Movies: The Hunger Games

Score: **** out of *****

Long Story Short: The first mega-blockbuster of the year, The Hunger Games kicks off the film franchise of another uber-popular YA book series. This particular series creates some serious balancing challenges with its scenes of youth violence. A PG-13 rating necessitates dilution of some of the series' powerful images and themes, yet opens it to a wider audience. A strong cast overall helps the film create both tension and effective emotion often enough to overcome the compromises made in the translation.

Finally, a new post! Shockingly this is the first new film I've seen in 2012 (although I caught Star Wars: Episode I in 3D). There are a few winter films that I may catch in the dollar theater, and I'll be seeing several more in the near future. This was one I was looking forward to quite a bit, however. I read the series a little over a year ago, and have been quite curious to see how it would be adapted on film. The Hunger Games was directed by Gary Ross and stars Jennifer Lawrence; it is based on the first of a three-book series. Here we go...

The opening scenes of The Hunger Games establish the main character's, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence), home environment. It is an impoverished, desperate, backward setting where survival itself is a struggle. Katniss' poaching partner Gale is introduced, as well as her little sister Primrose and quiet mother. Katniss' home is one of twelve districts in a future North America, and each year the government randomly selects one boy and one girl from each district between the ages of 12 and 18 as "tributes" for the Hunger Games. Naturally, Katniss ends up going, as does Peeta (Hutcherson), a quiet but affable baker's son.

The teens are amazed when they see the Capitol for the first time - a place of far greater prosperity than their own district, and one that flaunts it to extravagant extremes. Katniss and Peeta get a few days to prepare for the Hunger Games under the half-drunken, sour supervision of former champion Haymitch (Harrelson). Katniss and Peeta are filled with dread for the coming Games, which they have been forced to watch all their lives: a death match of twenty-four children in an enclosed environment, with unseen "gamemakers" providing additional new peril at random for entertainment. Katniss gains widespread popularity and sympathy even before the Games begin, however, and soon becomes a symbol of hope around whom more and more people rally.

It's always interesting to compare one's impression of a character on the written page to the actors that have been chosen to represent them on film. In my opinion, there are mostly hits here, with a few misses. While Jennifer Lawrence looks quite a bit older than Katniss' 16 years, and is far less scrawny as I thought she would be, she conveys the more important personality traits appropriately. She dives into Katniss, the strong, independent girl who is often withdrawn and sometimes moody; she also reveals her as the scared little girl in over her head at times, yet fiercely loyal to those close to her. Co-star Josh Hutcherson as Peeta is even a slightly better fit (a younger actor, he looks his part better), portraying a quiet, affable boy who is comfortable in front of a crowd but believably awkward around Katniss. Stanley Tucci as the flamboyant media star Caesar is my favorite of the bunch, improving on the character from the book. Elizabeth Banks also shines as Effie; it could have been easy to exaggerate the part. Donald Snow as President Snow and Amandla Stenberg as little Rue are also well cast.

Not all the parts are successful. I enjoy Woody Harrelson, but not his watered-down version of Haymitch. In the first book, at least, this grouchy old guy is flat out unlikeable, though he's still a good character. Woody, in part due to the script, plays him as a grump but one who attaches to Katniss and Peeta too quickly. Liam Hemsworth as Gale is just awful - not only does he look ten or more years older than his character, but his acting is Twilight-esque. Fortunately he has little screen time. Lenny Kravitz plays Cinna as a bit too cool in my opinion, but nothing terrible.

What I was most curious about with the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, of course, was how they were going to portray the disturbing violence among minors. The books do not hand out bloodless, fairy-tale demises, to put it mildly. Overall, I give the film a positive rating in balancing tension and the idea of kids fighting to the death with taste. The actual events are pretty faithful to the book, if considerably accelerated; the tree scene was done particularly well. This is certainly not meant for little kids, but it's certainly well within the realm of its PG-13 rating (relatively little bloodshed, etc.). There are plenty of moments well-set up for considerable emotion involvement in the story. These are done well early in the film, in addition to one case involving another one of the tributes, but not all work so well. The book provided a few more laughs than the film, which helped the mood yet didn't interfere with the overall tone. The parts of the score that happened to register to me were inventive and effective.

***

It took me a while to decide on a score for this one. It's always difficult to assess a film on its own merits when you've previously read the book that it's based on. I actually thought about giving it a slightly lower score, but settled on four stars. On the downside, and I'm being a little unkind here, I think a significantly more effective adaptation could have been done if they made it rated R (of course, then it wouldn't have made over $150 million on its first weekend). Yes, many of the series' fans are early teens and younger - but the themes and images are potent and disturbing (yet somewhat easier to take in print). The dilution of certain scenes not only reduced gore but also numbed the truth, however horrific. But from the perspective of a general movie fan, I am pleased that a creative new franchise like this can have action, emotion, politics and some great characters, and yet still be successful. So while a PG-13 adaptation prevents it from reaching four and a half stars, its place among contemporary blockbusters puts it well above the average.