March 25, 2012

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*Spoiler alert*



Remember when you read The Hunger Games, and you could barely get through about the first half. And then you got to the actual games part and you sped through it in a few hours?  And then you read the second one and the same thing happened? And third was the same way?

Well the movie is exactly the same way.  And it skips over a lot. I mean, it kind of had to, seeing as if they did, I'd probably still be at the theater. There is no Madge. We don't really learn about Katniss' family. Gale is there, but we really don't see his love for Katniss until the end. And she barely thinks about him in the arena. Haymitch isn't as drunk and mean as the book describes. Etc. Etc. Etc.



If you don't know the story, here goes. It's a post-apocalyptic North America in a nation called Panem. It consists of the Capital and 12 districts. As the numbers get higher, the districts get poorer. Each district produces something that the nation relies on.  In district 12, where our heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) hails from, they produce coal. We first meet Katniss on the day of the Reaping. The Reaping signals essentially the beginning of the Hunger Games. In order to keep peace and remind Panem of what happens when a rebellion occurs (as did with district 13, which was destroyed), they are required to send a male and female between the ages of 12 and 18 into the Games to fight to the death. Literally.



Any previous winners from each district are required to be mentors to each year's tributes. This is the first year Katniss' sister Prim will be included in the Reaping. And guess what? She's chosen.  Katniss volunteers and she is sent into the games with the other tribute from 12, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).



In the film, Katniss' time to say goodbye to her family and friends is cut very short. And we never learn of Madge (one of her friends and the mayor's daughter in the book).  So Prim gives Katniss her mockingjay pin, that will eventually become a symbol of the rebellion.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.



The pair are brought to the Capital via a train for the rich. Once the Capital, all the tributes live like queens and kings while they train, until they are sent into the Games. And then it's a survival of the fittest, strongest or smartest. However you want to look at it.



Katniss essentially forgets what Haymitch tells her, until she's actually in the woods trying to survive. And she realizes if the audience likes her, then sponsors will too and she will get the things she needs. Such as medicine and food.  Each day more tributes die. Katniss forms an alliance with the tribute from 11, Rue. And we all feel bad with Rue is killed and Katniss pays her tribute by putting flowers around her and sending the symbol of district 12 to the camera.  This is where the foreshadowing comes in and the camera cuts to district 11 and the start of the rebellion.



The head gamemaker is soon announcing that the rules have changed and that the Games can have two winners if both are from the same district. So Katniss sets out to find Peeta. She finds him half dead and nurses him back to health and soon the pair are walking back toward the cornucopia to find Cato, the last remaining tribute, and kill him to win. But then the massive half-human, half-wolves starts after them. And right after Cato dies, there is an announcement that the previous rule change has been revoked and Katniss refuses to kill Peeta and vice versa. So they decide to take nightlock, a deadly berry, to kill themselves, a la Romeo and Juliet, as a way to 'stick to the man' essentially.



Needless to say, they are interrupted by the Capital and they both win. The Capital is not happy with them.  But of course, that's all rushed at the end. And it ends abruptly on President Snow being angry.



Missed is the fact that Katniss really cares for Gale, how unwilling she is to play the Capital's game, her past with her father's death, etc. In fact, when she is stung by a trackerjack, she hallucinates about her father's death, but never once did they explain who she was dreaming about.  In fact, I almost would have liked Katniss to do a voiceover to explain more in a short amount of time.



I think the director made the film assuming that everyone already knew the backstory and the story and had read the books, because nothing is really explained to the audience. It was disappointing how they didn't really explain Katniss' relationship with Cinna and Gale and even Peeta. Just doing short flashbacks with him and bread, definitely wasn't enough. And Peeta's love for Katniss was not evident. And they completely skipped over the fact that Peeta gets mad at Katniss on the train on the way back because he realizes it was all an act to win, whereas he was being truthful.  But I guess the fact that him actually loving her wasn't believable, doesn't make a difference if they had that scene or not.



And a lot of people didn't like the way it was filmed throughout, where most of the film was with handheld cameras.  I didn't notice that part too much, until they got to the Games itself.

I'm curious to see the next two films (or three if they split the last book up) to see what they do.

If you don't want to read the book, go see the film, as it's a Cliff Notes version. Was it true to the book? Yea, it was. But it skipped over a lot, which, as I said, was disappointing.

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2 stars.