The Hunger Games- 12A- 8 out of 10

To begin a frank admission; I have not read the Hunger Games trilogy of books. Now, go straight to the bottom of this post and put the various reasons why my opinion is no longer valid in the comments section.

Done? Good, now let us begin.

The Hunger Games (the opening book and the film, not the trilogy. This could get confusing) introduces us to the world of Panem; the North American landmass in the future following what would appear to be a hugely destructive civil war. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, comes from one of twelve backwater districts, reliant on primary industry to get by, which lost the civil war and, as a result, are subjugated by the Capitol as punishment for their treason.

One of their punishments is for each district to offer up a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18 every year for a televised death match (The Hunger Games) with only one winner, broadcast in the Capitol and each of the districts. The winner’s district gets a reward of food, hence the name of the game.

Much like (I imagine of course) the book, the film is dripping with themes and gosh is it overt in showcasing these themes; in your face is an understatement.

A satirical swipe at reality television is an over-arching idea present as the Hunger Games is basically the X-Factor meets Love Island meets Survivor (albeit a far more violent version) in a Truman Show reality. The building-up of the back stories of the participants in the Hunger Games is exactly the same as all of the aforementioned reality shows. The residents of the Capitol (exquisitely dressed, snobbish and aristocratic) watch to see the humiliation and the inhabitants of the districts (grubby workers) cannot help themselves but watch, which sounds familiar.

Another theme, more underlying than the reality TV satire is of a class struggle with an exploited, looked down upon underclass forced to work for the Capitol, an idea exacerbated by the momentum gathered throughout the film of a rebellion and unity among the districts stirred by the actions of Katniss in the Games.

In a nutshell, The Hunger Games can be seen as Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror’s take on reality television added to the dystopian class struggle of 1984; not as powerful and epoch-defining as the latter but certainly with a similar message for the 21^st century.

Anyway, back to the film and the opening scene of the film almost set me up to dislike it from the very beginning. A three minute long sequence of the protagonist running through a forest and field shot with a handheld camera for the shaky-cam effect; a style I find difficult to focus with. However, once you get used to it, it is the best style for the film to go with the rough and tumble of the action sequences later on. Kudos director Gary Ross.

Speaking of, as impressively shot as the action sequences were, the 12A certificate left them feeling a little empty. Whilst blood is overused in modern day cinema, where the film is very explicit in outlining the vicious and merciless world that the Hunger Games produces (hell, half the players died in the first four minutes), no blood being spilled kind of makes it seem not as real. It could have been more gritty and real with a 15 certificate but that alienates the early teenagers who make up a segment of the book’s target audience. But what you can and can’t get away with in different film classifications is another story for another day.

One area where a reading of the trilogy could have come in handy is judging whether the lack of character development in the film is a similar problem in the book. Weighing in at 142 minutes, The Hunger Games is lengthy but an extra twenty minutes wouldn’t have done any harm to build more character identification with the audience. As horrible as it was when Rue was killed, as we had only really known her 15 minutes (in which she saved the protagonist twice it should be noted) it didn’t feel like a huge loss. The slow burning opening hour of the film could have been cut to alleviate this problem but, to be fair, I’m no screenplay writer. I write in my room, not at Starbucks.

The area where The Hunger Games really outstrips its rivals in the young adult book adaptations (Harry Potter and Twilight)is the performances from young actors, particularly 21-year old Jennifer Lawrence s Katniss who play the strong female lead to perfection; tough but feminine in equal measure.

Overall, an enjoyable enough film and solid enough to prompt this writer to both look forward to the next instalment of the trilogy (or four films if rumours are prove to be true) by which time I shall indeed have read all of the novels, thus making my opinion worthy of blogging about. Naturally.