This Film Continues to Impress Me with Each Viewing

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2014)

I recently watched the first installment of "The Hunger Games" again in preparation for the upcoming third movie in the series. This was my third viewing of the movie, having first seen it in the theater and then having watched it once again before its "Catching Fire" sequel.
That said, this most recent screening convinced me further that this movie is something really special. And I say that as someone who was very slow to warm up to the franchise at all. I almost didn't go see the film when it was in theaters in 2012, simply because the subject matter sounded gross and silly to me. That was partially due to a misconception. I had heard that the film was about a group of teens that are forced to kill one another, and it is indeed just that. However, I mistakenly took the title of the film to mean that there was also cannibalism involved, which there is not. In fact, the title is a bit misleading, as the "hunger" aspect of things doesn't play a major role in the plot of the film.
That said, the film is actually very far from anything of the horror genre, and certainly is not a gory "torture porn" flick in the style of some popular horror movies of the last decade ("Hostel"; "Saw"). Instead, what we have here is a dystopian story that blends sci-fi with fantasy, all while staying relatively down to earth. The characters are human and relatable, even while the plot is far fetched.
In fact, the out there aspect of the film's plot is perhaps the biggest hurdle one might face in enjoying it. When I first saw the film, it was the bizarrely unbelievable element that was hardest for me to appreciate. In summary, far off in the future (or perhaps on a different planet--we're not really told if this is the earth we know), a peasant revolt against a ruling class of nobility is ultimately squashed. The punishment for the revolt is mass enslavement coupled with a grotesque annual bloodsport in which contestants are drafted from the country's various "districts" to compete in a winner-takes all fight to the death. We soon learn that this contest is televised and seems to be mandatory viewing for the entire population, and that the event has been going on for 74 years now as a yearly reminder of the cost of the rebellion.
That scenario is hard to appreciate if you tend to not appreciate fantasy, and as such the film suffers from a similar problem that other films in the dystopian genre suffer from. Films like "Red Dawn", "V for Vendetta", and "Clockwork Orange" all ask us to suspend critical thought for a moment so that we can imagine life in a strange world where common sense seems to have fallen by the wayside. "The Hunger Games" is no different, and it can be hard to imagine a world that works so strangely as the one Katniss finds herself in. But then again, common sense doesn't always reign in the world we actually live in, and perhaps that's part of what makes stories like this so popular.
Whatever the case, once you get past the oddity of the plot, the film is a masterpiece. Granted, it's a masterpiece in a very different way than classic films might be. It would be wrong to assume that "The Hunger Games" is the same sort of film as "The Godfather" or "Gone With the Wind". But "Hunger Games" nevertheless is masterpiece material in the way that it draws you into its bizarre world. The film both tells its story convincingly, but also makes you care about its characters in a way that is rare. You empathize with the characters in the film, in spite of their world and their situation being so very different from your own.
All that said, I've given this film a 10/10. I really think that in twenty years time, this film will stand out as an icon of its genre, perhaps akin to the way the "Terminator" films stand out for those of us who are children of the 80's. It's certainly worth your time to watch this film. So, go watch it.....and may the odds be ever in your favor!