Teen fiction has proved to be a massive cash cow for the Hollywood studios, with Harry Potter being the biggest of them all, especially as it covered seven books that allowed the children to grow up with the characters. The much-maligned (and deservedly so) Twilight series, also proved a big hit with the fans, although many of its detractors were the very teens it was aimed at, and its biggest fans were, reportedly, middle-aged women. Teens can be a fickle audience, and what was cool one year, can be decidedly uncool the next, making it even more of a gamble for studios picking up the rights to the latest youth craze. With Twilight, the main complaints were about the abuse of the vampire mythology, especially amongst those brought up on a healthy diet of Buffy. And any objections to Harry Potter were usually to do with what was left out of the films, compared to the books.
The latest series of books to storm the teen market (always good to know that they are still reading) comes from Suzanne Collins, who has created a futuristic (although not necessarily post apocalyptic) story that resembles a junior version of Running Man (which could explain Stephen King's endorsement). Quick synopsis for anyone who, like me, hasn't read the book(s): North America has collapsed and from its ruins has risen a new autocratic government led by President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland in the film). As punishment (disguised as an honour) for their insurrection, an annual event known as the Hunger Games has been established. Every year, two teenagers (Tributes) from each of the twelve districts are submitted to compete to the death in a televised survival programme. The teens either volunteer, or are chosen by lottery. Some of the districts have highly-trained professionals known as Career Tributes, but most rely on lottery-selected Tributes, or on rare occasions, volunteers. When Katniss Everdeen's little sister is picked to represent District 12, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, accompanied by the baker's son Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). They had off to the decadent Capitol, under the mentorship of drunkard Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz). After a few days of courted ceremony and training the 24 youths are cast into the "arena", a large wooded area and left to fight it out in battle of the survival of the fittest, all broadcast with the same fanaticism and voyeurism as I'm a Celebrity, only with more bloodshed.
Lacking the anticipated excitement of seeing familiar characters coming to life on screen, it took me a while to warm up to our heroine, which is not a reflection on Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal because her performance is very good. It was almost as if I knew Katniss, in the sense that I knew what she was going to do. The character was too predictable, even the so-called rogue Haymitch was closer to a stereotype than an archetype. In fact, nearly all the characters had this tendency and although it is a given that all of the Tributes were marked for death, it was obvious which were going to be the redshirts from the outset.
Setting aside all the niggling parts of the film in terms of characters and plot, it is an engaging film with some great, if somewhat hammy, performances from an excellent cast. Production values are very high, making the world believable making it engaging enough to keep you interested for its two-and-a-half hour runtime. I have been assured from my resident expert that it is a good adaptation, although the book is better in terms of character and point of view. Definitely one for the legions of fans and quite passable for anyone else looking for a bit of dystopian action and romance. Now I'm off to watch District 13.
