"The Hunger Games" is a Well-Constructed "Chimera Movie" Largely Supported by Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss,

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2012)

So what is a "Chimera" movie? Well, in Greek mythology a Chimera is a fire-breathing monster composed of a lion's forequarters, a goat's hindquarters, and a snake for a tail. If you prefer, it's an outlandish "Frankenstein monster" creature, made of wildly different parts. Therefore, I define a "Chimera" movie as one created from wildly different but familiar movies. Besides "Truman Show" ,"Wizard of Oz', "Logan's Run" "The Running Man", and "The Most Dangerous Game,'' let me add to this laundry list by mentioning other movie and literature references like Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery", "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", "Gladiator", "Spartacus" and other Roman Empire spectacle movies, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Elizabeth Banks's character Effie Trinket reminded me of Helen Bonham Carter's Queen of Hearts), "Robin Hood", and "Romeo and Juliet" (especially toward the end of the movie when game contestants and "star-crossed lovers" Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) consider eating some berries).
Okay enough of that. Movies borrow all the time. What's important is that they use their borrowings well. So, does "The Hunger Games" (hereafter THG)utilize its myriad movie parts wisely and effectively? I believe it does, and that it does so due in large part to Lawrence's fairly nuanced and commanding portrayal as Katniss.
Without repeating too much of the plot (I hope) since other posters have done that quite efficiently, I felt that Katniss exhibited the proper mixture of tension, resourcefulness, courage, and resoluteness to make THG's portrayal of a sadistic, decadent United States of Dystopia more than halfway believable. We get a glimpse of her pre-Games struggle to keep her and her impoverished mother and younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields) fed and alive with her archery skills. We appreciate her desperate but noble and prudent gesture to volunteer to take Primrose's place in the Games (because we suspect the fragile, terrified Prim would easily have been eliminated). We understand her brusque, standoffish demeanor as she negotiates the pre-Game trials and trainings and subtly introduces us to this bizarre world of the garish elite that control the human sacrifice games. We get hints of her sly intelligence and tenacious will to live as, despite her fiery pride, she does listen to former Hunger Games champion and dissolute current sponsor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) to curry favor with these grotesque aristocrats in order to improve her odds. She does the same with fellow District 12 contestant Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) with whom she shares an ambiguous supportive and dismissive relationship; in other words, are they just acquaintances forced to be uncertain allies under cruel circumstances, or are they becoming friends or something even more? Does Katniss have a plan to defy Panem's masters (her shooting the apple from the roasted pig's mouth during training and her three finger salute to the districts watching the Games sure seem like it) or is she trying to get the odds of her survival more in her favor? Katniss's tantalizingly elusive performance sells us on the seriousness of her strange predicament, and so we become invested in the workings of THG's deliberate, patchwork plot, and the fates of its characters, primarily Katniss's.
Without Katniss to guide us, I'm afraid that THG might have become more sluggish under the weight of its movie and literature borrowings. With the possible exception of Peeta, the rest of THG's characters, I feel, get scant time to develop their motivations and goals. The other Games contestants (except maybe the crafty but soulful Rue (Amanida Stenberg)) are simply one-dimensional, sketchy victims. How about learning a little more about them? Lenny Kravitz's sympathetic sponsor Cinna has only about a couple of meaningful interactions with Katniss as he helps her overcome her insecurities and doubts. Banks' Effie gives us just a fleeting taste of the flaky, superficial decadence of Panem's (is that short for Pan-Empire, or All-Empire?) elite. Regarding our introduction to the destitute District denizens, besides Katniss and her soul-sapped family, we barely meet Katniss's handsome beau(?) and fellow hunter Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), who seems to be introduced mainly for a potential menage a trois with Katniss and Peeta. As for Panem president Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), he is genteelly, quietly menacing and inscrutable, which is okay, but it would have been nice to have at least a couple more scenes to establish a little bit more about his character.
THG also seems to have logical inconsistencies. The main objective of the Games is straightforward enough (be the sole survivor), but the rules are certainly arbitrary and changeable from moment to moment. Furthermore, the Game creators are omniscient controllers. Even if a winner emerges and the populace is entertained, the President could arrange to have the winner executed sometime later. Some "hope"! So why participate? Personally, if I'm a contestant and likely to die anyway, I would defy this rigged deathtrap and die on my own terms. I am surprised that Peeta didn't share that sentiment.
It doesn't really matter. THG is a sturdy, involving movie that combines adventure, romance, danger, and social commentary in an agreeable, palatable, almost unsettlingly innocuous way. Without Lawrence's Katniss, I would have rated THG 6 stars. With Katniss's complex but commanding character, THG deserves 8 stars. She manages to make us squirm a little about our ironic enjoyment of kids being compelled to kill each other for the pleasure of a corrupt administration, and to make us reflect a little (though not as much as it could have) about the savage, violent inequalities of our present governments and societies.