Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth & Donald Sutherland
Rating: ★★★½
The Hunger Games has already broken the record for having the best opening weekend box office takings for a non-sequel in the USA, and that is mainly due to the success of the books that it is based on, and the hype surrounding it. I haven’t read the books, and hadn’t even heard of them until I started reading things about the movie, so it just goes to show you that sometimes a strong marketing campaign, combined with a pretty decent movie, can pay off.
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| Katniss shooting game before the games. |
The film is set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world where twelve Districts from around the country must provide one boy and one girl as ‘tribute’ to a brutal reality game show death match, called The Hunger Games, as punishment for rebelling against the government years before. Katniss (a pretty silly name if you ask me, played by Lawrence), from District 12, a coal mining community, volunteers to enter the annual games in the place of her beloved sister, and is then quickly whisked off to the Capitol, for training in the art of combat and survival.
The first half of the film, which focuses mainly on Katniss’s horror and disgust at being part of the disturbing reality television programme, is very tense and finely built up. We immediately will Katniss to succeed, and unlike other movies, she doesn’t excel at everything she turns her hands to, which makes her more believable and well rounded. Lawrence plays the part perfectly, making Katniss an understandably frightened but tough character, who we definitely root for. The slow paced build up before the actual games is taut and unpleasant, as the focus on the key issues of the film are fully realised and developed. It’s horrifying to think that contemporary society might be one reality programme away from doing something similar, but as one character mentions- if no one watches, then they would stop making the show.
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| Katniss with Effie Trinket, who chooses the 'tribute' for District 12. |
Almost all of the supporting characters are interesting, compelling, entertaining, and sometimes funny. Hutcherson is a strong supporting actor, and plays Peeta fluidly, whereas Harrelson and Banks provide the (grotesquely) vile comic relief, as well as aide our heroine. The Hunger Games does a good job of not making the competing characters superficially tough or unrealistically extraordinary, which means that when the game actually begins, you aren’t sure who will die and when, and we believe that certain characters would be capable of surviving for as long as they do.
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| Katniss and Peeta, during training. |
The violence of the film, which has been extensively discussed in the media for being inappropriate for younger audiences, is actually fairly tame. Even though I have my own strong views about this issue, I felt that, for once, the film should have been more extreme in its portray of the viciousness of the murders. The film makers ensure that we don’t really see anything at all, the camera cutting away from any serious depiction of injury, the more offensive image being an open wound with a bit of bone sticking out, and even then it really isn’t focused on in great detail. I think that the content and tone fully prepares you for something worse than is actually provided, and compared to Battle Royale, which is, in pure Japanese fashion, disgustingly brutal, The Hunger Games is lightweight and inappropriately family friendly. They probably shouldn’t have skipped over the killings: they should have made it gorier and more terrifying, since making it more accessible is obviously a clever money making marketing ploy, but detracts from the central issue of the film, by ironically creating glossily bearable and watchable sequences of action, instead of harrowing and disturbing brutality and murder.
The actual game itself is really enthralling and gripping, with some very exciting and upsetting moments, and even though the outcome is staidly predictable, it is satisfying enough to make you want to watch the sequel. Which I’m sure I will.
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| Katniss striving to survive during the actual Hunger Games. |
So I definitely recommend seeing The Hunger Games. It’s something a bit different, and is certainly accessible to a wide audience. For those of you who crave something with a bit more bite, I implore you to watch Battle Royale, a no holds barred look at what teenagers would really do in the same situation.
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