The Hunger Games Review

It has been difficult to escape The Hunger Games over the last couple of months. As buzz for the film has steadily grown, discussion has often turned to whether or not the films could fill the void soon to be left by the conclusion of the Twilight series. With the release of the film on Friday, anyone expecting a cloying romance along the lines of Twilight, is going to be surprised as The Hunger Games is tense, exciting film-making that packs a real emotional punch.

Set during an unspecified future date in what was once North America but now known as Panem, The Hunger Games are an annual event where each of the twelve districts of Panem provide one teenage boy and girl to participate in a nationally televised contest. The contest involves twenty four contestants fighting in a constructed woodland environment until the last one is left standing, ie, twenty three of them will cease to be living.

When, on her first time in the draft, 12 year-old Primrose Everdeen is selected to enter the Games, her elder sister Katniss selflessly volunteers to take her place. After a lengthy period of grooming, combat training, and television appearances, Katniss enters the arena with the twenty three other contestants, with only her survival instinct to rely on to keep her alive.

Having not read the source material, I spent much time afterwards thinking that if this is the kind of books that teenagers are now reading then they’re incredibly lucky to have such a taut, gripping and relevant story at their fingertips and in Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss they have a screen heroine that ranks with the very best of recent cinema. Lawrence puts in a wonderful performance, displaying both steely determination and vulnerability as she tackles the myriad of challenges the arena presents her with. Any comparisons with Twilight’s Bella Swan are quickly rendered moot as it soon becomes clear that Katniss is a far more complex and interesting proposition.

The casting is terrific across the board with great character actors (Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland) providing depth to smaller roles that could have passed by with little impact. The brutal fight scenes push the boundaries of the 12A certificate but are skilfully imagined so the viewer fully understand what is taking place without seeing very much of it.

As the film reaches its conclusion, we’re given a fleeting glimpse of what might occur in the next part of the story, and as I expect readers felt after finishing the first book, I can’t wait to find out what happens next to Katniss Everdeen. To anyone still wondering whether The Hunger Games is set to fill the void left by the Twilight Saga, what we've got is something far more interesting and potentially even bigger.

[embed width=550]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUT7q2iTbQ[/embed]