Hunger Games
Stephen King’s Running Man (written under his alias Richard Bachman) was one of the all time great dystopian novels about the future, depicting a society where poor people compete in brutal competition risking their lives for a little extra food or money (with the Arnold movie switching it up to criminals competing for their freedom). As we headed into the 21st century and original creativity in cinema started dying a quick death, that was the time when so called “new” movies were either blatant remakes, endless comic book treats or alleged new stories and new franchises which in actuality were completely derivative ripoffs of the classics from the past and this 2012 release to kick off a franchise would use King’s original story as a starting point to then cannibalize several other prior efforts and try to present it as an interesting hybrid of past ideas all while posing as something fresh and new. This was due mostly to the project’s roots as a book trilogy written by one Suzanne Collins, who straight facedly defended her plagiarism tactics before King himself came to her aid by saying that there was nothing wrong with homages (including those which are as over the top blatant as can be) even while the author Collins denied having ever seen the Japanese film Battle Royale of whom the fans of that movie were the first to accuse her of lifting elements from. King’s vision comes vividly to life here with the aftermath of a nuclear war which has decimated the world so much that an entirely new, singular country has popped up amongst the charred remnants of North America, only for a new nightmare to occur when a Civil War hits, with more nukes and killing leading to the country now being divided into 12 separate districts (some more affluent than others) which all supply different essentials to the mothership Capitol City and the progressive elites and transgender types within, but the problem is that once a year each district must offer up 2 warm bodies (24 in total) to compete in a every person for themselves battle to the death with the sole survivor being welcomed into the elite fold where they can drink French champagne instead of sewer water (and their district gets more food supplies as a form of congratulations) all as a show of supposed redemption and forgiveness for having taken part in an actual civil war. Now, such ongoing punitive retribution might be a decent idea for a few years, but as the movie begins it has really been going on for almost 75 years now (long past when any living survivors from the war would still have been physically active), proving that the elites continuing to have young people fighting to the death (with 12 year old children eligible to be included in the mix) as they look on is simply and obviously because they get off on it. Meanwhile, the poorest districts are living in a nightmarish post apocalyptic medieval environment with little to no technology at hand (Costner’s Postman) complete with having goofy first names like Katness and Peeta. Into this sad scenario is where we first meet the franchise star as played by Jennifer Lawrence (not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer amongst Hollywood actresses despite having ethereal beauty and being pretty talented), a female hunter who fetches good money and supplies for all of the game which she catches only to see a pedo minded recruiter (Elizabeth Banks made up to look like Jane Fonda on a good day) try to snatch up her underage little sister for mortal combat leading to her volunteering and taking her sister’s place in the competition instead (which is legal). Joining her on the 2 person team is a lumbering oaf (Owen Hart lookalike Josh Hutcherson) for whom our initial take on him is that he will make some nice cannon fodder all while Lawrence’s boyfriend (Liam Hemsworth) is left in the lurch storywise watching her as she leaves him behind. Once on your way to the competition, every participant gets both an ample 15 minutes of fame and a strong taste of the good life, eating good food, drinking fresh water and having a toilet that actually flushes. The film runs into a major mistake at this point, being about a major (futuristic) sporting event and yet failing to develop all but 2 of the major players in an every person for themselves scenario (a mistake not committed by The Quick And The Dead which still didn’t shortchange its main character and storyline in the process), leaving us emotionally dead for much of The Games itself in the second half of the movie where characters whom we don’t care about at all wind up playing roles in the outcome up to and including dying. Lawrence and Hutcherson are assigned a Mentor (Woody Harrelson, undoubtedly the best thing about this movie acting wise), a former District 12 resident himself who had won The Games years ago and now was still unsteadily fitting into the whole elite society, getting drunk and dribbling little nuggets of wisdom until the film’s strongest moment, when Hutcherson is interviewed by a blue haired, freak of nature talk show host (Stanley Tucci looking like a character out of Clockwork Orange and acting like Sean Hannity on Xanax), only to publicly admit that he’s been in love with his fellow contestant Lawrence for years from them having lived in the same district / village together, a game changing twist for their characters and an even better “angle” for Harrelson (who seemingly also serves as an Advocate as well as a Mentor) to sell to the higherups in charge including the “GameMaster” (a most welcome Wes Bentley with a painted on beard) and the elderly, despotic President (Legend Donald Sutherland) who is more concerned with his gardening than with any real governing. More importantly, Harrelson knows that the young love narrative will capture the imaginations of the elite public with many becoming “sponsors” and spending money in order to send things to various participants to help them out in the midst of the ongoing chaos of The Games. Then it’s on with the show as each player enters a tube and goes into a state of catatonia as their brains are plugged into a fake, virtual reality world (The Matrix) in order to do battle in a place where hidden cameras are everywhere for the world to look on live on TV (Truman Show). The initial scrum turns out to be a bloodbath where half the players are immediately killed and the scattered remainders (only 2 of whom we care about) have a few contestants within the ranks who have been training to kill people their whole entire lives even as they make blatantly stupid mistakes that any dedicated Call Of Duty player can easily point out, none more egregious than when the primary alpha male killing machine (Alexander Ludvig) decides to lay down for a little fornication with a beautiful blonde fellow player who has a foul personality, only to have Lawrence drop a beehive on their heads which results in the blonde being brutally stung to death (Sleepaway Camp). Hutcherson desperately convinces the Alpha Male boss that he wants to help him kill Lawrence and the fool totally believes it despite Hutcherson having publicly proclaimed his love for Lawrence only days earlier. Meanwhile, Lawrence provides aid and shelter to a little 12 year old black girl contestant who was surviving by living up in the trees, only for her to come back down to Earth feeling safer and more confident before suddenly being killed (followed by a “funeral” scene which goes on for a near pornographic eternity as Lawrence cries and cries). Alpha Male leaves all of his food and supplies out in the open for Lawrence to blow up and it isn’t long before he gets finished off with his own ample amount of blubbering and crying (the bulk of his actual character development). Casting Lawrence in and of itself almost became a chore as she took days to finally accept the offer on the stated reason that it was too “mainstream” for her (although she had just played Mystique in X Men) even as the all too real irony of a progressive liberal actress taking on an heroic role as the scourge of the progressive liberals of the future was highlighted by her having a classic bimbo moment during an interview promoting the film where she proclaimed herself as being the FIRST EVER female action hero (something which Geena Davis and others might take issue with). Regardless, Lawrence can act good, and her eyes remain amongst the easiest to get lost in (even with a blank stare on her pretty face), but the entire script and story is so laser focused on her and her male BFF companion that the whole thing loses points for not realizing the full potential of its epic scope. But at least Harrelson’s bitter, cynical drunken Mentor who becomes inspired and then reinvigorated by her efforts and Bentley’s emotionally stunted, control freak GameMaster (who can manipulate the weather and even send deadly wild animals into the mix) bring some level of quality, balance and levity amidst all of the homages and tributes to classics of the past on display here…
5/10