The Hunger Games
What is it about?
(Copying and pasting the summary from my book review because I have no journalistic integrity. And also, I'm not a journalist.)
Set in a distant post-apocalyptic future, North America is now divided into 12 Districts and ruled by an evil oppressive government known as "The Capitol".
After the twelve districts had a failed uprising against them 74 years ago, The Capitol decided to hold a yearly event known as "The Hunger Games", where each year in a lottery, 1 boy and 1 girl from each district between the ages of 12-17 will compete in a fight to the death on reality TV. After her little sister is surprisingly chosen, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her place.
How are the top performances?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE as Katniss Everdeen
Jennifer Lawrence pretty much looks the part exactly as I pictured Katniss in my head. In fact, the entire casting in this in phenomenal and obviously from people who know the book well. Hell, even fucking Lenny Kravitz has some good moments as Cinna. But Lawrence embodies everything about Katniss - especially her guarded, slightly bitter attitude and strength. The only thing standing in Lawrence's way from knocking this out of the park is a slightly rushed film (even at 2 hours and 20 minutes) that doesn't quite do the material the perfect justice it deserves. Lawrence is fine here though.
JOSH HUTCHERSON as Peeta Mellark
I've heard some not-so-great things about Josh Hutcherson in this role and I think much of it is undeserved. I think the film needed a bit more of the heartbreak Peeta goes through (more on this in a bit), but Josh comes off as every bit likable as Peeta is in the novel. Perfect casting again. This is easily the adaptation's biggest strength.
WOODY HARRELSON as Haymitch
Kyle Smith of the New York Post wrote this year "Don't you think Woody Harrelson is good in everything he does?" and I couldn't agree more. He is one of my favorite character actors and I was thrilled to see him take on my favorite character from my favorite novel. The only problem here is that he doesn't get enough screen time.
What's any good about it?
It does a reasonably good job getting across the main plot points of the book. A few Hunger Games nazis won't like a couple of minor changes to the narrative (I actually loved the alternate fate of Seneca Crane which actually improved on the book), but all in all it's a pretty faithful adaptation.
As stated above, the casting is impeccable but also the look of the film brings the book to life. I've seen a couple of films adapted in the past few years from novels that I loved. Never Let Me Go was a trainwreck and Water For Elephants was surprisingly great even though it literally left out half the book. This does a more faithful job than either of those of sticking to the book.
Despite a lengthy running time, it actually leaves you wishing there was a bit more, which has to be a compliment.
Do you have any complaints, you whiny bitch who complains about everything?
I do. There are some things about this that really should upset fans of the book.
First of all, it is a grossly poor decision to underplay the "fake love for the cameras" subplot between Katniss and Peeta, thus leaving out the heartbreaking ending where Peeta overhears Haymitch tell Katniss to keep on acting as if she wants Peeta, since Peeta had no clue there was any acting being done at all. When Peeta holds out his hand for Katniss and asks, in a "hollow voice", if she wants to do it "one more time, for the audience?" it rings so painfully, and I can't believe they missed out on bringing that to the screen.
Also, the Games themselves are decidedly undramatic. The brilliant ending standoff in the book feels as if some Jewish producer was told if they don't wrap it up in 2 minutes they will have to pay the extras an additional 50 cents per hour.
The scene with little Rue should have brought tears to everyone in the audience, and it just doesn't. Probably because Rue was black. No, I'm kidding. Probably because they were stuck with a PG-13 rating and the scene was shot poorly.
And this movie needs an R rating. Yes, I know they aren't going to give up an extra $100 million in revenue to allow more blood and gore, but a 24 person fight to the death is not PG-13 rated.
I must also point out that some of the characters are very painfully underwritten. I understand that is the disadvantage of having infinite pages in a book as opposed to budgets and running time in a film. However, I can't help but feel as if the film kind of hopes you already read the book.
Gale, for example, a central character in the book, is pretty much just a dude she talks to for 2 minutes of screen time here. There is no drama of who she should pick because the audience, I would suspect, is kind of like "Who's that guy?"
Best Scene
As in the book, my favorite scene is the talk show host telling Peeta that if he wins The Hunger Games, his crush back home will have to go out with him, and Peeta revealing why that is not the case.
Final Thoughts
It could've definitely been worse. The omission I speak of at the top is not something small. In my opinion, it is at the very heart of the book.
The movie itself is entertaining enough and I felt that I got my money's worth. Jennifer Lawrence deservedly is turned into a star overnight (though not DiCaprio-in-Titanic level. Let's not go crazy here.)
Overall, after the novel I instantly downloaded Catching Fire to my Kindle because I wanted to, and in November 2013 I'll be seeing the film adaptation of Catching Fire because I feel as if I'm legally obligated to.
Bobby Grade: B
Great Quote
"I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people."
"Whose car we gonna take?"
---Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) and Gem (Jeremy Renner), The Town
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