A Review of The Hunger Games Paige Dahlke
Based on the massively popular, bestselling novel written by Suzanne Collins,
The Hunger Games is set in a futuristic dystopian society in which 24 young people
(two from each district) are made to murder each other for food, money, and fame.
If you’ve read the book, this movie will satisfy you if you go into it with reasonable expectations; some fans of the trilogy give the film very negative reviews, while others constantly rave about it.
Gary Ross, who is known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, directed this action/romance/sci-fi/dystopian hybrid of a film. Rated PG-13 for its violence,
The Hunger Games earned $152,535,747 during its opening weekend in the US alone.
The film follows the charming District 12 duo, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer
Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), on their mission to survive the games and be the victor. Specifically, the audience is asked to identify with the female protagonist, Katniss, who volunteered to compete in the games in place of her sister. Fending for herself in the dense wilderness and constantly put in the face of life or death, she is forced to accept the reality of the games: kill, or be killed.
But of course, in the midst of all of the murder, there has to be a love story.
Not just any old type of love story, though: a love triangle. Get your team Peeta and team Gale shirts out now boys and girls, you might not like what I have to say about the dynamic trio. Jennifer Lawrence, the budding Hollywood starlet that she is, did a perfectly adequate job with her role. She didn’t blow me away, but she didn’t leave me wishing that she wasn’t cast either; Lawrence’s interpretation of the relationship between her character, Katniss, and her character’s sister, Primrose (played by
Willow Shields), was touching, but her connection to both of her male costars, on the other hand, lacked in feeling. Liam Hemsworth, an actor known for being a major selling point for a movie when it comes to the teen girl demographic, barely got any screen time as Gale, but in the time he did have on camera, his portrayal of the strong and protective heartthrob of a character was well done. The third and final member of the love triangle, none other than Josh Hutcherson, had quite a bit of screen time, and he played the bland, one-dimensional boy-next-door type of guy I assume Peeta to be perfectly.
Of course not all of the characters were bland and detached; the costume designer, Judianna Makovsky, made sure of this. She does a beautiful job in bringing out the extremes of characters like Effie, played by the beautiful Elizabeth Banks, and Caesar, portrayed by the always-brilliant Stanley Tucci (who outshined everyone else in the film), through their bold and brightly colored costumes.
Another vital member of the crew in this film is the cinematographer, Tom Stern.
The filming methods used were an essential aspect of the film: from the shaking of the camera to the point of view shots, each shot filled its purpose.
If you look past all of the colors and special effects, The Hunger Games embodies what the public is afraid the future might come to. Thinking about it, it doesn’t seem that far fetched: the money of the capital compared that of the 12 districts could be interpreted as a dramatized version of the wage gap between the rich and the poor in the real world. Fortunately, teens in modern day society aren’t being sent off to fight in matters of life and death; well, unless you count joining the armed forces, that is.