The Hunger Games in film or book form didn’t much inspire me to get down to the nearest cinema or bookstore, but luckily my other half forced me to go see it. While it’s not really the super hit that the box-office takings and teen hysteria would imply, it is a bit better than it first sounds.
The storyline for The Hunger Games is seemingly extreme. Set in a dystopian nation years after the ravages of harsh and brutal civil war, the 12 losing factions are forced to nominate 1 boy and 1 girl between the age of 12 and 18 to fight in the Hunger Games as punishment for their insurrection.
The games are battles to the death that are televised like surreal talent contests, so when 16 year old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) sees her younger sister nominated, she puts her own name forward instead. From there she’s taken to the Capitol for training before the fight for her life begins.
The presence of Woody Harrelson as former Hunger Games winner and District 12 trainer Haymitch Abrernathy and Donald Sutherland as the brilliantly dictatorial President Coriolanus Snow do a lot to establish credibility in the film. Lenny Kravitz puts in a random appearance as District 12 team stylist, Cinna, but does less well in terms of impact.
The fight scenes are OK, if a little wrong with the combatants being so young, and the special effects work well enough, but it’s the reminder that human nature is capable of atrocities in the face of adversary that makes the concept behind the film somehow work. The idea of a battle royale with kids fighting to the death seems nuts when you first hear it, but the reality is that there have been few wars in the history of humanity in which children haven’t fought and died.
However, despite all that works well with the film, it still isn’t quite the instant classic you’d expect the 3rd best opening weekend film release in the US to be. The emotion is a little dry, the characters hard to get behind and the reality TV aspect of the story doesn’t come through as well as it could. Although, the Arcade Fire inspired musical score is a pretty cool addition to the movie.
The Hunger Games film review: 3.5/5
