A Review for the Over-40 crowd who never read the book.

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2012)

DISCLAIMER: This review sets up the situations of the movie without revealing the ending.
If you take the reality show "Survivor" and re-imagine it in ancient Rome, you might get the idea behind "The Hunger Games", a televised contest where 24 teenagers compete to be the last one standing. There's one catch, however. They earn that victory by hunting down and murdering the others. The story take place in a futuristic dystopia called Panem where the central authority, "The Capital" demands that the twelve formerly rebellious outlying districts send two "tributes"; kids between ages 12-18, to battle in the Games. All are picked by lottery. Once chosen, they are pampered like modern day reality stars before being sent into the forest with whatever weapons and supplies they can muster.
The story focuses on the brave and resourceful Katniss Everdeen (played by the extraordinary Jennifer Lawrence), who volunteers to take the place of her younger sister. The first few scenes are excellent and chilling. Katniss's home, District 12, is an impoverished coal mining backwater that eerily mimics the Appalachian locale of Lawrence's last film, the equally bleak "Winter's Bone". The children are chosen at a staged event, called a "reaping", at the train station in a vignette that echoes (deliberately, I assume) the Selection Platform processing at Auschwitz.
Once at the Capital, the story sags somewhat. This is supposedly where the rich, venal rulers congregate but, adorned as they are with exaggerated costumes and grotesque florescent hair styles, they look more like extras from a Fellini film. They come off as silly, not threatening, especially Stanley Tucci as the unctuous Ryan Seacrest-like MC who is cursed with a blue-tinted pompadour. The entire sequence is meant to mock the celebrity/reality show culture of our present day but it comes off a bit forced. The only character who radiates menace is Donald Sutherland's President Snow and he is dressed in plain formal attire.
The story picks up again when the youngsters begin to battle although it's unsettling to see children casually slaughtering each other. Katniss is paired with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson in a tender, underplayed role), a boy from her home district and their love story, ruthlessly exploited by the show's controllers, provides the backdrop for what transpires.
"The Hunger Games", the beginning of the trilogy by author Suzanne Collins (who also wrote the screenplay), promises future sequels which will hopefully give more back story to Panem's beginnings and more challenges for the riveting and poignant Katniss Everdeen. These stories are aimed at teenage readers and it is easy to see their appeal. Combining elements of love and heroism, it also plays out every teen's revenge fantasy of getting back at the creeps who ignore them in the cafeteria and bully them in the hallways. A typical American high school is a true Hunger Games survival setting. The only difference is that the bloodletting is emotional, not physical.