have. The same goes for the capitol and outlining districts as well. I was hoping the movie would get a little more involved in creating the world of Panem. There is a lot of great scenes here already, but I was hoping to get a little more insight into how District 12 runs, or see the parallels between the struggles of District 12 and the successes of the Capitol. Director Gary Ross does a good job of creating the world, but he doesn't do as much as he could have.
Many have argued that the film isn't as violent as it could have been, but I disagree. The movie doesn't have to show us bloody killings or severed limbs in order to show us how brutal it is to see kids being killed by other kids. The movie needed to show more that the idea of the Hunger Games far outweighs the brutality of the Games themselves, if that makes sense. It would have been more effective if the film showed us the death of a tribute, and then cut to their family and district, to show the killing on an emotional level. Again, it was a good start, but it needed more polish.
Having said that, the movie is pretty effective overall. Jennifer Lawerence is terrific as Katniss Everdeen, and if she needed to, could carry the entire movie on her own, which she does at many points. I really enjoyed the parallels between Katniss' time hunting outside of District 12, and her ability to bring those skills into the Hunger Games in order to survive. It was effective directing and editing by the filmmakers. I also really enjoyed Liam Hemsworth as Gale and Wes Bentley as Games director Seneca Crane, but wanted to see them more. The character of Gale gets hardly any screen time, and I found it difficult to see the deep friendship that he has with Katniss. You can see that Bentley really enjoyed his time creating Seneca Crane, and while I applaud the idea of cutting between the "Game Center" and the Hunger Games themselves, I wanted to see more development of Crane, instead of the cut-out he is written as that Bentley tries so terribly to overcome. I was also surprisingly impressed with Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, and Woody Harrelson does a great job of playing...Woody Harrelson, erm, Haymitch.
The set pieces and costumes are all terrific. There's a great dichotomy between the Capitol and District 12, and the filmmakers hold nothing back by showing just how different both areas can be. The movie also sets up obvious points for the next two books in the series, which, based on the huge success of the film in its opening weekend, will inevitably be adapted soon.
It may sound as if I did not enjoy the film all that much, which is hardly the case. These are some negatives that are far outweighed by the positives the film has. Gary Ross and the rest of the filmmakers do a terrific job of creating the world and the characters that inhabit it; it's obvious everyone wanted to do their best to make a good movie, rather than an adaptation to make money. I trust that the next films build off the success of the first, and find the opportunities to fix the issues this one has.
B+
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