Review: The Hunger Games

#121 - The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a film based on a book by Suzanne Collins. Katniss Everdeen, a young girl from District 12, volunteers for her sister, Prim, when she is chosen to participate in the 74th Annual Hunger Games tournament. The Hunger Games is where two tributes from each of the 12 districts battle to the death in an arena: the winner gets riches and food for their district for a year. The other tribute from Katniss's district is Peeta Mellark, a boy who confesses his love for Katniss in front of the entire nation of Panem while being interviewed on television. Katniss and Peeta use this to their advantage, and they win the tournament. However, in order to win, Katniss defies the Capitol by making both her and Peeta attempt suicide...so there will be no winner. The gamekeeper, Seneca Crane, calls for a tie when he sees that they are willing to die together. President Snow, the leader of the Capitol and Panem, does not like this. Katniss has now become #1 on his hit list. Katniss and Peeta return home to District 12, where nothing will ever be the same.

I read the Hunger Games trilogy before seeing the film, so I had a few issues with it. There were choices made that were bad, but overall, it was a pretty decent film. At this point, I have also seen Catching Fire in the theatre, and the second film blows this one out of the water...sorry for the figure of speech...seeing as Catching Fire's arena is entirely water...

The issues I have are small, and if I hadn't previously read the books, I wouldn't think there were any problems with the film at all. So to list them on here would be tedious and a waste of time. Instead, here are a few things I noticed in the film that irked me - because this was a film with a large budget, so they are things that could've been avoided:
1) When Katniss is spinning during her "Girl on Fire" dress scene, her hair is inconsistent. As the camera pans away and then zooms in, her hair is in a perfect bun and then her hair is messy and flopping around. It's extremely noticeable, and that is a huge fail on the hair and make-up department's part. 2) The CGI dogs at the end are awful. Really? The one time you use CGI in the entire film, and it's lame? Pay your animation people more or something, because the dogs shouldn't have looked CGI. In the books, the dogs were made up of parts of the dead tributes (for example, one would have the eyes of Fox Face and another would have the ears of Glimmer...whatever). That was a chance to pull off something really cool, and it didn't work. I hate CGI. 3) The fact that the head gamekeeper would even talk to Haymitch and take his advice is completely inaccurate. Haymitch is just a trainer; he's no one in the eyes of Seneca Crane. Yeah, I know I said no book-related judgments on the film, but this one bugs me. 4) The actress who plays Glimmer is a nightmare. Whomever cast the tributes was a moron. The only good casting was Rue, Thresh, Cato, and Clove.

Things I liked in the movie:
1) The scene when the cannon goes off and Katniss thinks it means Peeta's dead, so she runs through the forest to find him - that is my favorite scene in the entire film. It was a completely necessary scene to show that Katniss really does care for Peeta, even though she keeps telling herself it's just for show. 2) I like the cave scene, but I did feel as if it needed more kissing and connection between Katniss and Peeta. This is where Katniss actually realizes that she likes Peeta, and I didn't get that on screen. It came off as Katniss putting on a show to get gifts to help Peeta, whereas in the book, the connection was real, and Katniss didn't want to leave the cave...until it was medically necessary, in which case she drugs Peeta to knock him out, so she can go to the cornucopia to get his medicine. So, because I loved the cave scene in the book so much, I naturally liked it in the movie as well. 3) I love the training sequences in the Capitol. 4) Peeta. I'll just leave it at that. Oh, Peeta. 5) Haymitch Abernathy is probably my favorite fictional character out of the entire literature world. They did him justice on screen, but he's even more amazing in the book...especially in the last book of the trilogy, Mockingjay.

So, overall, the movie has its ups and downs for me. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't bad either.


I give The Hunger Games 3.5 out of 5 stars.