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by Sandra Olmsted

The first shot in The Hunger Games is of Stanley Tucci in a ridiculous blue hairdo and a costume left over from Director Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and I wanted to laugh.  I wish I had laughed because it would set a better mood for the film than the hype that is accompanying it.  While the film will probably make all the money that Lionsgate hopes, as science fiction and action adventure, the film is a disappointment.

Aside from the ludicrous costumes, the lack of engagement with social commentary, turning the killing games into pablum, eviscerating much of the drama, and dragging out the story, director Gary Ross doesn’t start with the main character. That would be  Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), and consequently, the film  spends the next 2 hours and 20 minutes trying to make the audience bond with her.  Had he started with her, the audience would have bonded with her right away, and Jennifer Lawrence’s outstanding performance would not have been undercut by the lingering shots of her consternation in the face of adversity.

While the capital city is suppose to represent the garish and superficial values and mores of a decadent elitist class, the costume and makeup are too absurd and laughable to do justice to the social themes inherent in dystopian science fiction.  The costuming and makeup choices exemplify the director’s condescension to the supposed audience.

Any audience can see the difference between the desaturated poverty of Katniss’ District 12, and presumably all the districts, the natural beauty of the “arena” where the games are fought, and the brightly colored riches of the Capitol. But the Burton-esque Alice-in-Wonderland costumes are inappropriately silly and only emphasizes the mishmash of cinematography and art direction.

In The Hunger Games, what should be a commentary on the disparity between the rich elite and the oppressed poor in Panem is refashioned as silliness.  While all the citizens of Panem obviously suffer from a fascination with celebrity and while the Capitol residents are drowning in too much media, director/writer Ross condescendingly demonstrates his belief that the subtly of film will be lost on the teen audience and, therefore, dumbs down the social commentary.

Once the games begin, Ross is painfully mindful that the greatest potential audience for the film is not able to frequent R rated films and sanitizes the violence of 24 teenagers killing each other.  While the teen-on-teen violence might be seen as commentary on the cruelty teens  perpetrate on each other, making it look so easy and clean is more disturbing.  Furthermore, the drama that should accompany the teen “Tributes” being forced to kill in a survival game is undermined when Ross doesn’t let dramas play out to their full potential.

Like a version of Survivor gone wrong, the teenagers form alliances, but these alliances must end in death for all but one of the allies.  When Katniss forms an alliance with Rue (Amandla Stenberg), who is the youngest of the Tributes, the tension of their alliance and who will die so the other can live should have been allowed to play out.

Another unanswered question is why Rue saves the unconscious Katniss when she might just as easily kill her.  As soon as Rue is gone, a contrivance allows for two Tributes to share victory, if they are from the same district.  So, Katniss teams up with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), the male Tribute from District 12, who has been injured when his allies turned on him.  Katniss again has a partner who is not as capable as she is, but this time she doesn’t have to kill him in order to live, which makes for less drama.

Katniss, the character, could have greatly benefited from a fundamental principle of filmmaking:  Start on the character with whom the audience should empathize.  Starting with Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) and Seneca (Wes Bentley) throws the viewer off, and Ross scrambles to redirect the audience to Katniss.  Of course, all the audience needs in order to like her is to see Katniss saving her twelve-year-old sister, Prim (Willow Shields), from being a Tribute.  Rue befriending Katniss evokes the fate from which Katniss saved Prim.

So why the misdirection and machinations in Ross’ direction?  Does Ross think that his audience won’t like or identify with such a strong female?  Does Ross fear that teen boys won’t see the film?  If Suzanne Collins’ popular trilogy is any indication, Katniss appeals to teens of both genders. Although there is a contrived “romance” between Katniss and Peeta, it wouldn’t scare off any audience allergic to romantic themes.  First, it is unclear whether Peeta declares his love out of true feeling or a desire to hype his story as a Tribute, and second,. Katniss has a boyfriend back home, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), who she trusts, in her presumably permanent absence, to help her mother (Paula Malcomson) and sister Prim survive.

The movie does have a fabulous cast.  Lawrence, who was nominated for an Oscar® for her role as Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone, does a great job with the role of Katniss despite the camera lingering on her every expression to the point of turning her performance into incessantly emoting of sadness, determination, and/or anxiety.  The cast includes Donald Sutherland in a cameo as Panem’s cold-blooded President Snow, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, a drunken advisor; Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, an over-dressed, heavily made-up handler; and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Katniss’ personal stylist and confidant.

Gary Ross’ movie lacks the emotion and substance that would have made it a superior sci fi film.  Although  President Snow’s final words are the only blatant set up for a sequel, film versions of the rest of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy is in the works.  May the odds be with Catching Fire, the next installment, and maybe it will be a better film.  The Hunger Games, a Lionsgate release, runs a protracted 142 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense violent thematic material and disturbing images – all involving teenagers.  The movie is in theaters now.

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