★★★I hadn’t read any of the books before I went to see The Hunger Games and, in fact, hardly knew anything about the series. So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself at a movie that I’d group with Gattaca, Never Let Me Go and Moon as futuristic sci-fi with an intellectual bent.
That said, Another Earth also falls into that category, and it isn’t a good film at all. And while The Hunger Games isn’t nearly as weak as Another Earth, it’s not as good as my favorites in the category either. On the positive side, I respond tothe parody of reality TV in Hunger Games--maybe I’m still basking in the aura of Network—and it’s hard not to be drawn by the class/power structure so clearly at the center of the film. And I like the look of the movie a lot with its costumes, make-up and design that are as over-the-top as that of Fifth Element. I saw Hunger Games in IMAX, and the colors filled the screen. The acting wasn’t bad either. I’d have to say that I wasn’t compelled by the performances, but no one appeared to be merely reciting lines.
My only reservation about the film is that it seems to be too much in thrall to a book rather than being a film. I don’t, for example, understand why the Woody Harrelson character and the Lenny Kravitz character couldn’t have been combined; they both advise the Tributes, but neither character has enough time or depth to warrant being singular with the result that neither has much presence beyond being a plot device. The game itself was a bit over-sized, too, and we didn’t develop much attachment to or understanding of most of the characters. I recognize this plot as resembling that of films like Murder on the Orient Express (another nod to Sidney Lumet), disaster movies like Towering Inferno or most slasher films: characters get bumped off sequentially. But the list of victims in Hunger Games is too long and we can lose interest in its unfolding even with the scoreboard in the sky. …unless , of course, we’re already book fans and want to see how the things we loved in the book develop in the movie. And I gather that the fans of the book are legion, so it makes some commercial sense to orient the film toward them.All of that aside, I came out of The Hunger Games curious about the second book, which means I connected with the film in some way. I plan to pick up that second book and see how things go for Katniss, Peeta and Gale. Perhaps by the time the sequel comes out, I’ll be joining the segment of the audience wearing a Mocking Jay t-shirt.
