Hunger Games Film Has Bite

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2012)

'Hunger Games' Film has Bite New film The Hunger Games takes place in the distant future of a post-apocalyptic United States. An obliquely-referred to war/cataclysm has purportedly decimated world resources, especially regarding food—and the country has been divided into 12 impoverished districts. For seven decades, once a year, a lottery is held in which two children from each of the districts are chosen to participate in gladiatorial combat. The conflict is, of course, to the death— the sole survivor wins the lion's share of vital rations for their district, and one presumes, bragging rights.
The film's heroine is the dramatically-named Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence.) Katniss is quite adept in the use of a bow and arrow, with which she hunts animals for food and to earn money for the family—her mother apparently had a nervous breakdown when Katniss's father died in a coal-mining accident. This year, district 12's female lottery "winner" is initially Katniss's younger sister, which prompts Katniss to volunteer in her place. The male contestant from her district is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who harbors a long-dormant crush on Katniss.
In an extended, perverted version of being fattened up before the slaughter, the combatants—some as young as 12—are given ornate costumes and literally paraded through the capital city (which seems to lack not at all for any resources), where they are interviewed by the cloying Games host (Stanley Tucci.) Katniss finds sympathetic allies in her official clothier Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), and alcoholic combat mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) who apparently survived the Games himself, decades ago.
Peeta is strong of arm but otherwise unconvinced of his ability to survive the combat arena, a vast forest. Naturally, every inch of it is rigged with video cameras, which broadcast even the most intimate of moments to the national audience. "Winning sponsors" can occasionally get strategically delivered supplies to combatants. Regardless, dozens of technicians in an operations room actively work equipment that manipulates the environment, causing fires and conjuring giant dogs to terrorize combatants lest they become too good at surviving (similar string-pulling tactics drove the plot of Cabin in the Woods.) Behind the curtains is Crane (Wes Bentley), an executive producer of sorts who serves at the pleasure of the President (Donald Sutherland.) Embodying the ire of recent real-life political protests, Sutherland's leader knows the status quo he defends is immoral, and he is fully dedicated to maintaining its stark class divisions, with the games as its primary wedge. Katniss's plucky charm threatens to rock the boat.
As executed by director Gary Ross, the film functions as an extrapolation of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and Golding's youth-gone-feral Lord of the Flies. Genre viewers may also recall elements of The Running Man and Logan's Run. The original Games novel was the first in a trilogy by author Suzanne Collins. If this first filmed adaptation is an indicator, the saga is off to a good start.