Hunger Games

Despite some occasionally poorly-aged CGI and a streamlined narrative that really focuses on preserving the action and main story beats rather than character nuance or works building, this remains a solid YA adaptation that preserves both the heart and the core message of the source material.

Of course, when you have a cast this strong, combined with an incredible costume department and choreographers, that strong core is elevated even further. Jennifer Lawrence may not quite be at her absolute best, but she plays the role with a subtlety of emotion that works well enough, whilst the more senior cast take what can be slightly absurd and caricatured characters and manage to make them their own. Plus, somehow all of the Tributes manage to have at least a few moments where they can shine, and in a rare casting success, all pull it off.

The result is both impressive and annoying. Annoying because I do think the books would work better as a TV series, giving more time to flesh out the interpersonal conflicts much more. But impressive because I don't think you could recast these characters and come close to what we already have. Maybe they can just digitally redo some of the fire effects and Mutt designs for an extended cut release in the future 😅

I remember reading Catching Fire and initially feeling a little cheated that they were going back into a Hunger Games. It felt unoriginal and trite, like the world had no more depth to it than what we'd already seen. But then, the book began exploring the Victors. And here was a group of truly fascinating characters. Gone was any childish notion of good and evil, honour and glory. These were adults who had seen the system for what it was. They understood their cage. And they weren't going to take it any more. So by the time of the big twist, I was totally sold.

The film hits a lot of the same narrative beats, but it never pauses long enough to really let the Victors have their moment to shine. So much like the first movie, this would be better as a TV series, with more time to explore the more interesting, slower paced elements of Panam.

However, the film still manages to keep you entertained. The clock face arena remains a clever and fun escalation. And the twist still lands. Overall, then, it's a solid middle child. It sets up the finale(s) well whilst building on the key ideas of the first. Could it have had more narrative depth? Yeah, but it's still good fun 😉

I've complained that the first two films could both have been better if made longer, but perhaps Mockingjay shows why this doesn't always work.

On the one hand, the film is fun enough, the cast are still solid (even more so in fact, they keep having incredible actors in small roles), and it is nice to have a bit more time for character development. But almost all of that time is spent on Katniss, rather than fleshing out anything else. And you can tell that this isn't a complete story; it just slightly ends, and there's no strong narrative structure. It's a midpoint, through and through. Plus, there are quite a lot of bits which feel like they could have been streamlined (multiple trips to District 12?) or cut.

It's still fun, but two films of setup in a row is starting to weaken the overall appeal.

I will forever applaud the fact that The Hunger Games does not have a simple happy ending, nor is the love triangle magically resolved so that everyone gets their way (*cough* Twilight *cough*). Instead, it sits in its own trauma. War is hell and neither side are rarely morally victorious, societies are not remade overnight, power corrupts and power vacuums will often create dictators (even of otherwise decent people), and heroes do not get happy ever afters. It's messy and disheartening and real. Well, real enough for a YA fantasy about a woman who is just really good with a bow and has a hot streak of stubbornness 😂

The film pulls this off moderately well. We definitely get glimpses of the underlying messages, particularly with Gale and his descent into anger and fear, and the moral bankruptcy and dehumanisation of his enemies that comes with it. But I feel like other major plot points are left to languish a little. Peeta's ongoing fight against his drug-induced conditioning is present, and the actors do a solid job of what they've been given, but it still rings a little hollow, and isn't helped by his sudden appearance on the battle field. If this was intended to show Coin's own descent into villainry, it doesn't land, and this highlights the second narrative miss: Coin turning evil is an obvious outcome of the story, but still needs some level of foreshadowing and growth. Honestly, both of these criticisms should equally be levelled at the two prior films, both of which had opportunities to dive a bit deeper with these characters, and neither of which took those chances. Coin, in particular, should be a character that we, as the audience, distrust, and so as Katniss continues to side with her, it should make us feel uneasy. But the film making here isn't that clever, and the script isn't given the space needed to achieve it. Perhaps this was an issue with the actual books – I can't remember, it's been too long – but it still could have/should have been fixed for the films.

Similarly, whilst I respect the decision to kill Prim to drive home the atrocity of the false flag attack, and really like that this is used as the key moment to write Gale out of the love interest race, Fennik's death can get in the sea. Again, the film doesn't justify his return to combat well enough – dude finally got married to the love of his life, why is he throwing that all away? – and it feels like he was written in just to die a heroic, but ultimately fairly meaningless death. Castor was already a good enough jolt of emotion, you didn't need to orphan Fennik's child as well. Plus, it leaves us in this odd position where they need seven Victors for the (frankly just weird) final vote scene, but only have six characters left, so we get an unnamed black Victor with a single line. Also, because the film-makers largely wrote Annie's character out of the plot, her letter in the end just feels a little odd. Why not make this come from Katniss' mother instead?

The endings aside, as a story the film does work well and (largely) makes its points. Like the previous movie, it feels like only half a narrative (because it is) but at least it has an ending (even if this is made a little weird by the above, and the oddly candy-sweet meadow scene). I'd still love to see this redone as a TV series, though again, casting is just on point throughout and would be hard to beat. Still, we lose so much of the depth of plot by overly focusing on Katniss and the action. Don't get me wrong, the action is done really well (and, again, I applaud the fact that they came up with another creative way to effectively repeat "Katniss is in a Hunger Games again", though I'd have loved for Snow to realise that they could weaponise the Game Masters after the army barracks are destroyed, rather than just use a throwaway comment, because it is a stroke of genius), but if you're trying to drive home "war is harrowing, messy, and rarely achieves the outcomes you want" then those deeper character moments are definitely lacking. Still, fun enough, and a decent end to the series.