Movie Review: "The Hunger Games"

"The Hunger Games": B+. The premise of "The Hunger Games" is unthinkable. The central government, for the past seventy-four years, has required each of the country's twelve districts to submit a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to enter a mortal survival contest in the wilderness. Only one of the twenty-four combatants will come out of it alive, with the rest meeting their demise via infection, starvation, exposure to the elements, or most likely, the infliction of a fatal blow at the hands of their fellow contestants. The games are treated as somewhat of a combination Super Bowl and Academy Awards, where everyone is watching or at least is aware of what's going on, but the seriousness of the activities is mitigated by the nonchalant attitude of the audience, the parties and the generally frivolous atmosphere in the capital city. Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) hosts a television spectacle over the course of four days, during which the unlucky twenty-four are paraded through the city, feted with sumptuous clothing and fine dining, coached in the art of attracting sponsors who will supply them with equipment, trained in hand-to-hand combat, and interviewed much like you would see on Entertainment Tonight. But once the young people are released into the wild, it's every man (or child) for himself.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss, a pretty teenager who has been the leader of her impoverished District 12 family ever since her father died in an industrial accident. Her widowed mother has never mentally recovered from the shock, so it has been up to Katniss to raise her twelve year old sister, Primrose. When Primrose's name is chosen at random for the reaping, which determines the district's two entries in the games, Katniss volunteers to take her place, making Katniss the first person ever to volunteer in the history of the games. The boy who is chosen from her district is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). He seems an unlikely candidate to emerge with his life. At least Katniss, an experienced hunter, knows her way around a bow and arrow.

The participants in the games run the gamut from a shy small girl to a bloodthirsty athletic boy named Cato. Allegiances develop, friendships are tested and crushes blossom into something more. But always in the back of the viewers' minds is the grim reality that there will be only one survivor. When the government wants more action it changes the rules. As I was watching I recalled the beginning of the Gulf War. It was dubbed the "Clean War" because we never saw the effects of the bombs we dropped, only the before and after satellite pictures of the targeted structures below. In "The Hunger Games," people in the capital city keep score, aided by the sound of a trumpet blast each time one of the kids dies, but they don't see the agony and the gore from the field of combat.

This is the second movie I have seen starring Jennifer Lawrence, the first being "Winter's Bone." In both movies she plays a teenager who comes from a troubled family but is comfortable in her own skin and wise beyond her years, especially when she's out in the woods. Lawrence is very convincing as Katniss, someone who would find it unbearable to kill someone, even if doing so would be her only ticket to saving her own life.

Whenever I read or watch science fiction, I still hold the author or the filmmakers responsible for making the plot, the characters and their decisions logical, within the context of the story. Getting past the grim background of the story of "The Hunger Games" was an effort, but you have to buy into it or else you might as well stay home. Once over that preliminary hump, I found the story to be fascinating. Even though the running time is around one hundred forty minutes (about a half hour longer than I usually prefer), the movie did not drag. Still, the movie does have its faults. Changing the rules of the game was a convenience which detracted from the film's logical integrity. (That aspect reminded me of the six year TV series "Lost," in which new characters kept arriving right up to the end. Lazy writing.) So was the decision by Cato to keep a certain character alive when the reason for doing so had expired. I also did not buy into the supposed chemistry between the two District 12 participants. I am nevertheless satisfied with giving this movie a B+, and have little doubt I'll be attending its sequel next year.