Decent but unspectacular YA adaptation

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2012)

With the Harry Potter films over and Twilight concluding soon, Hollywood has filled the financially lucrative void with its latest Young Adult series adaptation, The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a stronger than the first Harry Potter film, but is still only a decent but unspectacular film, with a lot of ideas at the core, but not quite mining them all to success.
The film opens at some point in the future, where society has collapsed and the country is split into 12 impoverished districts while the control is located in the resplendent Capitol. In the past, the Districts had rose up against the Capitol, but had been put down, and as punishment The Hunger Games was born: a televised competition where one boy and one girl from each district are chosen annually to fight one another in a bloody tournament where only one survivor can go home. From District 12, Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) is selected, but her older and tougher sister, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take her place. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who holds a secret crush for Katniss.
At the Capitol, they participate in a series of training exercises and public ceremonies leading up to the games, groomed by Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) to create a memorable impression on the crowds whom they will rely on as potential sponsors for weapons and supplies during the games. They are also given survival guidance by Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), the last winner from District 12 who is now a lush, using his position largely as an opportunity to avail himself of food and drink. Katniss quickly proves an impressive find, and gamemaster Seneca (Wes Bentley) tries to influence President Snow (Donald Sutherland) to make a few adjustments to the games due to her, but Snow is not so taken, seeing her strength and willpower as dangerous. When the games are finally underway, in a wooded landscape, Katniss must summon all her strength and resourcefulness to survive the elements and her fellow players.
You would have to have been living under a rock for the last decade or so to not recognize the Hunger Games is a cautionary tale about modern reality TV taken to the Nth degree. It is most successful when the characters are being featured on a talk show, hosted by an over-the-top Stanley Tucci, which resembles today's fluff interview programs such as The Tonight Show and Entertainment Weekly, biting satire which hits the mark. Tucci and his co-anchor, portrayed by Toby Jones, commentate and reflect on the games as if people's lives weren't in the balance, giving us a glimpse at what could, unfortunately, be our future. Unfortunately, the background of the dystopian world the characters live in is underdeveloped, leaving a lot of questions concerning how the Capitol maintains control of the people unexplored.
The Hunger Games doesn't really tread any ground that hasn't already been well-worn by other works, including The Running Man, Battle Royale and more. The idea of man's inhumanity to man being treated as entertainment is certainly not groundbreaking, but in the world of YA literature, it seems, everything old is new again. However, the decision to go for a PG-13 rating dulls the film's potential edge. While it doesn't completely shy away from the violence inherent in the story, shaky camera motion and quick edits keep the audience at arm's length from the true viciousness of the concept that is really worth exploring.
The film also suffers from a bit too much from archetypal characters. Katniss and Peeta are both somewhat naive, innocent and inherently "good" individuals. Aside from a young girl named Roo (Amandla Stenberg) who is befriended by Katniss, almost all the rest of the participants in the games are bloodthirsty jackals, reveling in the murder of the others. Most of them are merely fodder for the story's eventual parade of death, but the few that stand out are "evil". We can't help but root for our heroes, they are among the only relatable people in the story. As with other stories targeted at a teen female audience, there is the seemingly inevitable love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and another boy from District 12, Gale (Liam Hemsworth). For the most part, though, this is just window dressing to the film, a storyline that may have more meat in the source novel, but here lacks depth. Gale and Katniss relationship doesn't have any chemistry to it, and Hemsworth's scenes are minimal. Katniss and Peeta's relationship isn't any deeper, and several of the scenes where they begin to connect romantically are manipulative and ineffective. The two don't come across as being attracted to each other, but merely going through the motions the screenplay has laid out for them.
Jennifer Lawrence, who came to notice from her work in Winter's Bone, impresses as Katniss. She provides us with a girl who is alternately strong, scared and thoughtful. She is the film's anchor, and when the Hunger Games works in its second half, it is often due to her performance. Surprisingly, the most engaging relationship in the film is between Katniss and Cinna, with their parting scene one of the emotional high points. Josh Hutcherson does give Peeta a nice dose of naivete, but he proves a tad underwhelming in the role. Stanley Tucci chews the scenery with great aplomb in his moments, Wes Bentley comes across as a man who is a bit too easily manipulated for his own good, and Donald Sutherland gives President Snow and quiet degree of menace.
I give credit to The Hunger Games for addressing ideas and issues relevant to the current state of society, but the package that it is delivered in ultimately proves a bit underwhelming. With the ground- work laid, perhaps the next installment will be a stronger film and build on the base of The Hunger Games.