Hungry for more

Film review: The Hunger Games

MANILA, Philippines - “May the odds be ever in your favor,” goes the famous line from The Hunger Games, that bestselling trio of novels by author of the moment, Suzanne Collins. Since first seeing print in 2008, it’s said to have spent more than 180 straight weeks on The New York Times list of bestsellers.

Not bad at all, especially if you note that the Scholastic publishing house bankrolled this winner. Yes, it’s the same bunch behind a certain franchise created by J.K. Rowling. Talk about knowing the secret to success.

Aside from reestablishing the notion that books — the right ones anyway — are a rich treasure trove of movie ideas, The Hunger Games benefits from stepping into the gaping void left by the recently-concluded Harry Potter series. With the Twilight saga seemingly sputtering just as it gears up for the final canto, new heroine Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is coming into the limelight at the right time.

It’s tempting to see Katniss as the refreshing counterpoint to the whiny, lovelorn Bella. Here is a heroine more people can actually rally behind. Katniss, if you think about it, is about stepping up to the plate and doing must be done — selfish motivations (i.e., love life and such) bedamned.

This is certainly what she does when her 12-year-old sister Prim’s name is called to represent the coal-mining District 12 as “tribute” in the Hunger Games. The annual gladiatorial pageant of violence and death is designed for the amusement of the powers that be at Capitol, as well as to remind the 12 Districts of their absolute dominance over them.

Katniss, 16, takes her sister’s stead, and is soon joined by the male tribute, a seemingly clueless boy named Peeta Mellark who later admits having been taken with Katniss for a long time. Well, that’s just fine and dandy, especially since the Hunger Games are supposed to have but one winner — and survivor.

Katniss, Peeta and the 22 other tributes “reaped” from their districts are thus sent to the Capitol — the land of plenty and power — where an entourage of mentors, and various stylists beautify, prime, and train them for the telecast leading up to their entrance in the tightly-controlled arena.

There’s a bit of The Truman Show and 1987’s The Running Man (remember this B movie starring the Governator?) thrown into the mix. What’s additionally disturbing is the youth of the participants in this, as the late lamented Joy Division would put, atrocity exhibition. Surprisingly, it earned but a PG-13, but it could have easily been an R if the violence was a graphically portrayed as it was in the book. Director Gary Ross, who also megged Seabiscuit and Pleasantville, did a good job to make the flick more commercially palatable even as the main points were put forth.

In a base level, we see The Hunger Games reveals a people’s morbid fascination with violence — not to mention voyeurism. You start to think about what causes us to seek pleasure in another’s misery. But this is no wimpy Big Brother or even Survivor setup where alliances are forged to vote people off. In this reality game, losers pay the ultimate price.

Curiously, this doesn’t stop the tributes from teaming up anyway, and our protagonists Katniss and Peeta end up fighting side by side for their lives.

As is usually the case in movie adaptations, an odd number of revisions have been made from the original novel, so I’m grateful I heeded a friend’s advice to read the book first — which places events and people in perfect context. The movie version didn’t have that kind of time and patience for setting everyone up and explaining what made the characters tick.

Speaking of which, casting did a good job sprinkling this movie with familiar faces — such as Woody Harrelson (as Haymitch Abernathy), Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket), Lenny Kravitz (Cinna), Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) and Donald Sutherland (President Snow) — even as the main characters are not overexposed stars stepping into crucial roles. You can imagine and believe that Jennifer is strong, conflicted Katniss; Josh Hutcherson is the awkward Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth is the tough Gale: A triumvirate that is facing additional adventure (and heartbreak, perchance) in the near future.

To reiterate though, machinations and events much larger than these three are afoot. Certainly, they are larger than, say, the concerns of our erstwhile trio of freaks also known as Bella, Edward and Jacob. There’s a hint that revolution, for instance, might be in the cards. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I want to read Book Two first.