The Hunger Games (2012) - Directed by Gary Ross

Plot - In a post apocalyptic future where North America has been divided into 12 districts and the new nation renamed Panem, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to participate in the sadistic Hunger Games to save her sister; the Hunger Games are a contest designed to keep the population under control after the had previously tried to rebel ahainst the current rulers and as a reminder of their servitude to them. Most of the districts away from the capital are living in hardship with food shortages etc; two 'tributes' (one boy, one girl between the ages of 12 and 18) are selected in a raffle from each district to battle against each other in a last man/woman standing contest.

Thoughts - A pretty good action adventure that I quite liked.

Jennife Lawrence is a great bit of casting; she carries the film displaying a toughness and strength that the role requires. The adult cast include Woody Harelson who is very good as a previous winner whose become drunk and jaded, Donald Sutherland as the malevolent overseer of the games/country(?) has some quality evil time, with a great line about the underdog, and a quite frankly terrifying looking Stanley Tucci as the game host. The younger cast are a more mixed effort; apart from the male tribute, Peeta they are rather forgettable. The focus is very much on Lawrence with little attention paid to her opponents so they come across as little more than paper thin and when they die or survive it doesn't really register apart from one death.

It lacks the dark humour of something like Battle Royale or The Running Man. The satire is played pretty straight touching on the aspects of voyeurism and reality TV which while it has been done many times before is fine here with the added aspect of playing up to the camera and being sponsored. The first half is shot in a slightly jarring shakey cam/excessive cutting manner but it finds a more standard approach as we enter the games proper. At the 12A rating it's obviously not as visceral as some of the films it's compared to but it nonetheless still packs a punch. The run time of 142 minutes also speeds by and the film never sags; split into two main sections the preparation and the games proper works well here. The film does feel incomplete or at least that it has partly developed certain character relationships and plot points, no doubt left for what looks like the inevitable trilogy of films. Though in this case I look forward to seeing them when they are released though hopefully they avoid any Jacob/Edwards type melodrama.

7/10

NB Well, just read the first Hunger Games book this afternoon and it was surprisingly fine considering I'm not the intended audience of the YA crowd. Told from a first person perspective, from Katniss, it's a pretty good scifi adventure. The film is pretty faithful to the source novel, helped no doubt that the author was involved in the screenplay though they do fit in some elements of their own to bolster the narrative and flesh out some of the other characters.