2012 Review #14: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

Rated PG-13
2 Hours 22 Minutes

Starring

Jennifer Lawrence
Josh Hutcherson
Woody Harrelson

Elizabeth Banks
Stanley Tucci
Wes Bentley
Donald Sutherland

Story

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match. 

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

87%
"Thrilling and superbly acted, The Hunger Games captures the dramatic violence, raw emotion, and ambitious scope of its source novel."

My Grade:

A

I would like to start by saying I've never read a single page of The Hunger Games novel. So this experience for me was just the movie. I had nothing to base my opinion off of, other than what was displayed in front of me on the screen. I don't know how accurate the film was to the book, I don't know what parts were omitted, and quite honestly, I don't really care. I went into the theater because the movie looked like something I would enjoy as a standalone film experience. My instinct was right, because The Hunger Games was one hell of an awesome movie experience. I loved it.

If you are wondering if there is a point or underlining message to the story of this film, I truly believe that The Hunger Games doesn't have any hidden agendas. What I got from the movie, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is that this is a poke at our current American lifestyle and our obsession with reality TV. When the book originally came out, the coverage of the Iraq war was also deeply imbedded in our brains. So combining the two elements, you kind of get the "message" of the film/book. Katniss sort of represents morality in world where morality has slipped away from us as a people. We love watching people on TV eat bugs and bully each other. We eat it up like it's delicious five course meal. I am probably thinking way to much into it, so I don't know.

The Hunger Games as a film though, to me, is a tour de force of film making. It's a stunning portrayal of a future littered with darkness. Not literally, just the core of humanity has clearly darkened the souls of the people who represent The Capitol. They created these Hunger Games to give the lower classes a small glimmer of hope. The soul survivor represents that hope. The President of the Capitol (Donald Sutherland) states that it would be to easy to randomly chose 24 people each year and execute them. So instead they force 24 young people aging from 12-18 to fight in a "battle royale" of sorts where these children must brutally murder each other until only one survives. This has been done for 74 years now. The movie is not a happy, chipper kind of movie.

I've heard people questioning if this movie is anything like "Twilight". I will say to right now...NO! Those movies are terrible. This movie is everything those dumb little vampire movies wanted to be, but failed epically to do. Like I stated above, it's a dark story. The movie/book has a large teen and young adult following which is kind of shocking given the subject material. The film is rated PG-13 and it's a pretty hard PG-13. It's a violent one. You will see young children being slaughtered with swords and bow and arrows. It's not graphically shown to us, but you see enough to know what just happened to that poor little 12 year boy or girl. It's harsh. But I completely appreciated the story of film and was done so damn well. I liked that the director didn't hold back and make it closer to PG. This is a film where violence like this is essential to getting the point across. What is happening is brutal and the characters in the film are powerless to stop it.

It's told on a pretty grand scale as well, as it does run at 2 hours and 22 minutes. It's close to being an epic. A beautiful, sweeping epic. They created this futuristic world so convincingly, and that's due in part to a fantastic art direction team. The Capitol is bright and colorful and happy and the districts are shows as dark and morose to reflect the power the Capitol has over everyone. The second half of the film takes place in the woods and they managed to create a forest with a large foreboding feeling where you as an audience didn't feel comfortable or safe. You didn't know who was lurking behind our heroine ready to pounce. The costuming was lavishing and bit freaky. The visual effects were stunning, mainly the Hunger Games control room where they can insert whatever they want into the game with these high end computers.

If you are expecting a movie full of action, you may not get what you want with this one. The first half of the film is all set up. The tributes are chosen, we get back story to our main character. Then we move into the training segments of the tributes (the Hunger Game contestants) and the attempts to get in favor with the sponsors who can help them throughout the games. Woody Harrelson plays the mentor to Lawrence and Hutcherson, and he is fantastic as usual. However, to me all of this story and build up was not slow. The pacing and editing made it breeze on by and by the time we got the games it felt like I was only in the theater for 20 minutes. Then the games start and kicks into high gear. But like I said, it's not all about action and violence, it's about the main characters attempt to survive, which actually shows her hiding more and setting up traps and sabotaging.

The issue I had was when there was action and fighting going on, the camera got extremely shaky and blurry. They moved in way to close to the action so it was honestly quite hard to see what the hell was going on. But these moments were far and few between. The other issue I had was a certain element to the story. This has obviously been going on for a very long time in this world. The people of the districts are clearly scared and are afraid to stand up for themselves. But these young children are constantly taken away and none of the parents seem to be that heartbroken. No protest from anyone. I know they are scared, but I have to think SOMEONE would revolt BEFORE the kids go off to die, not after they are dead (there is a scene of revolt from one district in the film, but it's when a character dies).

Jennifer Lawrence plays our lead character and that girl is something special. She was nominated for an Oscar a couple years ago for her performance in Winter's Bone. A great film, and she was superb in the movie. Here she kind of plays the same type of character, just a little more bad ass. She knows how to carefully display the proper emotions necessary for her character. Unlike that dreadful Kristen Steward from Twilight who it seems to hurt her to crack a smile. It's just so awesome to see this beautiful young girl carry a role like this. I could not see this movie being as good if Jennifer Lawrence was not playing our hero. She is in nearly every moment of the film and every other actor is a supporting character. Josh Hutcherson (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth) has turned into quite a good young actor and was a wonderful romantic balance to Lawrence. Elizabeth Banks was in this film...and was barely recognizable. Just wanted to point that out.

The movie is not a romantic film if you are wondering that. That's where I hear a lot of comparisons to Twilight. This is a story of survival. A fight to live through a horrible experience. The romance in the film between Lawrence and Hutcherson is subtle when compared to the harshness of the rest of the story. It only fully blossoms in the later parts of the movie and never overtakes the film like those silly Twilight films. The Hunger Games is my favorite movie so far this year. I know it's still early, but this was a brave story to showcase on the big screen. The dark look into how we crave that reality television and people butchering each other on our TV's was pretty spectacular. The film was lead by solid performances and breath taking direction. It is the must see movie right now. Just be careful taking your younger children to it, because it can be a tad bit disturbing.

What an awesome freaking movie this was. I cannot wait for the inevitable sequel.