Review of The Hunger Games
So many thoughts! It took me ages to expand this and get everything I wanted. Might go back to put in more on race.
When I first heard they were making a HUNGER GAMES’ film, my thought process went something like this:
1. It was inevitable for the third largest thing in YA to get a film, after the success of HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT,
2. But I don’t know if this is really going to work: THE HUNGER GAMES was quite critical of violence-as entertainment" and movies make their living off of "violence-as-entertainment." It’s almost like this is one of those books that shouldn’t be filmed at all.
3. Then again, film is a powerful medium. Surely it can depict violence as sick and senseless as much as it can violence as glorious and cool?
I was optimistic that the film would be good. I even bought tickets to an opening night showing, which is something I never do.
Ultimately, I felt disappointed though it took me awhile to figure out why. I hadn’t realized that I had such fixed ideas of what the film should’ve been like until I saw that Gary Ross’ version wasn’t it.
Which, well, DUH. I think I’ve seen enough adaptations to know how they work. My golden rule for adaptations has always been: you can fuck around with the plot, delete characters, rewrite entire scenes or write them out all together... as long as you can stay true to the spirit of the source material. I haven’t read the book in years-- I’m hardly going to criticize you about mucking up the details when I can barely remember them. Likewise, I understand the restrictions of time and money: I was at peace with how movie!Katniss got her pin, that movie!Peeta didn’t lose his leg, or (after the CGI on the Girl on Fire dress failed to wow me) that the mutts didn’t resemble the other Tributes.
But if you mess with the spirit of the source, then the movie is not a believable substitute.
First off, The Things I Liked:
-The cast was pretty much perfect. I surprised myself by liking Josh Hutcherson’s portrayal of Peeta. He was so soft and earnest; I couldn’t help say “awwww, puppy” a few times for him.
Jennifer Lawrence is clearly an amazing actress who needs to star and lead more films. But maybe I was caught up in “omg, it’s Jennifer Lawrence!” but there were a few spots where I had trouble buying her as the character.
I also liked Haymitch (despite the hair), Cinna (the golden eyeliner said everything!), Caesar Flickerman (perfection), and Elizabeth Banks (I was less sure about their characterization of Effie). Rue and Prim were precious.
-There were scenes I genuinely liked. Katniss and Gale hanging out in the forest was a fitting prelude to the chaos to come.
The trackerjacker haze was trippy.
Caesar Flickerman cutting into the Games to give exposition was a great example of what film can do that the book can’t.
And Seneca Crane getting locked up in a room with the poisoned berries was brief but conveyed so much. It was excellent.
-The film was gorgeous. The greens are lush and the blues are properly faded. The contrast between the Districts and Capitol was sharp. Gary Ross is clearly a competent filmmaker.
But I have to wonder whether the film would’ve been better served going gritty.
Things I Didn’t Like:
-Where’s the dissonance? Suzanne Collins once said that she got her inspiration for THE HUNGER GAMES from flipping channels between a reality tv show and some Iraq war footage until the two blurred together in “a very unsettling way.” This sentiment absolutely permeates the books. Collins masterfully depicts the dissonance between Katniss’ experience of the Games as a war, and the audience (both Capitol and reader)’s experience of the Games as entertainment. It was unsettling and it made the books powerful. It’s what made them special (to me).
To capture that same dissonance, I thought the film might use multiple screens (which are not the same as split screens) so that we (the moviegoers) could get the sense that “this is what the Capitol is seeing” in contrast with “this is what Katniss is seeing.” This would’ve been particularly helpful in the cave scenes where the fact that Katniss was faking it didn’t make it across very well. One glance to the side, for us and not for the Capitol cameras, of her looking troubled by what she was doing would’ve gone a long way. Perhaps employ a visual cue (using zoomed out/unusual angles, fiddling with the colors, putting the scene in a frame) to indicate that we’re looking from the viewpoint of the Capitol and then employing another one for Katniss’ viewpoint to show the audience that there is a difference here. A dissonance.
Now, multiple screens can be a hassle and I totally understood it if Ross didn’t go with that option. He’s his own director, I trusted him to come up with some brilliant ideas that would still convey the dissonance of the Games. (And based on the promotional material, I thought multiple screens could be in play.) But for the most part, the dissonance didn’t come across.
Everything before the Games did a decent job conveying the District people’s dread. But the thing they dreaded was not as disturbing-- unsettling-- as it could’ve been. As I needed it to be. The Games themselves felt perfunctory (and more so as time went on; was I just more bored too?): ahh, yes, this is when Katniss and Rue blow up the food, this is when Katniss gets the medicine and after that they get chased by the mutts, ticked all those boxes, let’s move on.
By disturbing, I don’t mean gory. A few people were concerned that the PG-13 rating meant the violence would be too toned down. But there’s a reason gorefests are more sickening than they are scary. More blood doesn’t mean more horror. HOTEL RWANDA another PG-13 movie, barely had any violence at all, but it fully conveyed the horror of the Rwandan Genocide.
I’m reminded of that scene in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE when Harry gets back to Hogwarts with Cedric Diggory’s body and the entire school cheered because they had no idea what had happened. There it is: the dissonance between what Harry was feeling versus what the school was feeling was sharp. It was shocking to us. I wanted that same thing for THE HUNGER GAMES.
-More Tributes, less Snow. What with the flashy way they were introduced to us and the rumblings about backstories for the Tributes, I thought we would be getting more about the other kids. And what better way to convey the horrific machinations of the Capitol than to humanize the fodder before killing them? I wanted to see their reapings, and maybe some of the fight between Thresh and Cato.
What was I thinking?! Time with the Tributes was pretty much limited to what we got in the books. We had the Careers, but they're so abominable that (even with Cato’s too-little-too-late speech) it was hard to feel that they were victims, instead of criminals who deserved what they got. And we had Rue who is the poster child for “dead [sis] walking.” That still leaves about eight kids whose deaths were as empty of meaning as their non-existent names.
I liked that we saw the Gamemakers’ Room-- their manipulations and glee would’ve made a strong counterpoint to the horror of these kids dying.
I wish we could trade Snow’s scenes for more of the Tributes. As much as I appreciate his rose garden (nice character touch), his scenes broke the rhythm of the Games and ruined his character for me. Snow (with his mouth sores) was a mysterious and menacing figure. He isn’t anymore.
-Uneven pacing. Some people are saying that the movie felt rushed or how two hours isn’t enough to convey everything. But I couldn’t help but think there was a lot of dead time in the film that they could’ve used doing something else. Did we really need to watch Katniss flick a butterfly off her finger?
THE HUNGER GAMES film should’ve been as unsettling as its source material. It should’ve made the viewer question themselves, human nature and society. But it didn’t, and that’s a shame.
Gary Ross’ interpretation of THE HUNGER GAMES made for a decent film. My hat’s off to him, it really is, but the film clearly wasn’t for me. I was absolutely defeated by my own expectations and I accept that.
It’s unlikely that I’ll be seeing the sequels. I might catch them on DVD just to see where they’re taking their interpretation; I might even appreciate Ross’ vision more if I went back to see it. But I have to admit to feeling like watching the movie retroactively ruined the book for me.
Quibbles:
-A few awkward lines. Gotta push out that exposition somehow.
-The CGI, especially for the fire, was likewise awkward but I also got that CGI is difficult to make.
-Some of the costumes were tacky, especially the ones for the interview. It was like they were going to a really cheap prom. The Swarovski crystals were the saving grace of Katniss’ Girl on Fire dress (just barely), but Peeta always looked bad dressed for his Capitol stuff. Which is too bad because the red carpet shows that Hutcherson can do more than conventional.
A few of the swords were not believable weapons; they were so obviously props. Their budget must've been tiny.
-A few cases of people doing nonsensical things. For instance, when Katniss was sawing at the trackerjackers’ nest and they were coming out to get her, I kept mentally screaming at her to put the damn hoodie on to protect her neck.
When I first heard they were making a HUNGER GAMES’ film, my thought process went something like this:
1. It was inevitable for the third largest thing in YA to get a film, after the success of HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT,
2. But I don’t know if this is really going to work: THE HUNGER GAMES was quite critical of violence-as entertainment" and movies make their living off of "violence-as-entertainment." It’s almost like this is one of those books that shouldn’t be filmed at all.
3. Then again, film is a powerful medium. Surely it can depict violence as sick and senseless as much as it can violence as glorious and cool?
I was optimistic that the film would be good. I even bought tickets to an opening night showing, which is something I never do.
Ultimately, I felt disappointed though it took me awhile to figure out why. I hadn’t realized that I had such fixed ideas of what the film should’ve been like until I saw that Gary Ross’ version wasn’t it.
Which, well, DUH. I think I’ve seen enough adaptations to know how they work. My golden rule for adaptations has always been: you can fuck around with the plot, delete characters, rewrite entire scenes or write them out all together... as long as you can stay true to the spirit of the source material. I haven’t read the book in years-- I’m hardly going to criticize you about mucking up the details when I can barely remember them. Likewise, I understand the restrictions of time and money: I was at peace with how movie!Katniss got her pin, that movie!Peeta didn’t lose his leg, or (after the CGI on the Girl on Fire dress failed to wow me) that the mutts didn’t resemble the other Tributes.
But if you mess with the spirit of the source, then the movie is not a believable substitute.
First off, The Things I Liked:
-The cast was pretty much perfect. I surprised myself by liking Josh Hutcherson’s portrayal of Peeta. He was so soft and earnest; I couldn’t help say “awwww, puppy” a few times for him.
Jennifer Lawrence is clearly an amazing actress who needs to star and lead more films. But maybe I was caught up in “omg, it’s Jennifer Lawrence!” but there were a few spots where I had trouble buying her as the character.
I also liked Haymitch (despite the hair), Cinna (the golden eyeliner said everything!), Caesar Flickerman (perfection), and Elizabeth Banks (I was less sure about their characterization of Effie). Rue and Prim were precious.
-There were scenes I genuinely liked. Katniss and Gale hanging out in the forest was a fitting prelude to the chaos to come.
The trackerjacker haze was trippy.
Caesar Flickerman cutting into the Games to give exposition was a great example of what film can do that the book can’t.
And Seneca Crane getting locked up in a room with the poisoned berries was brief but conveyed so much. It was excellent.
-The film was gorgeous. The greens are lush and the blues are properly faded. The contrast between the Districts and Capitol was sharp. Gary Ross is clearly a competent filmmaker.
But I have to wonder whether the film would’ve been better served going gritty.
Things I Didn’t Like:
-Where’s the dissonance? Suzanne Collins once said that she got her inspiration for THE HUNGER GAMES from flipping channels between a reality tv show and some Iraq war footage until the two blurred together in “a very unsettling way.” This sentiment absolutely permeates the books. Collins masterfully depicts the dissonance between Katniss’ experience of the Games as a war, and the audience (both Capitol and reader)’s experience of the Games as entertainment. It was unsettling and it made the books powerful. It’s what made them special (to me).
To capture that same dissonance, I thought the film might use multiple screens (which are not the same as split screens) so that we (the moviegoers) could get the sense that “this is what the Capitol is seeing” in contrast with “this is what Katniss is seeing.” This would’ve been particularly helpful in the cave scenes where the fact that Katniss was faking it didn’t make it across very well. One glance to the side, for us and not for the Capitol cameras, of her looking troubled by what she was doing would’ve gone a long way. Perhaps employ a visual cue (using zoomed out/unusual angles, fiddling with the colors, putting the scene in a frame) to indicate that we’re looking from the viewpoint of the Capitol and then employing another one for Katniss’ viewpoint to show the audience that there is a difference here. A dissonance.
Now, multiple screens can be a hassle and I totally understood it if Ross didn’t go with that option. He’s his own director, I trusted him to come up with some brilliant ideas that would still convey the dissonance of the Games. (And based on the promotional material, I thought multiple screens could be in play.) But for the most part, the dissonance didn’t come across.
Everything before the Games did a decent job conveying the District people’s dread. But the thing they dreaded was not as disturbing-- unsettling-- as it could’ve been. As I needed it to be. The Games themselves felt perfunctory (and more so as time went on; was I just more bored too?): ahh, yes, this is when Katniss and Rue blow up the food, this is when Katniss gets the medicine and after that they get chased by the mutts, ticked all those boxes, let’s move on.
By disturbing, I don’t mean gory. A few people were concerned that the PG-13 rating meant the violence would be too toned down. But there’s a reason gorefests are more sickening than they are scary. More blood doesn’t mean more horror. HOTEL RWANDA another PG-13 movie, barely had any violence at all, but it fully conveyed the horror of the Rwandan Genocide.
I’m reminded of that scene in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE when Harry gets back to Hogwarts with Cedric Diggory’s body and the entire school cheered because they had no idea what had happened. There it is: the dissonance between what Harry was feeling versus what the school was feeling was sharp. It was shocking to us. I wanted that same thing for THE HUNGER GAMES.
-More Tributes, less Snow. What with the flashy way they were introduced to us and the rumblings about backstories for the Tributes, I thought we would be getting more about the other kids. And what better way to convey the horrific machinations of the Capitol than to humanize the fodder before killing them? I wanted to see their reapings, and maybe some of the fight between Thresh and Cato.
What was I thinking?! Time with the Tributes was pretty much limited to what we got in the books. We had the Careers, but they're so abominable that (even with Cato’s too-little-too-late speech) it was hard to feel that they were victims, instead of criminals who deserved what they got. And we had Rue who is the poster child for “dead [sis] walking.” That still leaves about eight kids whose deaths were as empty of meaning as their non-existent names.
I liked that we saw the Gamemakers’ Room-- their manipulations and glee would’ve made a strong counterpoint to the horror of these kids dying.
I wish we could trade Snow’s scenes for more of the Tributes. As much as I appreciate his rose garden (nice character touch), his scenes broke the rhythm of the Games and ruined his character for me. Snow (with his mouth sores) was a mysterious and menacing figure. He isn’t anymore.
-Uneven pacing. Some people are saying that the movie felt rushed or how two hours isn’t enough to convey everything. But I couldn’t help but think there was a lot of dead time in the film that they could’ve used doing something else. Did we really need to watch Katniss flick a butterfly off her finger?
THE HUNGER GAMES film should’ve been as unsettling as its source material. It should’ve made the viewer question themselves, human nature and society. But it didn’t, and that’s a shame.
Gary Ross’ interpretation of THE HUNGER GAMES made for a decent film. My hat’s off to him, it really is, but the film clearly wasn’t for me. I was absolutely defeated by my own expectations and I accept that.
It’s unlikely that I’ll be seeing the sequels. I might catch them on DVD just to see where they’re taking their interpretation; I might even appreciate Ross’ vision more if I went back to see it. But I have to admit to feeling like watching the movie retroactively ruined the book for me.
Quibbles:
-A few awkward lines. Gotta push out that exposition somehow.
-The CGI, especially for the fire, was likewise awkward but I also got that CGI is difficult to make.
-Some of the costumes were tacky, especially the ones for the interview. It was like they were going to a really cheap prom. The Swarovski crystals were the saving grace of Katniss’ Girl on Fire dress (just barely), but Peeta always looked bad dressed for his Capitol stuff. Which is too bad because the red carpet shows that Hutcherson can do more than conventional.
A few of the swords were not believable weapons; they were so obviously props. Their budget must've been tiny.
-A few cases of people doing nonsensical things. For instance, when Katniss was sawing at the trackerjackers’ nest and they were coming out to get her, I kept mentally screaming at her to put the damn hoodie on to protect her neck.