Visuals Out of Texts: The Beauty of Adapting

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2020)

If you wanted to watch a faithful adaptation of a novel for the big screen, then The Hunger Games is a perfect starting point. The film is able to capture not only the main story and important details, but the feeling and aesthetics described in the book. The dialogue, characters and scenes feel like a translation into visual media, without any need for re-imagining or reworking. The novel is what captivated audiences and launched the story to its lofty heights, and so an accurate representation was necessary. Unlike many films in the past in which directors can take many liberties with relatively less popular novels, The Hunger games follows on with the trend of young adult literature, think Harry Potter and Twilight, which is so universally well-known that nothing can be changed without provoking the ire of wanting young audiences. In this regard, The Hunger Games has done its job and given the people what they demanded.
One interesting, but not entirely novel, problem faced with a film adaptation was the first person narrative in the novel. Katniss is the narrator and main character, and much of the exposition happens in her head. The novel is relatively sparse on dialogue for a large chunk of it, but we have Katniss to help guide us through the various newly introduced details. In the film, however, we don't have her inner monologue. Instead, the film opts to have Caeser Flickerman and his co-host act as elucidators during the Games, and the intermittent flash-backs inform us of the backstory for Katniss and Peeta. The film is not over-the-top with its backstory, giving us only the bare minimum of what we need to fill in the blanks. This is okay, because they know that many of those who come to see the movie have already read the book and know the details. However, any new fan coming into the series starting with the films might have their work cut out for them to understand the finer points.
The visual representations are also stunning. On one side we have the districts, garbed in 1940s style clothing as a symbol of living under totalitarianism mimicked from our own often sad world. They are lacking of all luxuries and indulgences. We get a short glimpse of this austere world in Katniss's household and the depressing village she lives in. Then suddenly we are shocked by the image of Effie Trinket, a fluorescent china doll in a gray world. It is like coming out of a dark room and seeing the sun for the first time, it blinds you. The contrast between the people in the Capital and those in the districts could not be any clearer. It is hedonism versus survival. The pastries and parties and petticoats and an insult to the lifetime of struggle faced by the peasantry, and that comes across astutely in the film.
Despite the nearly two and a half hour length, the film still feels as though it were somewhat rushed. The important setup is skimmed over in favor of getting to the Games quicker, but still arrives there at the one hour mark. This is sensible from a marketing perspective, you want the action to take up the majority of the film. It is somewhat of an unsolvable problem. The film must necessarily be the entire plot from start to finish and not broken up into two parts (leave that to the final installment after your audience is already emotionally invested). Yet it still needs to summarize a relatively complex plot with an entirely new world in a short amount of time and satisfyingly display all of the important action. There isn't enough time to flesh out certain things, like Katniss's love triangle, or Haymitch's true character, but the film does as best as it can. In this regard, it gets a passing grade.
Another limiting factor is the desire to make the film available to all audiences, that is to say, to tone down the violence and allow for a PG rating. This story is another unfortunate casualty of the MPAA and the need for as wide a reach as possible. What is this story about, really? It's about teens tearing each other apart in bloody gladiatorial conquest. It is violence to the umpteenth degree. If ever there was a film that deserves as much blood and gore as possible, this is it. This is not the fault of the filmmakers, they did their due diligence in trying to show as much as possible. This is more of a "disgruntled critic shaking his fist as the system" type of situation.
The film is not perfect by any stretch, as it comes from a rather imperfect book. The novel did not reach its zenith on the back of Collins' stupendous ability to create lifelike characters. Nor was it on her convincing ability to make a romantic subplot. These faltering details are present in the film too, though somewhat compensated by the acting abilities of Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson, among others. The story is amazing because of its premise. It is a collectathon mixed with a battle royale with an intriguing political subplot of fascism and cultural revolution. It feels like something that can inspire us and give us refuge from our own world. Despite its fantastical elements, it feels like something you could place yourself into, and it almost makes you wish you could be there to see if you could survive.
Where this film succeeds is in its ability to take an already successful and interesting novel and put it into visual terms that everyone can enjoy. Where it fails is paradoxically in the same way, where it was too true to the book when it could have improved or reinterpreted. Dialogue that works in text doesn't always feel lifelike coming from a real person, nor does an exciting action sequence look as exciting on screen. That being said, The Hunger Games should not be overlooked in the ever-growing genre of teen-fantasy novel adaptations. It is not a masterpiece or a hidden gem, but it is fun and worthwhile. Not everyone can be Peter Jackson and create something as monumental and consistently lauded as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but we can hope not to go too far and become The Hobbit. Settling for a solid middle grounds of Harry Potter is a pretty good place to be.