The Hunger Games

I didn't feel anything while watching The Hunger Games, and that's something I never thought I would say about a movie built around children and teens killing each other in a cruel competitive sport. This material should be tragic, chilling, and maybe more than a little thrilling. But director and co-writer, Gary Ross, has polished everything to such a perfect PG-13 glossy sheen that the movie loses all power it could have had. To top it off, the movie is also downright silly, uninspired, derivative, and kind of a mess.

To the legions of fans of Suzanne Collins' series of novels who have already made this movie a runaway blockbuster before it was even released, I will admit up front, I think I missed the boat here. I did not find much to like in The Hunger Games. The movie is shallow, with thinly drawn characters that barely manage to make an impression. Some of them I'm sure are being saved for the inevitable sequels, where they will no doubt play larger roles. But what about the many characters who die during the course of this movie, and fail to make any sort of impression? What are we supposed to feel about them? The movie is set around the tragic idea that in an unspecified future, kids from poverty-stricken areas known as "districts" are forced to compete in a combat game where they must kill each other until only one is left standing for the amusement of high powered, wealthy citizens who live in luxury in a closed off society. What must these kids be feeling to have been picked? Have they been training for this moment their whole lives? What about their family and friends back home? Any loss? Any regrets?

Aside from the two lead characters, we don't really learn the answers to any of these questions. There are 24 kids from 12 main districts (one boy, and one girl from each district) when the games begin, and of those kids, 22 of them exist in this screenplay simply to die. They are not developed in any way, hold no personality, no fears, and no hopes or dreams. The two kids who do matter are Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Both hail from District 12, and both are clean-cut hero types, so we know they're going to make it out of the competitive Games okay, which removes much of the tension from the start. This was one of my big problems with the structure of the story. We spend so much time with just these two. Why not try to develop some of the competitors too, so we could feel something when they die, instead of staring at the screen with casual indifference? Then again, when the movie does try to make us feel something over the death of a young child at one point of the movie, it drags out the death scene so long, it almost becomes unintentionally comical. So, maybe it's a good thing a majority of the young cast is treated like disposable cattle.

I hear you asking, how can a movie built around kids killing each other brutally be PG-13? Ah, but you see, this is the kind of bloodbath the whole family can enjoy, because the movie barely lets us get to see it! Most of the action is shot in such extremely tight close ups, and with a camera that refuses to stop moving and shaking around. This way, we barely get to see the deaths as they happen. We just get some close ups of some bodies shaking and moving around, and then we get a quick glimpse at the bloodless corpse of one of the kids, so we know who just died. The camerawork in this movie irritated me to no end, especially how in certain scenes, it never seems to stop moving for absolutely no reason. It also sometimes keeps on rapidly cutting to something every two to three seconds, which becomes incredibly distracting. This is especially evident in the film's opening half hour, when Katniss volunteers to enter the Games in the place of her younger sister, Primrose (Willow Shields), who is initially chosen to compete. It is at this point that Katniss and Peeta board a train, and head for the Capital to prepare for the games.

In the scenes set in the Capital, we meet many of our adult cast members, and it's here that the movie created a strange disconnect for me. While the District kids are depicted in a fairly normal and semi-realistic light, the adult characters are dolled up in such over the top costumes and outlandish personalities, they come across as cartoon caricatures. First up, we have Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), who looks like a living porcelain China doll, and draws the names of the children who will compete in the Games. After this, her role in the movie is pretty much over, but she still hangs around anyway, not really contributing anything. Next up is Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), a former champion of the Games in his younger years, now a hopeless drunk. He exists to give Katniss some survival advice, and to stumble about in a drunken manner when need be. We also have Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), who controls the Games, and has the hair and beard of a cartoon devil. Other notable residents of the Capital include an over the top talk show host (Stanley Tucci), who interviews the kids, and the President of the elitist society (Donald Sutherland), who kind of looks like what would happen if Santa Claus slimmed down and decided to become a ruthless dictator.

Aside from their over the top appearances and gaudy make up, none of the adults make much an impression. I'm guessing they're being saved for the sequels, as it would be a shame to throw away some of these talents in roles as underwritten as these. As The Hunger Games went on, I became increasingly frustrated. It's based around a cruel sport where kids are forced to kill each other, but it doesn't want to get its hands dirty, or give us any emotional investment. It wants to show us a future society where the cruel haves look down upon the downtrodden have-nots, but it gives us such fleeting glimpses of said society. It wants to hint at a romance between Katniss and Peeta, but forgets to give them a connection, other than a vague flashback that the movie keeps on cutting back to. As an adaptation, it stays strictly at surface level, never really digging into its characters or ideas.

This is also a highly sloppy, and at times laughable, adaptation. There are moments when the movie stops the action completely so it can cut to two newscasters covering the Games, who talk directly to the camera, and explain to us just what exactly is supposed to be going on. You know a screenplay is bad when it literally has to introduce characters in order to explain itself to you. Also, near the end of the movie, the evil minds behind the Games decide to unleash some monsters upon the kids, in an attempt to speed things along, and get a winner faster. I'm still trying to figure out just what these monsters were supposed to be. They show up, unexplained, and look largely like a junky mess of CG blobs. The movie tries to hide the questionable effects work by shooting the scene at night, and keeping the creatures concealed mainly in darkness, but it doesn't help matters much.

Look, I'm not delusional enough to believe that this review will change anyone's mind. The fans will make this a hit, and we'll see a sequel next year, I'm certain. When that sequel comes, might I suggest that the writers try to add a bit of feeling for the characters? Or maybe a quiet moment or two where they actually seem human? That's all I'm hoping for from the sequel. But, given that the fans are eating this movie up, I probably won't get it.

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