RBR: The Hunger Games

So there's this little movie called The Hunger Games, anybody here of it? Of course you have and seeing as how I'm probably the last person on Earth who hasn't seen the movie yet, it's probably futile to do a review. And yet here it is anyway. I began with a natural aversion to the film given what I felt was undue proclamation of its greatness before it even came out. Like the Twilight franchise, I'm naturally skeptical of the quality of anything coming out of the YA genre of literature. But unlike Twilight, this at least had a core premise that interested me, hence why I actually decided to give it a look.

If I could summarize my thoughts in the film in once sentence, it would be this: This is a good movie, that could have been a great movie. Having not read the books, I'm not quite sure if the film's faults are the result of the director's adaptation of the novel or a weakness in the source material. The film centers around a wealthy, vindictive capital city that forces young representatives from its poor, outlying districts to compete in a battle to the death. The first hour of the film devotes itself to the preparation, training, and theatrics that are associated with these games. Most of this is good, engaging stuff. As the film shifts to the games itself, it becomes an increasing frustrating and unsatisfying film. I sat there befuddled as to why the focus was on the character of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence). Her story arc feels empty without getting a sufficient perspective from the viewers of these games. Not enough time is spent on either the rich Capital citizens, nor the lowly people of her district to make me invested in seeing her, or anyone else for that matter, succeed in this contest. Instead it's a dull, exploitative exercise in survival of the fittest.

You compare this to a film like The Truman Show, a movie with a similar theme of big brother watching over and profitting from the televising of other's actions. In that film, you really got a sense of the motivations from everyone involved. Here it's unclear as to why the Capital has any investment in who wins. We see people involved manipulate how the game is played with no explanation why. Likewise, we're meant to believe that Katniss winning is significant and will have some ramifications, but this also is unclear.

However, like I said this is a good movie. You get some decent performances from guys like Woody Harrelson, playing a former winner of the Games who now mentors current contestants, and Stanley Tucci, as the disingenuous talk show host overseeing the festivities. I also felt the movie clipped along at a good pace, never feeling slow. Finally, the romantic subplot does not overtake the film as I feared it would. Ultimately, if you haven't read the book, I don't think there's enough here for you to appreciate why this film has become such a huge sensation. And if you have read the book, well then you've already seen this movie, in which case my opinion doesn't matter. I can only hope moving forward, the film discovers where its narrative value is at and focuses on that. Rating: *** 1/2