If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, stop reading this. Yes, you. Close this article, and read the book. Now. I’ll even make it easy for you: the book is available for free online here.
Still reading? Fine. Fair warning, though. This article does contain spoilers.
For those of you who already love Katniss Everdeen and the eerily familiar dystopian world of Panem, The Hunger Games movie does not disappoint.
The movie opens on the morning of the Reaping in District 12. I was struck by just how real the District looked. The creators could have gone with the futuristic post-apocalypse look, but director Gary Ross’ post-war, mid-20th century North America works so much better. Dogs are barking, children are playing in the mud, mothers are washing clothes in basins with weathered, cracked hands. Inside the fence surrounding the District, there is little green and even fewer smiles. Compare this imagery to the retro, shining, opulent, gluttonous Capital, and Ross has created the perfect dystopian Panem.
After I read the book for the first time, I said to myself, this could never be a movie. How could anyone make a PG-13 movie about teenagers fighting to the death in a staged arena? When I heard that it was in production, I worried that the violence would be toned down to suit the younger audience, since the fierce brutality is such a key element to understanding the book.
My worries were for naught. The movie was gritty. It was gory. It was intense. And there were enough teenage-massacre scenes to make a body count higher than any Shakespearian tragedy. 22, to be exact.
The cinematography of the film was phenomenally done. Shot entirely right here in North Carolina, the film shows beautiful scenes of forest and wildlife that cut directly to scenes of teenagers engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Most of the intense scenes were filmed with handheld cameras, which allowed the audience to really feel like a part of the action. Admittedly, some of the scenes were a bit too shaky and hard to follow—sometimes you wouldn’t know what was happening until the dead tribute lay still on the ground.
But it was believable. Even though I’ve read The Hunger Games and knew what was going to happen, I was still on the edge of my seat, convinced that a fireball or a tracker jacker would end Katniss for good.
The movie follows the plot religiously through the first two parts of the book: “The Tributes” and “The Games.” The book is told through the first-person of Katniss, so we saw what she saw and knew what she was thinking, but the movie had to take on a third-person view. With this perspective, we were able to see the head Game Maker, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, at work creating the Games, as well as a few delicious scenes with Donald Sutherland as President Snow.
But Ross gets it right—the scenes during the Games exclusively follow Katniss. And with good reason: Jennifer Lawrence is a boss. She absolutely nailed Katniss’ character.
Though this line is missing from the movie, Peeta speaks the truth: “She has no idea, the effect she has on people.” Lawrence truly brought Katniss to life. She is a maternal figure for Prim in the absence of their mother, a trait that leads to her pairing with Rue in the Games. Lawrence is a serious badass with the bow, doing justice to Katniss’ reputation as an excellent marksman. Most importantly, she maintained a constant fierce, hard look in her eyes. She became Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire. The girl who wouldn’t be a pawn in the Capital’s Games.
And then there’s Gale. Oh, Liam Hemsworth, what you do to me. I was worried that he would be too pretty to play the part (those eyes!), but his interactions with Katniss seemed so natural and comfortable that I’m not sure anyone could have played the role better. He does get quite a bit of screen time for not even being in the book after the Reaping. This took some attention away from the movie’s other leading man.
Peeta. The boy with the bread. Josh Hutcherson was great in this role: witty and charming, especially before the Games began in the interview scene with Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman. I must admit he looks pretty spiffy in a suit. After he admitted his longtime crush on Katniss, the audience, just like all of Panem, started rooting for him, too. No one can resist the pull of star-crossed lovers.
Despite all this, he just couldn’t match up to the lingering impression of Gale and Katniss. Because Liam is such a dreamboat, Ross needed to do more to allow the audience to fall in love with Peeta, to show that Peeta and Katniss belonged together. I kept waiting for one more scene with Peeta and Katniss together in the Games. The scene when they kissed, when both are fully aware, when Katniss realizes she wants another. When she realizes that she doesn’t want to lose the boy with the bread. But that scene never came.
Even though the third-person point of view provided other scenes outside of the arena such as Haymitch fighting for sponsors and the Game makers at work, it did eliminate Katniss’ inner voice.
We couldn’t hear her inner struggle over her feelings about Peeta: before the Games, she owed him her life for the bread. In training, was he an enemy, or an ally? In the Games, how could he betray her by teaming up with the Careers? Why did he risk his life to save her? Would she do the same?
We needed an outward sign of these inner conflicts. When Seneca Crane announced that two tributes from the same district could win, Katniss yelled out “Peeta!” in the book. But, in the movie, she said it barely louder than a whisper. This was an extremely poignant moment, illuminating the connection between Katniss and Peeta and transitioning from “The Games” to “The Victor” in the book. Ross let it fall completely flat in the movie.
We knew that Peeta wasn’t using his feelings for Katniss merely as a strategy to win the Games. In the books, we weren’t sure if Katniss was just using it to survive, because Katniss wasn’t sure herself. In the movie, it seemed pretty clear that their connection was contrived – just a way to win sponsors and get home alive.
I overheard “Team Gale!” exclamations as everyone was leaving the theatre. I just pray that this wonderful series doesn’t become a Twilight repeat. Sure, the love triangle of Peeta, Katniss, and Gale is definitely a theme for Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, but not the main theme. It isn’t even in first book. And, in all honesty, Gale never really stood a chance.
Katniss and Peeta’s potential for love is certainly there, but it just isn’t enough. It wouldn’t be an issue, if it didn’t pose a problem for The Hunger Games sequels. The Capital is not happy with the stunt Katniss pulled so that both her and Peeta survive the Games. Ultimately, Katniss’ requirement for surviving is to prove their love, and as of now, there isn’t much to go on.
I didn’t hate the Capital enough when I left the theatre. There was certainly distain for the Capital residents, who lived in a dream world where the Hunger Games were purely a source of entertainment, but I didn’t hate the government enough. The audience wasn’t afraid of what the government could do, who they would hurt, and what President Snow would do next.
But there was one burning question everyone felt as the movie ended: what would happen to Katniss Everdeen? I felt the same feeling when I finished the first book: I want to see the second movie, and I don’t want to wait!
The Hunger Games is gripping, chilling, and entertaining for its entire two-and-a-half hour running, but be prepared for just how similar Panem is to our own world. And, as always, may the odds be ever in your favor.
Photo Sources:
Hunger Games: http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/downloads/index.htm
Katniss: http://www.timetoplaymag.com/
Gale: http://www.flicksandbits.com/2012/03/23/liam-hemsworth-interview-for-the-hunger-games-2/23151/
Peeta: http://www.tributescentral.com/2012/03/hunger-games-peeta-mellarks-inteview.html
Peeta and Katniss: http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/2012/03/22/photo-gallery-stills-from-the-hunger-games/