It’s been eighteen years since Suzanne Collins wrote “The Hunger Games”, the smash hit literary sensation that continues to feel relevant and capture the attention of readers. This ongoing series will be a review series of both the Suzanne Collins books, as well as the film adaptations of the novels. I will post my review on the last Thursday of the month as we revisit the totalitarian world of Panem and the hope of the Mockingjay.
Film: “The Hunger Games”
I remember when this film came out back in 2012. I mostly remember it because I asked my husband if he would like to go with me, and he was, admittedly, a bit skeptical. I think that his main frame of reference for popular YA books turned into movies was the “Twilight” franchise. But I told him that I really enjoyed this book, and that I thought he would probably enjoy it too. And I distinctly remember coming home after the movie and him asking me if he had the series, and then him reading all of them in about a week. It’s been one of our old reliables for awhile. “The Hunger Games” film is a great adaptation of the book, and it holds up very well.
First and foremost, the casting is great. Jennifer Lawrence is such a fantastic Katniss, able to channel the sullenness, the fear, the desperation, and the exasperation all in equal measure. She has so many moments with her line deliveries, but also her facial expressions and body language. I also really love Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, as the man knows how to play not only for sardonic laughs, but also quiet vulnerability that we get to see here and there in the first film as he has to try and bolster Katniss and Peeta up wholly expecting to lose them like he’s lost all other tributes on his watch. Donald Sutherland’s President Snow is smarmy and cold and incredibly intimidating, even though he has the least amount of screen time in this movie than his time in the other movies, and he packs a punch. And who can forget both Elizabeth Banks as Effie and Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, both people who go over the top but do it in a way that never feels cheesy (and I mean COME ON, Banks makes Effie a completely new character in the best way possible). The casting is fantastic.
But I also really love how this film is able to take a first person perspective POV from the book, which can sometimes be limiting in a page to screen adaptation, and finds ways to explain the lore and the world without feeling like it’s being spoonfed, and without relying on Katniss to do it all like she does in the book. Whether it’s seeing bits and pieces of the broadcast of the Games, which can explain things like Tracker Jackers or other in game events, or seeing the actual Game Makers making decisions on how to manipulate the arena and how that affects the Tributes from the outside, there are many great devices that adapt the material incredibly well.
I also think that most of the changes work, though there are admittedly some things that I was sad about seeing removed after my re-read. In particular I now definitely feel the loss of Katniss’s friend Madge, who gives her the Mockingjay pin in the books (and whose Mom Merilee is the twin sister of Maysilee Donner, one of the Tributes from 12 during Haymitch’s Games). While I understand cutting that for time, it’s kind of a shame to lose her because her friendship with Katniss shows that Katniss does have connections to her community beyond her Mom, Prim, and Gale. Especially since Madge has that connection to Haymitch and the Mockinjay pin. But outside of that change standing out, I feel like most of the other changes were pretty well informed and worked out.
“The Hunger Games” is a really solid adaptation and is the start of a solid series as a whole. Up next I will take on “Catching Fire”!
The Library Ladies 