One of the newer films I've had the pleasure of recently watching, was Gary Ross' "The Hunger Games" based off the best selling book of the same name written by Suzanne Collins. Having not read any of the books i went into this film with no previous knowledge of what it was about or what to expect from it aside from what id heard or seen on television. The story takes place in a dystopian future setting in a nation known as Panem which is divided into 12 districts and governed by a single capital city following a war. Each year representatives from the governing capital visit each of the districts in order to choose 2 representatives among the children to be chosen to participate in the "hunger games" a competition of life and death in which individuals battle for survival and to be the one winner who gets to return home as well as a form of entertainment for the wealthy citizens of the capital city. The plot of this movie revolves around one particularly skilled girl, Katniss, who volunteers to represent her district in order to spare her younger sister of the task and her struggles to adapt to the tasks of being a participant. As she struggles to earn the favor of wealthy sponsors to support her with supplies during the game she must also develop her skills to survive the games as she is pitted to fight to the death with the remaining 11 contestants including some of her newly developed friendships. As the main plot of the movie unfolded my my immediate thought was of the 2000 Japanese cult film "Battle Royale" directed by Kinji Fukasaku and very similar story in which these teenagers are taken to a remote island in which they must fight for their survival by killing off the other participants in a form of a contest. Having heard good things i took an interest in seeing how the director would capture the essence of the novel on film.
Throughout the film one of the most noticeable tools in which the director makes use of right off the bat is the camera. Ross makes frequent use of a shaky camera technique throughout the film in almost every scene. Some scenes are more noticeable than others as it switches from the close up shots of Katniss tracking deer in the woods to the flustered and chaotic battlegrounds of the games itself. The effectiveness of this technique varies throughout the film and in my personal opinion can be unnecessary in some parts of it. The camera is almost Always in constant motion during some of the more tense conversations of the movie and can take a bit away from the scene. Later in the film during the action scenes in which someones running through the woods or when characters are being killed off the use of this shaky camera is brilliant in the way it gives off that chaotic feeling as we keep up with Katniss and even softens some of the violence that is on screen. Being that this plot does involve basically children fighting and dying violently this move is very effective at hiding some of that in a movie directed towards a younger audience. Also in the film is the use of montage like moments to help move the story along. Being given a view of some of the events that take place during the participants training or by the supporting mentors during the games themselves through these montage like moments in which the view changes to a different character, really help to fill in the gaps of what one might miss having not read the books to understand it completely. I can only assume this was the intention of these moments aside from saving time. Overall i thought the film was a decent watch and can honestly say i enjoyed it as well as the performances of some of the actors on screen. I look forward to the next one!
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