The Hunger Games: Starving For More

It appears that so far I’ve only used this blog to talk about video games and sweaty men rolling around in tights. While that’s fun and everything I initially wanted this blog to encompass all things nerdy: video games, comics, movies etc. etc. When I went to London’s comic convention it was common to see The Hunger Games splattered across various stalls or a cosplayer proudly displaying their affection for the franchise. As one of the reigning properties in the current zeitgeist it can be obvious why The Hunger Games would make me excited: It’s got sci fi dystopia, it’s got Woody Harrelson doing what he does best (being Woody Harrelson) but it also has Katniss Everdeen at the vanguard. I enjoy Jennifer Lawrence as an actress and it’s also admiring to view a non-sexualised female lead in a Hollywood blockbuster. 

Sadly...err…things didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

The first Hunger Games did a decent job at setting up the series and I initially defended it after people rolled their eyes at the concept’s similarities to Battle Royale. People killing each other in an arena isn’t that original in the first place, people, shit like that has been going down since we discovered the wheel was the hot new thing on the block. So while I wasn’t let down, I was still expecting big things to come – the death match itself was only a piece of the puzzle and would lead to a much bigger series of events. Catching Fire was the hotly anticipated sequel that came out last year and didn't live up to my expectations. To this day, I’m still can't see why everyone was so crazy about this movie. It’s common for a sequel to build on its previous efforts and knock everything up several notches. All Catching Fire did was say “Hey, remember how badass The Hunger Games was? Let’s just do that again for 2 hours”. Admittedly, the stakes can be considered slightly higher due to the fact that the 75^th anniversary would include all the previous winners in some sort of superstar smackdown. Ostensibly, the writers wanted us to smack our gobs in astonishment before biting our nails down to bloody stubs. The only problem is we didn’t really know these characters beforehand so the impact is diminished due to the lack of familiarity concerning whose dying and who isn't. The Undertaker vs Sting isn’t a shocking dream match to someone that doesn’t know who either of those guys are. Catching Fire was mostly just the same film again, flailing around in this weird form of both spinning its wheels and sucking its own dick.

A large problem that the first two movies had was the complete absence of identifiable character for the female lead. That might be considered some kind of abhorrent sacrilege to some of you due to Katniss’ popularity, so let me throw out some other confessions: I never beat Ocarina of Time, I hate drinking ale and I think Iggy Azalea is a passable rapper. In both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Katniss was merely a victim of circumstance who jumped from horrible scenario A to horrible scenario B while making scowling faces in between. We can see that she’s somewhat virtuous due to her willingness to sacrifice herself for her sister but that’s all I could really gather. I remember a line from Peeta which was something like: “All I know about you is that you’re good with a bow” and I don’t think the writers were making fun of their own shortcomings. What made Katniss so special in comparison to other female characters? She was not a loose cannon like Starbuck or a hardened survivor like Ripley, she doesn't have a mysterious past like Faye Valentine or some grand untapped power like River Tam. While she showed moments of intelligence or resourcefulness it always felt like potluck where she survived by the skin of her teeth. It’s hard to see any kind of outlying quality in Katniss that makes her relatable or even likeable. There’s nothing to hate but also nothing to become attached to.

Peeta was also a huge blackeye on the second film due to his supposed importance to the characters. Let’s not forget that Peeta at this point has pretty much done fuck all and displays no interesting attributes to want to see him make it out in the end outside of those big doe eyes. Peeta carried both the uselessness of Willy from Temple of Doom and the boringness of Kaiden Alenko from Mass Effect. So after my disappointment from Catching Fire I was going to use this blog entry as a rant towards the first two films. However, a few weeks ago I decided to see Mockingjay Part 1 as it would have been unfair to jab at a franchise without seeing its latest effort. Perhaps it was foolish of me to keep jumping in but from the mountainous wave of hype riding behind the flick I wanted to see if Mockingjay could eventually win me over.

And I’ll be buggered if that isn’t what happened.

It’s funny how Mockingjay Part 1 has garnered less acclaim than its crappier predecessor according to the highly academic and reputable source that is Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a darn shame because I felt that this film took the stages to both expand on its concepts while tweaking a lot of its earlier faults. Ditching the spectacle of the arena battle entirely, Mockingjay focuses on the uprising of the proletariat with Katniss as the symbol of the revolution. While Katniss still isn’t THAT interesting, she’s placed into a very interesting situation. She is the amiable face of uprising but a lot of effort and manipulation is carried out in order to transform her into this unstoppable badass. This is seen in scenes where Katniss is told to puff out her chest for the camera and go over her lines to scare the bourgeois to show that she means business. This is all very intriguing when you see that Katniss is simply a figure for the rebels to utilize for their own gain rather than her own fervour dictating her actions. This leads to a lot of self-doubt in Katniss and whether she is capable of living up to the image that is portrayed across Panem. This is reminiscent of the struggle between a super hero and their normal day alter ego. It becomes even more interesting when you see how questionable the aims of the rebels can be.

One of these rebels is Katniss’ boyfriend, Gale Hawthorne. This was a character who was so boring and insignificant in the previous films that I literally had to google “Katniss’ boyfriend” to find out his name. He was obviously just there to stew romantic tension between Peeta and Katniss but now there’s actually something to his character. He’s clearly bitter from being held down by the capitol and this is evident in a lot of the rebels; are they fuelled by a passion for freedom and equality or are they just virulent and hungry for anarchy? Katniss lies at the heart of this issue and I’m actually curious to see what choice she takes.

Mockingjay: Part 1 even showed an effort to actually do something with Peeta, making him slowly become assimilated by the Capitol’s gluttonous lifestyle. Are these absolutely fantastic characters that transcend the art of storytelling? Of course not but at least there’s something to them. I can at least give a sentence or two which adds a minute degree of depth to this world. The film also throws in some newer characters which show some promise for future sequels such as Natalie Dormer’s portrayal of Cressida. Amongst the aforementioned mountain of hype backing this film, Dormer's debut in the series was something I was very much looking forward to for her commendable performance in Game of Thrones and there's absolutely no other reason why a heterosexual male would be entranced with a young, attractive actress so I should probably stop dragging out this sentence to such abhorrent lengths.

Suddenly I have an affinity for partially shaved heads.

While I may come off as a cynical nonce, it’s great to have a film turnaround expectations and win me over in the end. It’s not exactly the apogee of filmmaking or storytelling but it’s nice to see something so popular and influential show strong signs of improvement and awareness. I imagine that the film could have sighed "Fuck it" and sit on it's hands for a few hours and everyone would have thrown money at it anyway. I’ve never read the books, so I’m not sure if Suzanne Collins simply got better as she went along or if there's someone else in works fine combing everything. I was also very cautious of this film due to it being split into two parts so I was expecting lots of padding and more self fellatio. While the first part isn’t high on action, it provides a lot of set up and development in order to raise interest and light the fuse for what will obviously be a massive battle for the ages.

Or it could just go back to being shit again, in which case I will just pout and whine on the internet some more.