The Hunger Games DVD Review

Director: Gary Ross

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Josh Hutcherson, Toby Jones

Running Time: 139 minutes

Certificate: 12

Extras: Suzanne Collins And The Hunger Games Phenomenon, The World Is Watching: Making The Hunger Games, Letters From Rose Garden, Controlling The Games, A Conversation With Gary Ross And Elvis Mitchell, Propaganda Film, The Marketing Gallery

Massively popular book franchise gets made into a series of movies. We’ve been here before haven’t we, HARRY POTTER? You, good sir, set the benchmark extraordinarily high; your films grossed $7.7 billion worldwide over 10 years and were almost universally loved. Well, six good films out of eight isn’t bad. Now it is up to THE HUNGER GAMES to step up and fill the big box office gap left by the graduation of J.K Rowling’s boy wizard. With the trilogy’s opener released so early this year in March, it was given something of a free run at the cinema, but still exceeded expectations taking over $650 million worldwide. It was also given a very positive welcome by critics. However with great success comes great expectation. So is it worth the hype?

In short, no. THE HUNGER GAMES failings are all related to one lady, Suzanne Collins. Her involvement as a writer and executive producer undoubtedly give the film a longer runtime, which results in a struggle to retain the audience’s attention. During the marketing of the film emphasis was quite correctly put on the games themselves. After all, that is why we are watching. But with  an hour before the games begin, it’s tough to enjoy the movie as we may have done had the action started 20-25 minutes earlier. The loyalty to the source material is a major problem, but so are the amendments; the narrative of the film is totally different to the book, showing a third person view rather than the book’s first person perspective; this makes it difficult to relate to the characters as one might with the book – pages of inner thought are summed up in a glance and a flashback to little effect. However with big misgivings the film also succeeds on certain levels: Lawrence is outstanding in the lead role, and Tucci, Jones, and Banks give incredibly entertaining performances as Caesar Flickerman, Claudius Templesmith and Effie Trinket respectively. The Capitol is also gloriously over the top and exudes the right response from the audience (disgust), and the action is well put together.

What is difficult to take whilst watching THE HUNGER GAMES is just how wrong they got the film, but how little they could have improved it. The running time of 138 minutes is nowhere near long enough – the last half hour in particular feels very rushed, the relationship between Katniss and Peeta is not believable in any shape or form, and it just isn’t exciting. But making changes to rectify this would have resulted in the following: a longer film, more romance, and more action. To summise the trilogy would have blown its load too early, and would never have grossed the money it has so far. So yes, THE HUNGER GAMES is everything it shouldn’t have been: it is non-violent, horribly acted in parts – Woody Harrelson and Lenny Kravitz take a bow – and not very exciting, but it could have been done no better. Gary Ross did the job he had to he made a 12 certificate film from a 15 certificate book.

Extras: Suzanne Collins And The Hunger Games Phenomenon is a gloriously ego-massaging look into ‘The Hunger Games’ author Suzanne Collins with some hideous ass-kissing by publishers, actors in the film and reviewers alike. It’s an unsurprising featurette but unnecessary as the audience will have already bought/rented the movie so will have an interest/knowledge in the books. The World Is Watching: Making The Hunger Games is an awesome making of that looks at all the aspects of the making of the film; particularly interesting is the input from Billy Ray the co-screenwriter and director/writer Gary Ross. At just 20 minutes shorter than the movie itself the making of is wonderfully detailed and does what all making of’s should, it gives the viewer an appreciation of how difficult making a movie is. Letters From Rose Garden is a tremendous look into how Donald Sutherland felt about his role in the movie, how important he felt Snow was in reflecting the books narrative – Katniss’ thoughts -–without the need of a misjudged voice-over. Excellent and fascinating in every way. Controlling The Games looks at the control centre for the games and how director Gary Ross felt it was abundantly necessary to help move the story forward, treads over some old ground but still enjoyable if only for Wes Bentley’s incredible beard. A Conversation With Gary Ross And Elvis Mitchell gives Ross’ views on certain points in the film and a little, but not enough, time to elaborate and get to the depths of the filmmaking process. It is an unnecessary addition with a dull interviewer. Propaganda Film is a good little clip that tries to justify the hunger games existence, it is included in the film but is worth a standalone view – particularly for the politicians amongst you looking for tips on spin. The Marketing Gallery is exactly that, and is a waste of space.

 THE HUNGER GAMES is available now and can be purchased on 2 disc Blu-ray – with an extended cut rated 15 – or 2 disc DVD from here.