About

Area53 banner which is a collection of lots of scattered pictures of things the blogger likes, from music artists and films to TV shows.

Categories

From the Past

Films on the to-do list

  • Armageddon Time
  • Black Widow
  • Chimes at Midnight
  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer
  • Last Christmas
  • Remember Sunday
  • Shazam! 2
  • Thor: Love and Thunder
  • Spy Guys

The Hunger Games (2012)

Film review: The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross

Based on the very successful Young Adult book trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games is set some time in the future. A terrible war has been waged on the United States. What’s left is called Panem and has been divided into twelve districts, with a central city, the Capitol. In the districts live all the workers, and they’re poor and hungry, providing for the upper classes of the Capitol.

As retribution for an uprising many years ago, when District 13 was wiped out, each district now have to offer up one male and one female teenager every year, to take part in a big televised wipe-out competition, The Hunger Games. Last person alive wins. The rest … well, they’re just to serve as reminders that the government owns the proletariat’s asses.

In District 12, it’s 12-year-old Primrose Everdeen’s (Willow Shields) first time in the raffle. Against the odds she gets picked, but her 16-year-old sister Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) volunteers in her stead. Together with the male contestant Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant), Katniss goes to the colourful Capitol to receive coaching (from Elizabeth Banks and previous winner Woody Harrelson), training, get a makeover (by singer Lenny Kravitz!), do PR (with a blue-haired Stanley Tucci) and participate in the Hunger Games.

Also starring: Wes Bentley as the show’s head honcho, Toby Bones as Tucci’s silent sidekick, Donald Sutherland as President Snow, Liam Hemsworth as Katniss’s friend Gale back home (and yes, he’s Thor‘s younger brother), and fellow contestants Rue (Amandla Stenberg) and Cato (Alexander Ludwig), to mention but a few.

There are so many people raving about this film, not to mention the books, so expectations were fairly high. I knew it was based on a trilogy, and that the Games is a last man standing/kill or be killed contest, but that was about it. There were times where I was wondering if they were going to drag out the Games over more than one film, and how on earth they would achieve that, but as it happened, no, the Games reach a conclusion.

A predictable conclusion, I might add. Oh look, it had a twist when only a few of the contestants were left – what a surprise! And then they twist it again, to undo the first twist – OMG!! And who wins the Games? NO WAY!!! Not like we didn’t see those things coming a mile off. It was as certain as little Prim, who was so nervous she might get picked, would get picked.

So yeah, at times it got a bit silly. And that’s without even mentioning the clothing and hairstyle fashion in the Capitol, or the miracle goo that heals deep cuts in a couple of hours, and things like that.

Acting wise, okay, although Lawrence seemed to have just the one facial expression – fortunately not the fly-chatching gawp of Kristen Stewart, which unfortunately was Hutcherson’s job a lot of the time instead. Not saying Lawrence is bad, just … blank-faced. According to the book, which I’ve now finally started reading (only got it back in … September?), Katniss has learned to hide her feelings very well.

Speaking of Collins, she was involved in writing the script, which is good. Should mean it stays close to the book. Although, from the 1½ chapters I’ve read so far, the film has left out a lot of details that would’ve been nice to know when actually seeing the film, but I suppose they figure book fans will already know them, and the general movie-going public won’t really care as long as there’s enough detail there to tell the story.

I think I’m looking forward more to the next two films/books, because I do love a good rebellion, and that seems to be what it’s building up to. But so far I’m not entirely sold on it. It has a strong, female main character who can take care of herself – she’s mean with a bow and arrow! – and the plot beats Twilight in every way possible. And that’s what it tends to be compared to, or it’s called “the new Twilight“, and that worries me, because that series is far from good.

Still, The Hunger Games was pretty entertaining, even if I think I like the premise of it better than the actual execution. It just feels rushed, so you don’t have time to get to know the other contestants (who’s Cato, aside from “murder machine”?), and it feels as if there are things missing, and considering that’s my feeling before I’ve even read the books … well, I’m not convinced, at least not about the film.

3.5 out of 5 land mines.

Traxy

An easily distracted and over-excited introvert who never learns to go to bed at a reasonable time. Enjoys traveling (when there's not a plague on), and taking photos of European architecture. Cares for cats, good coffee and Boardwalk Empire. A child of her time, she did media studies in school and still can't decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

2 thoughts on “The Hunger Games (2012)

  1. Huh. I loved these books; I thought they were the among the best things I read the year I read them. They are so accurate as a metaphor for life. And I’m not seeing the movie just yet because I am so afraid it will blunt the impression that the books left on me.

  2. I just find it strange how I hadn’t read a single page of the books when I saw the film and thought “it feels as if they’ve left out a lot”, and just reading 1½ chapters has confirmed that, even if what has been left out have not been major. Katniss is a born rebel, and has learned to keep her mouth shut … that wasn’t the feeling I got from the character in the film, at least not before she’d even volunteered to take her sister’s place. The blank face is a tool, but in the film, if you don’t know that, and aren’t told, all you see is a blank-faced girl.

    So yeah, the books sure look to be more enjoyable than the films at this rate, even if the film mainly felt like a prequel to something more interesting that will come along later.

Let us know what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.