The Hunger Games Series
Director: Gary Ross (first one) and Francis Lawrence (sequels)
Writer: Suzanne (author), Gary Ross, Billy Ray, Simon Beaufoy, Michale Arndt, Peter Craig, Danny Strong,
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jenna Malone, Sam Chaflin, Willow Shields, Lenny Cravitz, Stanley Tucci, Isabelle Fuhrman, Alexander Ludwig, Jeffrey Wright, Juliane Moore, Mahershala Ali
Reason for watching: Nostalgia re-watch
Number of times I’ve watched it: shoot, probably ten times or more for the first movie and two or three times each for sequels
***
There is something tough about making a young adult fantasy movie franchise after the Harry Potter movies came out. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but maybe it had something to do with it being the first series of its kind, or maybe the success levels of the franchise commercially and critically made the expectations so high for any other entries into the genre. Personally, I think the concept of a 7-12 grade school for wizards and witches is darn near untouchable. Regardless, it was a high bar for future entries. And frankly, there have been some varying levels of success and some upsetting individual movies (looking at you Allegiant). But The Hunger Games did its homework, and it followed in Harry Potter’s footsteps by coming up with a great concept. Before I talk about that concept though, let’s actually give each of these movies a few sentences of actual review. Let’s start with the first entry:
The Hunger Games: 8/10
The first time you see the chaos and political part of the games play out, coupled with the tension of our main characters facing down their death, and we have a pretty good emotional backdrop for our characters. The actors play off each other well, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, and Woody Harrelson have a real chemistry together. The villainous tributes make for good secondary antagonists, particularly Clove (Isabelle Fuhrman). I do not particularly like the cinematography as there is a lot of shakey cam going on, but overall the first entry is the best one in this franchise. No question. On to the sequel that starts to make things a little too complicated
Catching Fire: 7/10
With their against-the-odds win in the games and in the face of President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Katniss and Peeta need to be wise to keep the tensions low in their country. But after being dragged into a second consecutive Hunger Games, they are pulled into a rebellion against the Capital by the end. The editing and screenwriting is a bit more polished and we introduce some more interesting adult characters, but the surprise ending takes me out of the games themselves. I know a revolution is a logical step, but it’s still a tough step to take. Still impressive work.
Mockingjay Part 1: 6/10
The only entry into this franchise I don’t like. It’s on the high side “meh.” Katniss struggles with being a propaganda piece for the rebels and district thirteen. I do like the entrance of President Coin as an uneasy ally for Katniss. They may have the same goal of winning the war, but Katniss wants freedom for her people and is tired of being played by politicians. The lack of true action really slows things down for me, and the feeling that this whole movie is just a commercial for the final entry is hard to escape.
Mockingjay Part 2: 7/10
This movie goes for the action. And getting to see a war play out in a real way with real battles contrasts nicely with the propaganda machine of the last movie. Also, the final 20-30 minutes with the deaths of Prim, Coin, and Snow play quite well. Katniss subsequently loses the person all of this started for when her sister is killed. She takes out one fascist leader that would replace another and finally watches the cause of all her torture get his just desserts. The set pieces for the action work well. And getting to see Katniss finally be happy is nice.
Okay, here’s what I really wanted to write this post about. For the life of me, I have no idea why the TV rights haven’t been sold to HBO so they could make an anthology series. Taking into account the know winners from the books and movies, we have dozens of possible scenarios to watch play out. Also eventually we could go back to these couple of Hunger Games we saw play out here. You could have the games in the snow. Games in a desert. Games on the beach. Games underground. Plus we could follow a ton of different perspectives. Maybe it could be a career tribute who trains for years and then has to deal with the trauma of being in an arena. Honestly, there are so many different ways we could. It’s baffling to me that no one has done.
Until I see another one.