The Hunger Games – 2012
By Katrina Jackson
It's like Battle Royale... for kids.
It should really go without saying that The Hunger Games is a very different beast from Twilight. It might cover some of the same themes – teens in peril (at least in THG, it’s not of their own making), teenage love triangles being just two. Both the book and the film – which follows the source material rather slavishly, give or take some supporting characters here and there – however, have much bigger themes in their sights than pre-marital abstinence and bucket loads of angst. Set in a futuristic dystopia (why is the future always such a grim, unpleasant place?) where a pair of teenage avatars from their downtrodden districts are selected at random each year to fight to the death in a televised gladiatorial version of the Truman Show for the benefit and widespread acclaim of the rich and flamboyantly dressed, The Hunger Games could never be accused of lacking in scope. And yet, this is a film that doesn’t beat the audience over its collective heads with satire, preferring instead to allude to the broader themes at play.
Jennifer Lawrence takes on her first real blockbuster lead and carries the film with aplomb. While never “acting” (some people you can actually see grit their teeth and thesp on screen) she manages to convey a wide range of internalised emotions which in the book are entirely taken care of through a first person narrative – no mean feat in itself. That she has also been held up as a “Great Strong Female Lead for Teenagers To Look Up To” is a matter for some debate. It’s also notable that she manages to make the central character of Katniss a much more relatable and human character than she is in the book, creating a divergence away from the film’s other by-the-book plotting and characterisations. In my view, that’s a shame, as Katniss is much more interesting when you view that her actions in the arena are almost all motivated by a pure desire to stay alive as best she can and manipulate the Hunger Games audience by so doing. However, I can see how this shift in character gears makes the long-game dynamics of her character much more effective. It’s quite obvious from watching the film after all that the studio behind it sees it very much as the first in a series rather than a standalone in its own right. While admirable – the last film to adopt such an approach was the Golden Compass, and look where that ended up. This decision does leave you departing the cinema screen feeling that the story is unfinished and rather unsatisfying. There’s no fist-punching-the-air, triumph against adversity or relief. It kind of ends on a …meh.
Chief among the downsides to the film’s approach is the pacing and tone as a whole. It’s clear that the studio made this film entirely for the Fans Of The Books, hoping they would flock in their droves to the ticket booths to see it. The results of this approach are threefold: a bum-numbingly slow pace not helped by a musical score so sparse that the instances where incidental music does kick in is almost jarring; an almost unforgivable amount of exposition dropped in throughout; and ultimately a severe lack in tension. Sadly, while the teens on display are set up as lambs to the televisual slaughter, the threat never entirely feels real, especially to Katniss. This is largely due to a lack of gore precluded by the need to make the film accessible to a young teen audience (there were definite under 9 year olds in my screening). In terms of the exposition, Stanley Tucci’s character, initially introduced as a kind of blue-haired Jonathan Ross of the arena to introduce and showcase each tribute to the Capitol’s baying audience, becomes a mere voice throughout dropped in to explain some of the book’s sci-fi future creatures to any non-book readers in the audience. This attempt to remind the (movie) audience that this is all staged for TV is admirable but mishandled – it’s simply not utilised enough for the pop-up commentary to seem natural. This exposition results in a patchy approach, with some features from the books explained through talking head commentators on screen, while other plot drivers more richly deserving a little background are left to speculation.
Still, the overall film is by no means a misfire and if all blockbusters upcoming this year turn out so successfully, we’re in for a cracker. Its an intelligent result overall which is well worth some post-film pub-based discussion and analysis of character development and structure. When the film does diverge from the source material is to give the viewer a greater perception of the impact of the Hunger Games on the broader society – something which is never really comprehended through Katniss’ solo perspective. This is undertaken by giving lead Gamemaker Seneca Crane (played by the seemingly perennially typecast as sinister Wes Bentley, behind comedy beard) and Donald Sutherland’s suitably creepy President Snow more screen time in terms of interim discussions of the Games as they unfold, as well as a riot scene bringing more fully to life just how ingrained and important the tributes’ actions and success or otherwise in the arena is to their Districts. What’s left is a lingering sense of a stewardship of the source material and desire to remain faithful, while enhancing the story rather than detracting from the book’s success by squeezing it for cash with both hands. If only all films with a pre-built target audience were quite so diligent
