Review: The Hunger Games

Viewers who haven't read the novel on which the movie The Hunger Games is based will not find themselves in unfamiliar territory. The concepts in the film are as old as science fiction.

Fans of the series by Suzanne Collins will already know the setup for the story. In a post-world-war setting, one boy and one girl from each of 12 districts are chosen to compete in a live televised fight to the death. In poverty-stricken District 12, which includes the coal mines of the former Virginia, the candidates are chosen by random drawing. Starving children can purchase food at the cost of additional entries in the drawing.

Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields), having just come of age, has only a single entry in the drawing but is unlucky enough to be chosen. Her 16-year-old sister Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) steps up as the district's first-ever volunteer so Primrose will not have to compete and inevitably die.

If the ensuing story seems familiar, it may be because you are familiar with another work, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, wherein Dorothy (Katniss) accompanied by her dog Toto (Peeta Mellark, the most convincing role Josh Hutcherson has yet to play) is whisked along the yellow-brick road (high-speed maglev train) where she encounters the Cowardly Lion (Elizabeth Banks' Effie Trinket), the Tin Woodsman, and The Scarecrow (combined here in Woody Harrelson's Haymitch Abernathy).

At the end of the road, they reach the Emerald City (the capital) where the Wizard (Stanley Tucci's Caesar Flickerman) gives the brave heroine the task of killing the witch (the other contestants) ... and after that, the good witch (Donald Sutherland as President Snow) can send her home. Elements of the story are laced with political satire, and her actions start the ball rolling for a regime change. Nothing exactly new, but lack of originality doesn't hurt a movie as much as making it generically bland, so it can gain an all-important PG-13 rating to capture the target audience like flying monkeys captured Dorothy and her companions.

Realize that The Hunger Games is about a world where people watch children murder each other on live TV, but is made for children. Director Gary Ross and writer Billy Ray had a challenging task to adapt this property. Any science-fiction novel adapted for the big or small screen must have elements cut or altered often if only for time. Unfortunately in a 142-minute film about a competition that takes about 75 minutes to get to that competition, they dropped elements like character development and emotional build-up.

Ross has made a beautiful picture that looks great and sounds great, but the characters are cutouts like paper dolls -- one-dimensional and transparent. In American Idol, 24 contestants compete until only one remains, but the show is entertaining because it tells the story behind each contestant, even those eliminated in the first round. During all the time spent in preparation and training in The Hunger Games, the only thing the audience learns about the "candidates" from the other 11 districts is that some are, like Soviet Olympic athletes, trained from birth to compete and volunteer when they're ready. A single glance from one contestant peeking around a corner is the only introduction to a character that's important later in the film. The relationship between Katniss and Peeta is the only demonstrated emotional connection, and sadly, the movie shows a more complex interaction between President Snow and Wes Bentley's Seneca Crane than between Katniss and Peeta.

Fans of the books will notice some sizable specific differences, but the story is largely in place. As someone with zero prior knowledge, the story was simple enough that a young tween could follow it. There's just enough emotion in places that I almost felt something for the characters. As a film series some are calling "the next Twilight," I have to say it compares favorably. Katniss, while a strong quiet type, is entirely more relatable (and less insufferable) than Bella Swan. Despite my criticisms, I found The Hunger Games to be an enjoyable film that just didn't quite live up to the hype surrounding it.