The Hunger Games (2012)

Directed by: Gary Ross | 143 minutes | action, drama, science fiction | Actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Willow Shields, Toby Jones, Amandla Stenberg, Alexander Ludwig, Donald Sutherland, Isabelle Fuhrman, Lenny Kravitz, Jacqueline Emerson, Wes Bentley

The Hunger Games trilogy has certainly not harmed writer Suzanne Collins. With more than 26 million copies sold, this book series, which also includes ‘Catching Fire’ (2009) and ‘Mockingjay’ (2010), has become a huge bestseller. Now with ‘The Hunger Games’ finally follows the long-awaited film adaptation of the first book of the same name, which was released in 2008.

‘The Hunger Games’ is set in the future, in what used to be North America. This area is now called Panem. This country originally consisted of thirteen districts, but after a huge uprising 74 years ago, the thirteenth district no longer exists. To “honor” this uprising and prevent it from ever happening again, the Capitol, the capital of Panem, has launched the annual Hunger Games. Each district is required to provide two representatives (called “tributes”), a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, who will fight each other during the Hunger Games in a gigantic arena, with only one winner being chosen. to be. The rest of the participants will die during these gruesome games, which are also broadcast live. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) comes from the poor 12th district, which consists mainly of miners. When her 12-year-old sister Primrose Everdeen’s name is drawn in the draw, she volunteers to represent her district and save her sister from the horrors of the Hunger Games.

Remarkable is the choice to have this major film directed by a relatively new director (Gary Ross). Apart from a few small productions, Gary Ross is a relative newcomer, but he succeeds in the film adaptation of ‘The Hunger Games’ with gusto. The same can be said of the cast, because each and every one of the actors is convincing. Jennifer Lawrence manages to portray an extremely convincing Katniss. The anger she has against the system, the survival instinct that she radiates in the arena itself and the way she handles all the attention, she knows how to present everything very credibly. But the rest of the cast doesn’t disappoint either. After somewhat meager appearances recently in both ‘Journey’ films, Josh Hutcherson is completely in his element as the apparently selfish and unsympathetic Peeta Mellark, the male representative from the Twelfth District. The smaller supporting roles are also well performed. For example, Stanley Tucci plays the role of Caesar Flickerman, the wonderfully eccentric host of the show surrounding the games. The acting is very strong across the board.

The film itself can actually be split into two parts. The first part deals with the preparations for the games themselves in the beautifully rendered Capitol, in which the characters of Katniss and Peeta, two opposites, are developed. The second part consists of the gruesome games themselves in the wooded arena, actually one long survival trip. It is very clever that the film also keeps you on the edge of your seat in this second part. Because the fight in the arena takes up such a large part of the film, there is a chance of monotony, but this is not the case for a second. The tension and drama are continuously present and because each ‘tribute’ has its own way of survival, it remains interesting. For example, Katniss is sitting nice and high in a tree spying on the environment while others immediately choose the attack. Also the fact that only one person can survive and you know that the rest will die increases the tension.

There are, however, a few minor flaws. For example, the underlying story could have been explained in more detail in the introduction, especially for viewers who have not read the books, this would have been nice. Now the film has barely started when Katniss and Peeta are already on the train heading for the Capitol. It also gets a bit too dramatic towards the end. But these are no more than small blemishes on the blazon. ‘The Hunger Games’ is a must for fans of the books as well as for those unfamiliar with the trilogy. It could just be that ‘The Hunger Games’, after ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, will become a new extremely successful series of book adaptations.