Based on the best-selling book by Suzanne Collins and set in a post-apocalyptic future America, The Hunger Games sees the Capitol of the nation of Panem force each of its twelve districts to offer up a teenage boy and girl as 'Tributes' to compete in the annual Hunger Games contest. The Games are televised and each Tribute must fight the others until only one survivor remains. When the younger sister of sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is drawn to compete, Katniss takes her place and must use all of her courage, skill and determination to survive.
Directed by Gary Ross, The Hunger Games struck me as being atypical of most of the drivel which Hollywood churns out and hopes will become a blockbuster. Transformers, in all three of its hideous incarnations, is living proof of this. The philosophy that if you stick enough loud bangs, crashes and pretty girls prancing around cars with not a lot on will guarantee a good film and, more importantly, make a shed load of money is not what cinema is about. Fair enough if you have all this, but a bit of depth doesn't hurt.
The Hunger Games is a film which has all the action, adventure and thrills that you would expect from a film based on kids running around a forest and killing each other, but it also delivers an unsettling message. Taking the visuals first, the action sequences are entralling and are really well executed. Distinctive shaky-cam cinematography pulls the audience into the disturbing events of the film and really makes you feel involved with the characters and their situations. Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss is faultless and delivers a performance which is both assured and vulnerable as she becomes both the hunter and the hunted. Donald Sutherland leads a well-rounded supporting cast who never stray into the trap of toning down their performances in order to boost Lawrence's own. Quite frankly, you could shove the top ten best actors of recent years in a room with her and she'd hold her own.
On another level, the whole film looks beautiful. From the dense, oppressive greenery of the forest to the colour and modernism of the Capitol, the production designers have done a fantastic job, creating a world which is so alien and yet worryingly recognisable. The idea of humanity breaking down to the point of savagery is a key idea addressed by The Hunger Games and not since John Prescott was informed that 'Greggs' had sold out of steak pies has violence been so harrowing. The film's 12A certificate meant that blood splatters had to be reduced but, in a strange way, this made the killing of the 'Tributes' even more disturbing. I have always maintained that it is what the audience doesn't see which has the biggest impact and the flashes of brutality which punctuate the fight sequences are genuinely difficult to watch. Whilst the ending didn't have the powerful punch that it perhaps should have had, this is a minor point in what was otherwise a well-crafted narrative.
The Hunger Games is not your run-of-the-mill action/adventure blockbuster. Its strong and dynamic central character, bucking the trend of the hapless teenage heroine in need of a man to save her (Twilight, cough, cough), together with its dramatic action and emotional core is a pleasure to watch. The odds for a sequel are looking good (Collins wrote a trilogy of books) and if ticket pre-sales are anything to go by, the film may well be one of the biggest this year. Sci-fi may not be my cup of tea, but The Hunger Games has left me wanting seconds...
Clapperboard Rating: * * * *
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