Katniss Everdeen, they’ve been waiting for you. For too long, all they’ve had is Bella “Oh Edward, bite me please” Swan, whose biggest achievement was singlehandedly setting female liberation back by five hundred years. And now you’re here, Katniss – strong, and smart and courageous and so deliciously practical, it’s pretty awesome. Of course, you’ve got love triangles of your own to deal with and though we might have to choose between Team Gale or Team Peeta, everyone’s on Team Katniss.
The film adaption of ‘The Hunger Games’ hit screens in Colombo this week, following its wildly successful international debut – it posted the No. 3 opening weekend in US history, behind only ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. The books have been around since 2008, but a loving screenplay has made the movie one which fans just don’t want to miss. Our verdict: go watch it for Jennifer Lawrence’s accomplished portrayal of Katniss and give thanks you’ve been spared some of the blood and guts.
The trilogy of dystopian novels for young adults that the movie and its sequels will be based on are among the most successful in a new genre that has quickly made vampires and werewolves decidedly blasé (at least until the last in the Twilight franchise comes along.) Successful books like ‘Ready Player One,’ ‘Blood Red Road,’ ‘Noughts and Crosses’ and ‘How I Live Now’ all have this in common, but The Hunger Games may have sold more than all 4 put together. Author Suzanne Collins drew inspiration from ancient Rome for the series – creating the fictional nation of Panem (whose name is a reference to the Latin expression ‘Panem et Circenses’ or ‘Bread and Circuses’) where The Hunger Games are a brutal annual tradition. Think a combination of gladiators and reality T.V – a spectator sport in which 24 ‘tributes’ are pitched against each other in murderous battle. The last one left standing is the victor.
The tributes – all children between the ages of 12 and18 - are chosen by the Capitol in a reaping conducted in all 12 districts. Their battles in the grand arena – aired live on television as entertainment - are a reminder to their watching communities that the districts are still paying for an old sin, an uprising against the Capitol that was brutally suppressed. Enter Katniss – ‘the girl of fire’ – the only tribute to ever volunteer from District 12. What lies ahead will test her to breaking point but Katniss is about to become an unlikely heroine. Will she be the catalyst for another uprising?
What’s to love about ‘The Hunger Games’? For everyone who got very quickly tired of Bella’s relationship issues, you’ll find more meat on these bones. This is post-apocalyptic fiction where characters are concerned with more than their next date. Food shortages, repressive regimes, abandonment, betrayal and the struggle to simply survive another day in a hostile world give teenage angst a whole new dimension.
Most fans want to know whether the movies do the books justice, recognizing all the while that it’s nearly impossible to cram all the fine details in – it’s why we barely skim the surface of Katniss’ attachment to Gale, for instance. We’re pleased to be introduced to Lenny Kravitz as Katniss’ inventive stylist Cinna but her costumes (a point of some drama in the books) are disappointingly underwhelming.
The violence of the games is also muted, but one is thankful for that, even if the film makers still don’t succeed in making the films appropriate for young children. An addition that works very well though are the sequences depicting the game makers at work in their war room. They control the vast, forested arena from there, whether they’re announcing the death of a tribute, organising sweeping forest fires or releasing terrifying mutations. It only heightens our awareness of how cruel and callous the Games really are, as the gamers deliberately set out to inflict horrific deaths on the tributes.
The thing to celebrate though is Katniss herself. ‘May the odds always be in her favour.’
|
E-mail
