REVIEW: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012): Dir. Gary Ross. Written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Wes Bentley. Rated PG-13 (Surprisingly gruesome violence). Running time: 142 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)
 

“May the odds be ever in your favor.” This sentence gets tossed around a lot (probably a few too many times) in The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the immensely popular young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins that is smarter than your average teen craze. The irony of this eloquent bit of well-wishing is that the odds are illusory. Very little is left to chance in the battle-to-the-death blood sport that gives the movie its title. The shadowy figures who host the gruesome Hunger Games, a hybrid of Battle Royale and American Idol, carefully tweak their tournament to appease the masses that watch it on live TV.

Katniss Everdeen (played with unflinching stoicism by Jennifer Lawrence) is a teenage resident of the dystopian world, Panem, which is made up of a dozen districts and controlled by aristocrats in the wealthy capital. Some years earlier, an uprising was quelled by the government and as part of the rebels’ punishment an annual tournament began. Every year, two children from each district between the ages of twelve and eighteen – a boy and a girl – are selected at random to participate in a televised fight to the death. What the winner receives for coming out alive is never entirely clear, though there are vague promises of riches and luxury and (presumably) food to bring back to their famished home district.

When Katniss’s young sister (Willow Shields) is chosen for this year’s Games, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, an unprecedented move. She departs on the next high-speed train to the capital, leaving behind a handsome, platonic pal, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), whose clean-shaven face and impeccable hair suggest a Herculean devotion to personal grooming in the coal-mining town of District 12.

Accompanying her is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a less dashing but no less sensitive young man and District 12’s male entry. On their way to the capital, Katniss and Peeta meet Effie (a wonderful Elizabeth Banks), an enthusiast of the Games who is apparently oblivious to their lethal consequences, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), a whisky drinking former winner of the Games who mentors the kids on survival tactics.

Filling out an overcrowded supporting cast is Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, the sinister producer of the Games; Donald Sutherland, the President of this Orwellian world to whom Crane answers; and a lively, blue-haired Stanley Tucci who provides commentary for the Games’ telecast. Lenny Kravitz also shows up in an extraneous role as the kids’ fashion designer.

There are a lot of characters in The Hunger Games and quite a few things to look at (including some beautiful photography from cinematographer Tom Stern), but it is Jennifer Lawrence who commands our attention. Ms. Lawrence, who has hop-skipped her way from obscurity to super stardom in less than two years, is a forceful actress who imbues Katniss with quiet intensity and dogged perseverance. She takes this character every bit as serious as her role in the 2010 indie noir Winter’s Bone, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

That is not to say The Hunger Games is a trivial tween fad. The fact that the violence (which we see in quick, suggestive cuts) is broadcast via hidden cameras for all of Panem to watch adds a fascinating, self-referential element to the film. Not only will Katniss need to be skilled with a knife and a bow, and be able to build a shelter and secure clean water; she will also have to win the affection of the viewers at home, some of whom are “sponsors” with the ability to send their favorite contestant valuable care packages of medicine and food.

So winning the tournament is less a testament to one’s strength and endurance than one’s ability to ham it up for the camera. Haymitch encourages Katniss and Peeta to play up a star-crossed romance between them in the hopes that this backstory may score a few sponsors.

The Hunger Games cherry-picks successful elements from other recent young adult fantasy novel adaptations – the tournament from the fourth Harry Potter, the love triangle from Twilight – but the live TV twist makes the movie more than another studio cash-grab vying for teen girl fandom.

In Twilight, a girl is torn between two young men and her decision takes four books (and five movies). In The Hunger Games, a girl who already has a thing for one guy falls for a second because her survival, both in context of the story and as a character in the franchise, depends on it. Author Suzanne Collins knows just as well as Haymitch the assured marketing power of a good teenage romance. The odds were in this movie’s favor the whole time.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/29/12

REVIEW: Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): Dir. Joe Johnston. Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Based on the comics by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Stanley Tucci and Dominic Cooper. Rated PG-13 (Mostly bloodless action). Running time: 124 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)

Captain America: The First Avenger knows exactly what it wants to be and has a lot of fun being it. That it should be several things at once – a winkingly self-aware superhero origin story, a history-free WWII action film and a better Indiana Jones movie than the last Indiana Jones movie – is part of its fun.

Captain America is not among the A-list of heroes every moviegoer is familiar with but unlike recent lower-tier superhero movies – I’m looking at you, Thor and Green Lantern – this shiny, new, multi-million dollar brand investment – that is to say, this movie – actually offers a likable screen character. You know the kind. The ones we are surprised to find ourselves rooting for and actually wouldn’t mind seeing in a sequel or two or four.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a scrawny kid from Brooklyn desperate to enlist in the armed forces and serve his nation at a time, 1942, when such desires carried a dreamy, youthful idealism, or at least they do in twenty-first century hindsight. In spite of persistent applications, however, the recruitment offices reject Rogers on the grounds of his numerous physical ailments. When asked why he wants to fight, Rogers responds that he doesn’t like bullies. In the present day that answer might sound naive but in the sepia-tinged 1940s of Captain America, its innocence feels genuine. He wants to deploy overseas and defeat the biggest bully of all, Adolf Hitler, not for political reasons but because he knows what it feels like to get pushed around.

We see him get pummeled in a back alley fight where punch after punch he gets back up for another. It’s the getting back up part that attracts the eye of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who believes Rogers is the ideal candidate for a special procedure that will transform an ordinary recruit into a physically enhanced super-soldier. Heading the experiment are Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), government scientist Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).

The project is in response to looming threats from Johann Schmidt a.k.a. Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Schmidt is the leader of HYDRA, a Nazi organization that appears to be a subsection of the intelligence team Hitler once asked to search for the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Schmidt and his team seek an ancient relic that will, naturally, help Schmidt take over the world. Weaving, a veteran of movie villainy, knows just how to play this sort of role. He goes far enough over-the-top that he comes back around to the bottom and is rather convincing delivering silly dialogue.

Captain America works because it acknowledges the campiness of its material then and uses this self-awareness to confidently march into the realm of comic book absurdities. The film knows that in order for its titular character to work in a 2011 Hollywood blockbuster, it must embrace and poke fun of the character’s wide-eyed patriotism. In the movie, Captain America becomes a national celebrity that the military parades around; he signs comic books for kids and performs with can-can dancers at USO shows. Too many recent superhero movies have their leather-clad crusaders saving the world in secrecy, which takes some of the fun out their derring-do and I appreciated that Captain America explored the public image of its hero.

The film’s only major misstep comes in its final two minutes. In the interest of remaining spoiler-free, I will not go into detail other than that the ending is an awkwardly inserted tie-in for next summer’s Avengers movie, which will feature a smorgasbord of Marvel characters including Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and now Captain America. The tie-in is a commercially motivated blunder that intrudes on the story and jams an annoying cliffhanger into the movie to ensure that audiences will buy a ticket to next summer’s big attraction.

But more on that gripe another time. Prior to its final moments, Captain America: The First Avenger is an entertaining standalone adventure and a reminder of how entertaining superhero movies can be when done right. The Marvel Studios marketing machine is already working on a sequel but for the first time in a while, here is a movie that deserves one.

- Steve Avigliano, 7/30/11