So the question is, do I want to go down the same road with The Hunger Games?
Until the release of the film, I knew nothing about the series. The same can be said until I recently went to see the first instalment of the franchise. Since then I've done a little homework into the series of books behind the film(s). Suzanne Collins has achieved great success in tapping into the lucrative market of adolescent/late teen/young adults, with excesses of time and money. You have all the big hitting themes in there, poverty, famine, social uprising, politics, even love found and love lost. Although I've reached that age where I see all of these things happening outside my door, in the world. I suppose I need to read the books themselves to really pass judgement, but what's making me wonder if I have time to devote to them, is the film. Here's why...
We start with the main premise of the film, The Hunger Games themselves. Boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 fighting to the death. Immediately you start to draw comparisons with Battle Royale (itself a film adapted from a novel, involving children fighting each other to the death). Although it was less restricted by it's target audience (Battle Royale was certificated 18, and banned for a long period of time following it's release), with Battle Royale you felt the stark terror and sheer confusion of the children's situation. This was a bunch of school children that had been taken against there will and forced to fight to the death! The Hunger Games, well that whole concept just felt soft around the edges. The one time you felt the terror, panic, and hopelessness of Katniss' situation was when she entered the tube just before the start of the games. This was helped in part by the great sound editing, making you feel as though you were in there with her as the doors slid shut and all exterior sounds we muted out. Beyond that, I just wasn't made to feel the injustice of the situation they were faced with.
This same numbness was, to me, present throughout the other elements of the film too. Don't get me wrong, I got the themes that the film is trying to broach. The poverty of the districts in comparison to the money and advances of the Capitol. The 'big brother' government. Even the love story thrown in for good measure. If we take the love story element in direct comparison with the other great teen franchise, Twilight, there you have the edgy backdrop of vampires and werewolves. Great catalysts for romance, lust and love. And whilst The Hunger Games comes at it from the 'we need to ham it up for the sake of our survival, but am I really falling in love with you?' angle, again, I'm just not feeling it. It's all thinking and reasoning. I'm not feeling it. As it is with the other themes mentioned above.
Part of the problem for me, is my final gripe, the incoherent back story to flesh the whole thing out. Now I must admit that as a sci-fi fan, a loose back story is something that I should be accustomed to. In a lot of cases I let a great wealth of things slide in this department. Sometimes though, it just niggles me. Gets under my skin, and I have to start picking at the holes. This was one of those such occasions.
What happened during the uprising? Did the districts exist before this point, or were they created afterwards? What circumstances lead to people living in the Capitol, or is it purely a birthright? The lack of answers to these questions, for me, meant that all the other ideas and concepts struggled to gain traction.
That brings me back to my original question. Do I go down the same road with The Hunger Games as I have with Twilight. Continuing to watch the films without reading the books? Or would reading the books make me more forgiving of my perceive shortcomings within the films?
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