The first
two Hunger Games movies predated my
write-ups, so I figured my recent rewatch was as good a time as any to circle
back and catch them again. I remember
being quite disappointed with the first film and feeling that replacing
director Gary Ross with Francis Lawrence for Catching Fire was a good move.
Seeing it again, I still have some definite issues with the movie, but I
think I’m able to appreciate better now (premise spoilers.)
Every
year, the authoritarian government of the series’ dystopian society du jure instigates the Hunger
Games: a brutal, televised battale
royale in which two children from each of the country’s twelve districts are
chosen at random, dropped into a specially-designed arena, and forced to fight
to the death, both for the entertainment of those in the Capitol and as a
reminder to the districts of the government’s absolute control. When 16-year-old Katniss hears her younger
sister’s name drawn as the female “tribute” from District 12, she volunteers to
go in her place. Years of poverty and
hunger have taught her survival skills, but she’ll need more than that to make
it through the world’s harshest, cruelest reality show.
I still
maintain that this movie isn’t nearly suspenseful enough. The books are far from perfect, but Suzanne
Collins knows her way around a
cliffhanger, to the point that I had to learn to stop reading just before the end of a chapter, because I
knew I wouldn’t be able to put the book down if I didn’t. And yet, huge moments in the book just sort
of meander by in the movie. Part of that
is down to the surprisingly-minimal score – maybe this is a conscious choice to
make it seem more real and immersive, but for me, it really takes away from the
impact of these reveals. Additionally, I
wish they’d found a different way to convey Hamitch’s intentions with the
sponsor gifts he sends Katniss in the field.
In the book, watching her work through his unspoken signals, figuring
out what he’s thinking in order to get what she wants, is something I enjoy a
lot; it’s one of the things that shows how savvy she is. I understand that the book has Katniss in her
head a lot, which is super-hard to show onscreen, but to just have the gifts
include notes from Haymitch that say
what he’s thinking entirely remove that aspect of her smarts. Oh, and the costume game is not up to par. This is important to me, because Cinna is
such a great character, and I love how smart and intentional all of the outfits
he designs for Katniss are. As with
Haymitch’s notes, giving Katniss generic-looking and unimpressive outfits in
the Capitol reflect badly on Cinna’s skill and smarts.
Those are
a lot of complaints, but I really have come around to enjoying the movie
more. The sets and locations are really
well-realized, the film does an overall fine job of adapting a fairly dense
story, and the acting is great all-around.
While I still think it was a big mistake to remove the racial
identifiers between the Seam residents and the merchant class, I can’t deny
that Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson are both excellent as Katniss and
Haymitch. Lawrence in particular does
great, subtle work here – the later films get so much bigger that you tend to
“see” the acting a bit more, so it’s nice to be reminded what a deft hand she
can have. The movies in general do
something of a disservice to Peeta, but Josh Hutcherson does well with what
he’s given. And really, the supporting
characters are well-cast across the board, my favorites being Elizabeth Banks
as Effie and Stanley Tucci as Caesar. On
a final note, I appreciate the eleventh-hour nuance given to Cato. The whole idea of the Careers has always felt
like a slight cheat to me, a way to have Katniss only kill “bad guys” in the
arena, so I like seeing some complexity with him at the end – probably my
favorite addition to the story out of all four films.
Warnings
Violence
and strong thematic elements.
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