Watched on Blu-Ray

Film adaptations of novels really don't have it easy. Not only is it a thankless task to squeeze several hundred pages into two hours. The films are often torn to shreds by die-hard fans of the original, especially in the case of cult books and those with a large readership, the risk of alienating fans is great. Yet "Lord of the Rings" showed that even such Oscar-winning films can be box-office hits. Is the same true for "The Hunger Games" ?

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor" - is one of the meanest movie quotes in recent film history because of the context. Yet the sentence comes across as so fluffy and light, so really nice. A bit like someone cheering on the athletes at the Olympic Games. And you wouldn't be all that wrong with that in "The Hunger Games" either. With the difference that the winner is not awarded silly medals here, but a much more valuable prize: he is allowed to live on. In contrast to the losers, who, even as runners-up, can expect at most a pretty coffin.

Life-and-death contests for the amusement of spectators are not exactly a new idea. Even the Romans had the "fun" idea of setting gladiators on each other. And the theme has also been used several times in films, from the Arnie classic "Running Man" to the controversial Japanese shocker "Battle Royale". However, the comparison with these films is somewhat misleading, since the actual competition is not so much in the foreground in "The Hunger Games".

The film takes an hour to introduce the world of Panem, the background and also the main characters; a world somewhere far away, sometime in the future and completely torn apart. On one side we have Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) from the poor miners' district, who have to fight for their lives along with 22 other competitors. On the other side are the decadent spectators who, in wonderfully grotesque costumes and garish makeup, represent the upper class of the dictatorship and who have to be kept happy. Because as sponsors they have a not inconsiderable share in the outcome of the games. This trappings, the splendid equipment and the background, have become so interesting that even viewers who are not very fond of action films can enjoy them.

The games themselves - and thus the actual action part - almost fall a little short in the film anyway. Especially at the beginning, the mostly anonymous fighters die so quickly that it becomes difficult to keep track of who is actually still in the game. Perhaps this hectic pace was supposed to provide speed, but often the result is rather irritation. Every now and then, the individual characters and their interactions with each other are a bit unbelievable, especially with the rather laboured love story. This flaw, however, has nothing to do with the cast, who make the most of their roles. Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is certainly a bit underwhelming and Josh Hutcherson doesn't have too much to say either. On the other hand, the wonderfully cynical Woody Harrelson is absolutely worth seeing. And the film is exciting anyway. By the way, this was also the viewers' opinion and made the film one of the 15 most successful of all time in the USA at that time. So it's no wonder that 3 very successful sequel films followed and at the end of 2023, a whole 8 years after the end of the series, even a highly anticipated prequel will be released.