The Hunger Games

Logline: set in the future where the Capitol selects a boy and a girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.

Cast:  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Lenny Kravitz

Directed by: Gary Ross

In light of Jennifer Lawrence's pay raise from $500,000  to $10,000,000 for the sequel Catching Fire and that this will be released on DVD very soon... why not? Right?

This movie opened up to a huge audience at the start of the summer, made a ton of money, received high critic acclaim, and pleased fans of the novel series.

Summary

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are District 12's warriors for the next annual Hunger Games, a live broadcasted reality show in which members from each District are sent/selected to participate in. This isn't just any reality TV show, this is one where they kill each other; a last man standing type of thing. This becomes very complicated when Katniss and Peeta start falling for each other. Only one is supposed to survive... how can that work?

Review

This is one of the few movies that I can honestly say after reading the novel, lived up to expectations. Harry Potter will always go down as one of the best adapted film series of all time, but if Catching Fire and Mockingjay are anything like The Hunger Games - expect them to be in competition for that title. Unfortunately, this series only has three entries where as Harry has 8 films - kind of hard to defeat a series that has 8 films done really really well.

I only had two problems with this adaptation. 1) There wasn't enough blood for such a gruesome logline - probably to fit a younger demographic and keep it from an R rating... and 2) the character of Peeta was lesser of a man than I expected him to be. I found him to suffer under the acting of Josh Hutcherson who I felt was a major disappointment.

Topic of the Day

I usually discuss what went right and what went wrong about the movie in this section, but today I'm going to do it differently. I felt that the film stayed true to the novel & therefore didn't have any story issues/character issues. This movie isn't perfect, but I can't really expand on its flaws. I'd be nitpicking. So today I'm going to feature J-Law.

Jennifer Lawrence is going to be a huge star. Maybe one of the best female actresses out there. I believe she already is, and she's only 21! (Happy Birthday to her on the 15th, btw). A lot of good looking actresses go to Hollywood, have dreams of becoming movie stars, making millions, etc. But, it's so much easier when you actually understand the art of acting.

For her, this art came naturally. Apparently she grew up in Kentucky and paved her way through modelling, which led her to an opportunity to cold read for agents at only 14. She was immediately loved and clearly, now, the studios in Hollywood love her too. A natural.

Winter's Bone was her coming out party. Nominated for best actress in a leading role. Like Crazy, The Burning Plain, and The Beaver were just so you could feel her out. She then got some exposure in X-Men: First Class. And now The Hunger Games is where she will thrive in Hollywood and make a name for herself. Let's hope the fame doesn't get to her head - she has a bright future ahead of her if she stays level minded.

Upcoming you can find her in Silver Linings Playbook where she stars opposite De Niro and Bradley Cooper as a troubled young woman. In House at the End of the Street  - a horror in which she is the lead (not a fan of horror, but she's picked some pretty good scripts to date, so). And sequels to both X-Men and The Hunger Games. 

If you didn't know about J-Law before reading this review - go watch this movie - do it for her. She deserves it.

Consensus

Aside from the two criticisms I've made above, the film sticks to its novel's roots and doesn't stray from original source material. Jennifer Lawrence power acts her way through the character of Katniss Everdeen and director Gary Ross makes the ride as intense as possible for the rating it needed to satisfy its demographic. I loved it, will watch it again, and will recommend that everyone give it a try. It's really really good.

8.1/10