The Hunger Games Movie - Essay Example

The heroine in the film Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take part in the Games in place of her younger sister. Katniss’ special way of changing the world may appear small scale and accidental; however, towards the end, Katniss appears to have changed her own world. If Katniss is to return home to District 12, she confronts impossible choices (Egan 2). She should weigh her survival against the wellbeing of humanity and her life against love.

PHOTO VIA HUNGERGAMES.COM The Hunger Games is a satirical sci-fi film that manages to confront and rail against the pitfalls of materialism, greed, and economic inequality via its world-building and costuming. The narrative intentionally rejects to employ a subtle approach to political criticism, as it utilizes traditional satirical techniques such as visual exaggeration, hyperbole, and contrast to deliver its message. The world of Panem, representing a futuristic America, is introduced pleasingly in about 90 seconds.

First, the film introduces two men in discussion about an event called “The Hunger Games” in front of an audience; the region of Panem is categorized into haves and have-nots, where the haves live within the Capitol (categorized by wealth and power) while the poor reside in a collection of impoverished districts suffering under the oppressive rule after an unsuccessful uprising (Seife 5). Possibly, the biggest achievement of The Hunger Games is the fact that it succeeds in adapting a successful teen novel to a film.

This is done spectacularly to the extent that one does not need to read the novel before entering the cinema to “get it.” When a serious novel has sold millions of copies as is the case of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, the default position would be producing something that will resemble what the readers imagined; however, The Hunger Games has been dissected, enlarged, and retooled into a piece that is intelligent, powerful, and immersive. This world is filled with cruelty and the film director does not shy away from confronting it.

The violence and cruelty are most apparent within the Hunger Games arena, an extensive synthetic forest where 24 children hunt one another, and the degree of brutality is well articulated. Ross successfully cuts around the violence in the film to get an appropriate rating for a teenage audience. The heroine in the film, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), has little time for being wistful since she has to survive. Katniss is a teenage survivalist within a post-apocalyptic representation of a familiar American myth.

This runs throughout the film based on the premise of what survival is worth (Gresh 4). There is no doubt that Lawrence is as ideal as Katniss has given her melancholic determination. The production values in the film are ample, if not generous. The soundtrack represents a blend of regional and atmospheric flavors, although enhanced musical propulsion might have aided to juice up the film. Throughout the film, it is apparent that Mr. Ross, the director of this unnerving story, has mastered the heart-skipping pulse of the story and turned it into a thrilling and smart film through a ravishing technique with propulsive energy.

The utilization of CGI technology superbly complements design to generate space of the film, and visually represents a variety of the themes in the film.