The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012)

Image From IMDB

While there are obvious comparisons to the awesome Battle Royale Hunger Games always had its own thing going on from the start. I loved the Dystopian aspect of the story. The different districts. The extravagant Capital City. The costumes. The pomp and grandeur. Like, they truly believed these games mattered, and weren’t just barbaric entertainment for the masses. It’s great world building.

Central to all this is Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. Her peformance is truly fantastic for what is essentially a YA Novel. (I don’t mean that in a bad way, I like YA novels) She adds so much depth to what is already an incredibly interesting character. Katniss is brave, but not fearless. She’s practical and resourceful, but not a people person. She has a massive warm heart, yet can come across as cold, and Lawrence captures all of this with every expression and movement.

I like the other characters that fill this world too. Haymitch is highly entertaining, Effie makes me laugh, Cinna is cool, Caesar is outrageous, and President Snow oozes dystopian. The world building exists within the characters, not just the locations and architecture. It’s all extremely well put together.

Then there’s the games themselves. The Battle Royale element. I think that was the big selling point for the movie, and it’s all done very well. I’ll admit I prefer the first half of the film, and the introduction to the world, but the games is when the heart of the story is truly introduced as we watch Katniss battle to survive, while not being a killer herself. She’s trying to outlast everyone, not turn into some kind of horror movie Slasher.

The scenes with her and Rue (Amanda Stenberg) are my favourite inside the games, and sets up the entire series. The moment after Rue’s death when she looks up to the camera and essentially starts the rebellion still gives me goosebumps and breaks my heart. The fact that the next scene we see Katniss is tears tells me they knew what they were doing as well. It’s the most powerful part of the whole franchise for me.

I also really liked the cat and mouse element of Katniss in the tree with the participants from District one and two below. It reenforced both her resourcefulness and stubbornness, but also showed her vulnerability, and that she was going to need help to survive. It was a great sequence, with Bees once again showing they can’t be fucked with in movies.

While I think until the most recent instalment the franchise offered diminishing returns after the original, this first one is fantastic. There’s fewer examples of better modern world building, and has a great range of entertaining characters. The games mean something, and the somewhat cop out ending furthers the story rather than disappoints. It’s a solid movie from start to finish, and one I'll always have time for.