The Hunger Games (2012)

When The Hunger Games opened in theaters on Friday, it arrived not simply as a movie but as a phenomenon that was going to destroy any and all competition that stood in its way. Fans of the book series lined up around the block, prepared to love the movie so long as it did its job and put their beloved characters up on the screen in a somewhat respectable fashion. Haters of the phrase “young adult fiction” spat venom at the very notion of the film, and they dismissed it as just another Harry Potter or Twilight. Then there were people like me who had never read the books and just wanted an entertaining movie to come out of all the fervor. In that regard, Gary Ross’ adaptation mostly succeeds. By all accounts, this is a film that will satisfy the cravings of the rabid fans and entertain outsiders so long as they enter with an open mind. It isn’t close to perfection, and a few moments feel more like fan service than anything, but as these crazes go this is one of the more substantive offerings you’ll find.

If you’re unfamiliar, The Hunger Games revolves around the titular event which pits 12 teenage boys against 12 teenage girls against each other in a fight to the death. The last one standing is the winner. The competitors (or “tributes”) come from 12 different districts in the totalitarian state of Panem, which stands where the Unites States once did. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) comes from District 12, and she volunteers to compete after her younger sister is initially chosen. The other tribute from District 12 is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), and the two of them are coached/guided by the former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and the very pale Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). They learn what it takes to stand a chance once they’re thrown into the Games themselves, but much of that goes out the window once the actual bloodshed begins.

One of the film’s more surprising qualities is that Ross proves more adept at handling the characters than putting together an exciting action sequence. Once he gets to the running, stabbing, punching and kicking, those scenes can become boring awful fast. It’s never inept; it’s just… bland. I was much more captivated by the film when it was revealing the world of Panem to us; from the run-down mining country of District 12 to the Pyongyang-like Capitol. There’s a constant feeling of dread in the air, and that is never clearer than the scene in which the tributes of District 12 are chosen in a ceremony known as the reaping. Ross and company do a pretty fantastic job of creating a convincing nation of Panem, down to the casting of Donald Sutherland as the villainous president. Occasionally the film can get caught up in large, weightless CGI landscapes, but that’s probably inevitable. For my money, the best moment in the film comes mere seconds before the Games begin, as Katniss must come to the realization that this is all actually happening. She doesn’t walk into battle silently and confidently like most action heroes. She’s scared out of her mind, and she has every right to be. It’s no longer a lot of talk, and it’s not just a dream. It’s a powerful moment, and it carries over into the first several moments of the Games, which are appropriately brutal.

I can only imagine how tough it was for Ross to handle this violence the right way. The premise of the story is about as icky as mainstream entertainment can get: throw a bunch of children into an arena and have them all barbarically murder each other. Bring the popcorn, everyone! This film had to adapt that to the screen in such a fashion that it was entertaining in a PG-13 manner, but never to the point where it becomes easy to swallow. This story does not celebrate what is happening onscreen, and it does an admirable job of reminding the audience that what we’re watching is atrocious. When a character dies, there are no rousing musical cues to indicate victory or defeat. Even when the film comes down to the final showdown versus the “big bad,” it doesn’t pitch it as mere good versus evil. These characters are stuck in an unfortunate situation, and even though we’re rooting for Katniss we aren’t necessarily rooting for the death of everyone else in the arena. The film is wise enough to recognize that while it’s turning the death of many children into blockbuster entertainment, what’s happening isn’t all that fun.

Perhaps it was a mistake to create a “big bad” character in the Games at all, though I’d imagine that was the case in Suzanne Collins’ book as well. It would be far more challenging (and dramatically interesting) if we got to know all the tributes as relatable human beings. That would have made each death all the more tragic, albeit more difficult for audiences to stomach. Instead, we get our protagonist tributes and our antagonist tributes, which simplifies everything a bit too much. I also could have done without the incessant interruptions from news anchors Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones, who work for either state-run television or the Exhibition News Network. With a few exceptions, the two of them appear only to explain things to the audience that could have been laid out in a different, more graceful way. For much of the film’s first act, I was impressed with how it introduced us to Panem without shoehorning in a bunch of awkward exposition. That changes in the second half, and it just feels like a waste of two very good actors.

One of the great challenges of making a movie like The Hunger Games is that you likely have very little wiggle room when it comes to what you put in or take out. While I like the Harry Potter series, several of those films may have been bogged down by the need to shove as much as they could from the books into a manageable package. (And yet some fans still complained that they weren’t faithful enough.) With The Hunger Games, Ross’ one job is to give the fans what they want, and that’s an adaptation that shows them everything they loved about the book. As such, there were some things that didn’t quite work here that probably worked quite well in book form. Chief among them is probably the relationship that develops between Katniss and Rue (Amandla Stenberg). In the movie, it feels glossed over; like it hits all the major points and then moves on. In the book, Collins probably had more room to give that arc the appropriate emotional heft. It’s just one of the perils of translation, and to mess with it may have been commercial suicide. There’s an argument to be made that they shouldn’t have cared, but that’s for another day.

There are also some quibbles to be made with Ross’ aesthetic choices. Too often the film goes into Paul Greengrass mode—with frantic handheld cinematography and frustratingly quick editing—and it winds up being more annoying than thrilling. It’s fortunate that Ross is so good at giving the film the beating heart it needs, and he’s able to get great performances out of his actors as well. Jennifer Lawrence, an Oscar nominee for her work in Winter’s Bone, is more than up to the challenge of playing a character as fascinating and as strong as Katniss Everdeen. While this film plants the seeds for a frustrating Twilight-esque love triangle to develop in the final three installments, Katniss is a fantastic female protagonist that acts as a response to the Bella Swans of the world. Little would suggest that her story is going to completely revolve around her feelings for the men in her life. The film’s supporting cast is also quite strong; particularly Woody Harrelson and his funny-yet-touching turn as Haymitch Abernathy. That might have been a one-note character in the hands of another actor, but Harrelson is so good it’s hard to imagine anyone else in those shoes. Or that hair.

At the end of the movie, it was the performances and the characters that kept me invested in the story rather than all the action and chaos. The climax is routine, and the dénouement is mostly devoted to setting up the sequels, but while it lasts The Hunger Games is an above-average piece of entertainment that ably sets up a franchise that’s going to be around for years to come. I don’t love everything about it, but compared to some of the other cinematic behemoths out there a film this well-done seems downright revelatory. If we’re throwing all our money at something, we might as well throw it at something worthwhile.

Grade: B