The disclaimer for this review is that I haven't read the books (see Twilight review) so I won't be able to comment on how close it is to the book. This review is purely based on the merits of the movie.
For those of you who've been living under a rock like I was, knowing nothing about the hugely popular book series, here is the briefest rundown I can give you. For the others, skip to the next paragraph:
Set in a dystopian future, the country Panem is split into a number of districts and the capital city. After a previous uprising of the citizens against the Government, the law states that each year there must be a 'Hunger Games' tournament as both a punishment and reminder to those 12 districts of their folly. The 'Hunger Games' requires a young boy and girl from each district to be selected to compete in a tournament where the point is to kill the others until only one survives, who then becomes very wealthy. The games are televised for the entertainment of the population and sponsors can be attracted for the competitors to give them advantages during the 'game'. In the first of the series, a young girl called Katniss Everdeen is the first ever volunteer for the Hunger Games for District 12 after her weak younger sister is selected. Katniss is better equipped than Primrose, with some hunting skills and emotional toughness having raised her sister after their mother fell to pieces when her husband was accidentally killed. The boy selected, Peeta, has had a crush on Katniss but never said anything due to her close friendship with the boy Gale. What will happen when they are pitted against each other, and 22 other young people, when the tournament begins? That I can't reveal.
The thing I found most disturbing about this movie and book series is the fact that it features a tournament where very young children are forced to kill each other for no real reason other than entertainment. Some of the competitors are about 10 years old. While I understand that the point of the book is to say how wrong this is and make some kind of comment on society's increasing desensitisation to violence and increasing intake of banal/disturbing reality TV, I have to say that I didn't really get that from the movie. If you haven't read the book and just watch the movie, there are 2 key points that are not obvious at all: 1) the reason for the uprising in the first place that resulted in the creation of the games and an exploration of how it reminds them not to criticise the government 2) that the citizens of Panem are forced to watch the show and how some of them choose to fight back by not watching. I only know these things because I've read a lot about the movie in the magazines and from the author. These issues are sidelined or non-existent in the movie and the end result is that you feel like you are cheering for a 16 year old girl to kill this group of teenagers so she can win and get home to her little sister. This is really wrong and it feels like you are adding to the problem rather than reducing it. The only saving factor is the way that Katniss plays the game is very honourable and turns it more into survival than brutality, and SPOILER ALERT MOVE ONTO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT she does find a way to circumvent the cruel creators of this 'game'.
The movie has obvious comparisons to the Japanese film 'Battle Royale', which you may be surprised after reading the above paragraph to hear is one of my favourite movies. The difference for me between the two movies is the fact that the beginning of Battle Royale explores the increasing laziness, apathy and violence of school age youth and that this is the direct reason for a school class being selected to compete in the Battle Royale. While some of the classmates are innocent, not all of them are and the game is a direct punishment to the guilty. In Hunger Games, the upbringing of Katniss and Peeta seems to be very innocent and almost idyllic in some ways other than the hard economic times they obviously live in. It seems that most of the competitors are total innocents and are being punished for something done by their ancestors a long time ago. The other difference is that Battle Royale was completely over the top and brutal, whereas Hunger Games tones down the violence a lot and avoids looking at the death too much to keep the PG-13 rating needed for the tween audience the books enjoyed. I don't know why, I really can't explain it at all, but to me I feel like the over the top approach was much better at conveying how wrong this scenario is and the watered down approach just doesn't give the message any impact. The fight scenes are confusing in the Hunger Games because they are editing it to avoid showing anyone being badly injured or dying, or girls being hit by boys. There also seems to be very little lingering on the emotions of the competitors after they kill someone and showing how they deal with this, which I would expect would be an enormous struggle for a 14-16 year old child but is barely looked at here. Katniss seems far more upset by the death of a fellow competitor she seems to barely know even though they helped each other, than by the killing of various people, of course out of necessity to survive.
The best thing going for The Hunger Games is the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She is a very good actress for one so young and inexperienced, and she has a nice, healthy image that makes her the perfect heroine for young girls to look up to. She tries very hard to convey the struggle and strength of Katniss, but I feel that the dialogue and editing prevented her from exploring these issues to the fullest. Josh Hutcherson is okay as Peeta but just doesn't get enough screen time to really explore his feelings of inadequacy and feelings for Katniss. Aussie Chris Hemsworth as Gale has so little to do that I wonder why they even sent him on the promotion trail for this movie. The big love triangle I was expecting was a non-starter, although this could be something that pops up more in the sequels perhaps?
The production design is another good thing, with some great sets, costumes, makeup and hairstyles for the citizens of the Capitol. However, this just confused me about why there was such a contrast between the Capitol and the districts in technology, food and standard of living. This was obviously to create the rich/poor dichotomy but the size of the gap, particularly in technology, was so great that I was just perplexed by it. Something you probably need to have read the books to understand.
Sorry about the psychoanalysis in this review, but it is quite a serious movie and a serious concept and I can't figure out how I felt about it and whether it has really achieved the goal of the author. Overall I felt the movie took too long explaining the history and rules of the games in the beginning and getting Katniss and Peeta ready for the games. The next movie will probably be better because the ground work has been done and it will be able to get straight into the action. I would give this a 2.5 out of 5.
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