Film Review - Hunger Games

Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, Big) directs Suzanne Collins’ adaptation of The Hunger Games. There is a lot of buzz around this film and when I exited the theater, I knew why it's making audiences excited about cinema again. Ross made my adrenaline rush and my eyes widen with intense concern for his characters’ survival.

The story takes place at the Capitol in the nation of Panem, the North American ruins; each district within Panem must send one teenage boy and one teenage girl to fight in The Hunger Games, a nationally televised event where they must fight to the death until one survivor remains. Fight to the death? Seems a little dark n’est-ce pas? Well, the reason for this horrific idea is that it is a punishment against a past uprising; it's the government’s idea of intimidation tactics. Let the games begin!

Our lovely protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers for The Hunger Games because her sister’s name was drawn and she is far too weak to compete for her life, compared to the older, stronger Katniss herself who possesses a set of skills useful in the Games. A former Hunger Games winner who is also a drunk mentors her; his name is Haymitch Abernathy, and he's quite the character. If Katniss ever wants to go home, she must destroy all the other 24 competitors. Intense, to say the least.

The characters are wonderfully developed and are played well by a diverse cast such as Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Josh Hutcherson. The costumes were very colourful and set the futuristic era in a very interesting way. The costume designer was Judianna Makovsky; she worked on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, so you know she has an attention to detail.

Gary Ross does a great job directing his actors. The emotional decisions they make during the fight for their lives are dark and can be a little disturbing. A child fighting to the death seems like a disturbing idea in itself, but Battle Royale was a huge success and remains one of my favorite films of all time. Pushing the limits of what is right and wrong is necessary in cinema because almost everything has been said and done before. Filmmakers need to shock and provoke audiences just as much as needing to make them laugh and cry. Successful cinema evokes vivid and complicated emotions from its audience, it needs to! Without that, the filmmaker has no chance of portraying the message and the symbolism of the film. The Hunger Games made me feel all kinds of emotions, and they are memorable enough to make me want to tell you to go see the film. You will definitely be thinking about how you would survive if you were ever part of an uprising that lead to a bloody and life changing competitive tournament of death!

4 out of 5

-Andrea Boulet