Hunger Games: plz to feed the wild Jennifer Lawrence. Credit: the magic of google.
I confess to never having read the Hunger Games series. I am ridiculously fussy about my fantasy – Arthurian, Tolkien, Narnia and Harry Potter. My familiarity with the world of Panem is limited to gifs of JLaw’s sassiness, and pictures of Effie Trinket painted as some dystopian geisha/Elizabethan lady-of-court. Despite the hype and the accolades, I’ve never had the urge to read the books, much less watch the movies.
But when my sister decided to shell out $3.99 to watch the movie on cable, I figured it was as good a time as any to see what the fuss was about.
The Hunger Games is, of course (is this summation really necessary?) about young Katniss Everdeen, most competent member of her 3 women household, and chief provider of foodstuff to her delicately porcelain-esque sister, Primrose (Prim) and her vaguely useless mother. Replete with bow and all, Katniss is practically the Roman goddess Diana incarnate: queen and huntress, chaste and fair. It might have even been a wiser choice for Suzanne Collins to name her main character Diana, considering that my sister started referring to Katniss as ‘Catpiss’.
Katniss volunteers to represent her District in the 74th Annual Hunger Games in sweet little Prim’s stead. The Hunger Games is a contest in which 24 children are chosen from the 12 Districts to go Battle Royale on each other for the viewing pleasure of the residents of the Capitol, which also happens to be the capital city of Panem.
The first half of the movie is engaging, even if disorienting to the uninformed viewer. District 12 seems a contradiction of sadness and serenity. It is half depression-era Shantytown, half indie-folk enclave. There’re ramshackle houses and despondent residents, women sitting blandly on worn patios and children peeking through the gaping holes of their wooded walls. It is washed in a palette of dirty-white and earth and grey-blue; but though the colours are muted, they are nonetheless rich and full.
Moreso when Katniss sneaks off to the verdant green of the forests to try and shoot a deer – which we are treated to some beautiful closeups of, crumble wet leaves into the wind and flirt and eat carbs with Miley Cyrus’ ex-fiancé/the youngest Hemsworth of them all, Liam. It would not be inappropriate if Mumford & Sons showed up at about this time. Compared to the garishness of the Capitol, it seems like a simpler, more peaceful place – if it’s people weren’t so depressed and yoked to the mercy of Peacekeepers (aka stormtroopers who are allowed to remove their helmuts), that is.
But there’s also too much information tossed about casually as the film tries both to placate book fans and establish the world of Panem. What’s wrong with trading with Stormtrooper lites on the day of the draw? Thor Jr.’s name is up 42 times in the Hunger Games draw for what reason now? Is that related to trading squirrel meat with Peacekeepers? What’s the benefit of trading meant instead of keeping it for his own family? Why would Peacekeepers need to resort to trading for and eating squirrel when they’re obviously peons of the super-rich Capitol? What about rabies? Is this really sanitary? Or is it part of some super conniving ploy to infect all the Capitol’s allies with viral disease?
The choice of shaky camera work is a good one, effective in conveying chaos and uncertainty, be it the turmoil happening at the moment or within the character. But it can also be too heavy-handed. Sometimes you wished the camera would just stay still so that you could properly take in what was going on in this unfamiliar world.
The movie’s best sequence is probably the selection of the District 12 representatives to the Hunger Games. Bathed in the starkest, bleakest white of the sun, the children are sullenly catalogued and corralled together, before being treated to a laughably nonsensical propaganda short about the justification of the Hunger Games that even Donald Sutherland’s voice-over can’t lend credence to. Every dress has been starched and ironed, every trouser pressed.Every shirt is buttoned up, every strand of hair combed back or braided neatly.
And suddenly we are in Nazi-era Germany, and these children seem like they are being rounded up into concentration camps, like Jews led to slaughter. It’s somewhat befuddling why there is the need for the children to dress their Sunday best as they march to their impending doom, but it makes you die a little inside when tiny two-braid Prim, remembering her mother’s instructions, tucks a loose fold of her shirt into the back of her skirt as she is shuffles dazedly up to the stage to be declared the District’s representative.
When Katniss shouts to take her sister’s place, it is hasty – played out too quick, as it needs to be, when there is not enough time and a decision has to be made. Jennifer Lawrence does an excellent job of channeling Katniss’ dazed state as the reality of her decision sinks in. It wasn’t a choice, and the actress makes that clear. The three words she utters in this moment: “Katniss Everdeen” and “yes”, make you root for her more than all the other moments in the movie combined. The other children give her a 3-fingered salute. Maybe they’re telling the Capitol ‘up yours’. Who knows. JLaw does not look reassured.
Katniss’ strength is evident here more than any artistic-deer-hunting sequence can convey, as she deals with parting with her loved ones before heading to her likely doom, and needing to stay strong for their sake as much as her own. She hastily dispenses survival tips to Prim, instructions to Miley-no-more and tells Mama Everdeen to suck it up and actually make herself useful.
Oh, and somewhere amidst the greatness of Jennifer Lawrence’s performance, they selected the male tribute. His name is Peeta Mellark, he bakes bread and threw some to a waif-ish Katniss while he was feeding it to the pigs. He claims to have picked up l337 camouflage skills from icing cake (huh?!). He’s doomed.
The rest of the movie is no less engaging, considering that’s when the children start slaughtering each other, but it isn’t as strong as the first part. Katniss suffers the mysterious and Mary-Sue-ish fate of having absolutely everyone like her, from her mentor, Scruffy Drunk Guy, to Lenny Kravitz, even though she mostly seems lost and has a chip on her shoulder. Volunteering to take your sister’s place definitely goes a long way, but not being particularly friendly should make people less inclined to help you.
Peeta, on the other hand, has excellent PR skills. Contrary to my earlier assessment, he seems to have a better shot in hell than Katniss and demonstrates this several times, from waving to the greeters at the train station when they arrive to holding up a reluctant and clueless Katniss’ hand triumphantly during their formal introduction in weird faux-fire dominatrix pleather outfits. He also fares well in the interviews with a smarmed-out Stanley Tucci, despite the fact that Scruffy Drunk Guy decided to drop him to focus on Katniss. A bit odd, considering the fact that it was Peeta who managed to get SDG to start spilling survival advice while Katniss brooded her fate. He also managed the impressive feat of forming an alliance with the District 1 tributes, even though they were gunning for him initially. Even so, it didn’t yield in-game benefits for Peeta (i.e. in terms of sponsorships) as one would expect.
It was also befuddling that the tributes managed to emerge lean, mean fighting machines after a very brief 4-day survival camp. Their chances were ranked on a scale of 12, and no one received a score below 5. Where Primrose looked like she wouldn’t survive 5 minutes, none of the randomly selected participants seemed to be completely lost in the face of guerrilla warfare and combat training.
There was a lot of emphasis on the important of sponsors, who pay a pretty penny to have supplies parachute-d out to their tributes of choice to help them survive. I would venture a guess that sponsored items were far more prolific in the books then in the movie.
Katniss receives only 2 sponsored items in the course of the Hunger Games – medicine for a burn wound, and soup, with a sleazy note about the lack of full-on pashing she engaged in with Peeta. Which she later does along with snuggling up to the poor love struck baker boy, making the entire situation even more discomfiting. Her showmance with Peeta doesn’t result in more supplies coming their way even though Peeta desperately needs medicine for his wounded leg, which begs the question of why Katniss still carried on with Peeta in the context of the game despite her apathy.
Katniss actually spends most of her time lashed to a tall tree and trying to keep out of harm’s way. This is a sensible course of action, of course, but she neither metes out harm nor actively manages to fend off any attackers. From a potential sponsor’s standpoint, it makes her mundane. This begs the question of why someone would actually sponsor her medicine when she incursa burn wound, unless it was due largely to SDG’s fierce lobbying for her to sponsors.
Indeed, Katniss appears to get by not so much because of her fabled prowess with a bow – which to be fair, did come in handy, but features scarcely enough to warrant the hype surrounding her archery skills in the buildup. Her most impressive moments of marksmanship involved shooting apples – both at the final presentation to the sponsors and when she shot at a pile of apples to detonate some landmines during the Games.
From the doe-eyed Rue – who emerges as the most compelling tribute during the course of the Games – helpfully pointing out a wasps nest she could drop on a slumbering pile of particularly lethal District 1 tributes waiting to kill her to SDG’s managing to secure medicine for her, luck seemed to be what carried Katniss through. Luck, and a little compassion. Rue’s male counterpart from District 10, Thresh, conveniently killed the tribute who was about the kill Katniss after learning that said tribute was responsible for Rue’s death. Katniss was spared because Thresh somehow knew that she cared for Rue. Karma’s a bitch.
The District 1 tributes are characterized as children who trained their whole life for the Hunger Games, yet were both stupid enough to light a fire at night and all go to sleep at the same time, as opposed to setting up a watch in shifts.
These are little nitpicky things, but add up such that the much-anticipated Hunger Games themselves being a somewhat incongruous, slightly disappointing experience. Katniss was less effectual than she had been built-up to be. Even if not one for cold-blooded killing, as in line with her character, more stratagem and action from her would have been welcome.
It is also hard not to feel frustrated at the lack of agency displayed by the characters. When the rule change allowing 2 tributes from the same District to be co-champions is redacted, you wonder why Peeta and Katniss don’t simply refuse to bow to the rules as the last tributes standing. Instead, he offers to sacrifice himself, and her counter solution was for them both to die. Why could they not simply refuse to kill each other? What would have happened?
That said, with half the tributes slaughtered during the first few minutes of the games, and Katniss dodging fireballs and strange beasts, plenty of action is served up on a platter to continue to engage audiences. Even if Katniss herself does not provide a sufficient point of tension - her survival seems obviously assured given that she is in the next 2 films, Jennifer Lawrence delivers a solid performance.
Young Amandla Stenberg as Rue delivers a great performance with precious little at her disposal. It is Rue whom you wish would somehow, someway survive the Games with Peeta and Katniss, even though her grim fate is clear. And it is Rue’s death that provides the most emotional, heartwrenching moment of the film.
The Hunger Games yields an eventually satisfying conclusion, but ultimately leaves a non-book fan with many questions. This may well be the intent of the movies, in order to hook the casual viewer into reading the books.
My interest has certainly been piqued for the next film. That being said, I will content myself with googling for the requisite answers to my Hunger Games questions, and stick to rereading the Silmarillion instead.
