THE GOOD: 'THE HUNGER GAMES’
WRITING: 80
ACTING: 80
LOOK: 85
SOUND: 65
FEEL: 70
NOVELTY: 65
ENJOYMENT: 80
RE-WATCHABILITY: 85
INTRIGUE: 85
EXPECTATIONS: 90
THE GOOD:
Part of the magic of this film series is the contrasting visuals between the colourful glamour of the Capitol and the bleak, rough and natural look of District 12. The film captures these different worlds very well, which helps the audience identify with Katniss, Peeta and Gale.
Director Francis Lawrence has a clear vision and lets the audience in close with extreme close-ups and carefully chosen angles. That makes the challenges that Katniss faces all the more palpable.
Jennifer Lawrence is spot-on as Katniss, but Woody Harrelson is even better as the alcoholized and selfish former Hunger Games winner Haymitch.
The script follows the novel surprisingly faithfully, taking logical narrative shortcuts while retaining the spirit of the original story. The most important worldbuilding elements are still there and the script moves from one significant event to another with great pace, ensuring that viewers remain interested.
I’m happy they allow the pre-game stuff to play out properly, establishing character relationships and laying down the groundwork for the rest of the series. The script doesn’t just jump straight into the games.
I love the added scenes between Snow and Seneca, providing further exploration of their personas. These help us understand President Snow better.
Despite not being a particularly action-packed film, The Hunger Games packs a punch in terms of tension and dangerous situations, keeping the audience alert at all times.
THE BAD:
Part of the problem carried over from the novel is the triangle drama between Katniss, Peeta and Gale. It just never works for me, because it never feels real for Katniss’ part and then it’s later ruined for Peeta as well.
They rather butchered the mutated dogs from the climax; they were easily the most disturbing part of the original book. Nevertheless, I can understand why they decided to change the dogs for the film adaptation.
THE UGLY:
Also known as Survivor: Panem.
THE VERDICT:
The first Hunger Games movie is a faithful, tense and thrilling adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestselling YA novel.
79% = :white_check_mark: = GOOD
If you want to get me interested in a movie, then cast Jennifer Lawrence in the lead. I so loved her in Winter's Bone, that I watch it over and over.
But, it was not just Lawrence that was worth seeing. Woody Harrelson was amazing as Haymitch. He brought us a much stronger character than was portrayed in the book. Stanley Tucci was perfectly cast as Caesar Flickerman, and you could definitely see the evil in President Snow as played by the great Donald Sutherland. It was these four that really held the film together as they used their experience to give weight to the characters. The remaining cast seemed to flounder through.
The film touched on some interesting themes: the contrast between the 1% and the 99%, and the sacrifice of the poor to give their children for war in exchange for food were the strongest, but these were subtle and probably missed by reality show aficionados who would focus on the fake love as they would in shows like The Bachelor.
The fast cuts during battle scenes were really distracting; probably as not to offend younger viewers with the realization that children were killing each other.
It was good film all in all; even if it was superficial.
Honestly, for something that’s made for teenage girls, it’s really not that bad. The concept and socio-political metaphors are unlikely to blow the adult mind (it’s of course very reminiscent of Battle Royale), but they work well enough. Sometimes it holds your hand a little too much, or the dialogue/sequence of events feels too melodramatic, but given the intended audience I can look past some of that. I also quite like how it wraps up by using this theme of popularity by having the protagonists use it as a currency to cheat their way out of a broken system, even if that robs the film of a more genuine, emotional conclusion. There’s also some pretty intricate worldbuilding going on here, and the main characters are all pretty well defined. I especially love how cartoonish and exaggerated Panem feels. However, I’m less into the directing of this film. Sometimes the shaky cam/fast edit approach feels very distracting, or it’s used to cover up the violence. There’s a rough aesthetic to the film that mostly works in its favour, however sometimes it feels cheap (e.g. CGI fire dress). I also feel like because of that the second half of the film doesn’t entirely deliver on the excitement that’s promised in the first half. The film’s pretty well paced, but I still think it’s generally too long (how many scenes do we need illustrating that Peeta is better than Katniss at handling the media?) The acting can also be a bit rough, especially from the younger cast. Thankfully, like the earlier Harry Potter installments, the experienced veterans are never far away to elevate the material. Bentley, Sutherland and Banks aren’t being challenged here (in fact, their looks do most of the work), but I appreciate any YA film that doesn’t exclusively pander to the YA audience.
5/10
The Hunger Games was a bit of a surprise for me when it came out. I didn't know Jennifer Lawrence, nor did I know the writer of the books and the books themselves.
The movie I enjoyed, even though it's huge success felt bitter, having read stories like these in other formats (that were better in my opinion) not getting any glory whatsoever, with exception to Japan's "Battle Royale" franchise. But hey, that's what life is, right? Not counting unless it get's into Hollywood.
THG gave us a post-apocalyptic world which has an interesting premise, The Hunger Games, an annual event where each (of twelve) districts have to sacrifice one of their young'ns to keep their district alive. All a penalty for a once failed rebellion. Character building happens during the games, since we end up there pretty quickly and that all works well.
I liked most of the characters, I was however not a fan of the "love triangle" which not only didn't feel right (because it wasn't a triangle at all), it just felt forced into the movie at every moment. I get it's a big deal in this sort of Young Adult franchises, and in its books, but it just didn't fit at all. I loved the surprises the games had to offer, the fire, the falling tree, the Tracker Jackers. The way they were able to control the game was a nice touch, make it flow like they want. Reality television without the bad forced acting!
The film had a great run, it was interesting and fun from beginning to end, I didn't feel bored at any moment. Although, all together, the film lacks some distinction from other movies in its genre (with exception from the kids killing each other). It had an interesting world, with everything/one in it, but somehow it felt too generic for its own good.
The one thing it did the best, was leaving me to want more. Not per se of these characters, but definitely in this world, and these events.
While being a pleasurable movie, it ultimately doesn't deliver to be a good movie. Hence my score;
6 (fine)
Review by Dahj AshaBlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-25T00:18:55Z
7.5/10 - I thought this would be boring to rewatch but luckily it isn't :) The 4K version on Amazon Prime video tempted me to rewatch all of the movies again. It doesn't really look like 4K (not sharp enough, too dark, too much film grain, etc.) and the intense camera shaking at the beginning is annoying but other than that the quality is fine (it's already 10 years old so obviously it cannot compete with current movies).
Anyway, IIRC this movie made the battle royale genre(?) really take off.
It's nice to have an intro film about the Hunger Games inside this movie :D
That hand gesture really gives this meaning (it's just much more powerful than applause).
Haymitch is a cool character. He starts of as a drunk mentor that is through with life and doesn't care about anything but then he really gets invested and does a good job helping them.
Cinna is super nice - since the beginning. He really seems to be a big exception form the other people of the capitol.
Kinda funny that usually no one seems to care about district 12 but they get the penthouse :D
"Make sure they remember you."
They definitely did and now everyone does :D
The slowly starting relationship between Katniss and Peeta is nice but it sucks that there's Gale as well (and he's a nice guy too).
"Well that's bad luck."
Quite unbelievable that Katniss survived being out for a couple of days while Rue cared for her - Katniss surprisingly didn't look really shocked that she was out for that long.
The "funeral" that Katniss made for Rue was really quite something! <3
Katniss and Peeta did indeed show them up at the end but WTF did they think?!? You cannot introduce that rule and then simply revoke it at the end... :o :D That was a dumb move! Sure, they only wanted to give them hope and didn't intend for both of them to survive but then they should've either scripted or rather manipulated things better or accept their failure.
PS: Caesar is also fun/entertaining.
Two victor rule revoked, wtf?!?
Showed them up