Quick Look: The Hunger Games (2012)

I recently had a chance to watch one of the year's big blockbuster films, The Hunger Games.  I have not read the books as of this posting, so I am writing from only the perspective of having watched the film and having asked my wife a few questions about perceived plot holes, as she has read the books.  The leads are Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Harrelson; it is directed by Gary Ross, and it is rated PG-13 for violence.
**spoiler alert** At some point in a post-apocalyptic future, all that remains of North America is a rich, technologically advanced, fascist city-state called the Capital, and the rest of the nation, which is split into 12 Districts.  As punishment for having rebelled against the Capital in the past, the 12 Districts every year must submit 2 "tributes", one teenage boy and one teenage girl, to the Capital to participate in the Hunger Games - a fight to the death which is broadcast for the nation to watch, and the last tribute alive is the winner.  Said winner brings home the pride of the nation for that year, and extra food rations - which are scarce in these times.  Katniss (Lawrence) and Peeta (Hutcherson) are the tributes from District 12 and the protagonists of the film.  They both do a respectable job playing the naive teenagers who have never set foot outside their District, and forced into this barbaric contest.
The plot is fairly straightforward, and unfolds in a very predictable direction.  Katniss and Peeta are developed ever so slightly, and we see them prepare for the Games.  We learn a little more about some of the different Districts, the current distribution of wealth in the nation, and little about the Capital.  We do not learn much about the other tributes.  Harrelson plays the role of a middle aged man who was the only previous winner from District 12, and it is his job to promote Katniss and Peeta to the rich patrons in the Capital to win popular support for them, because that can earn "gifts" throughout the competition.
The Games open with about half of the tributes immediately being cut down by other teens from some of the richer Districts (we learn that some of those kids literally spend their lives training to win the Hunger Games), and several of them also then form a "kill squad" together to hunt the weaker District's tributes.  The rest of the movie we see the remaining tributes playing cat-and-mouse, hunting each other in the woods while the world watches on.  In the Capital there is a control room in which we see a group of people literally controlling every elemental aspect of the environment the kids are in, so when we see Katniss trying to hide and not hunt early on, they reign fire down on her to force her back into an area where the other teens are.  Then to make things "exciting" at another point the controllers loose some bear-like dogs to attack the teens.  Even worse is that the controllers can alter the rules of the Games at any point, which we learn is to stir up ratings and entertainment value.  There is no surprise by the end of the film and the audience is nicely set up for the next installment.
The effects, costumes, music, sets and location were all excellent, in fact, I would say that is what drove the film for me more than the acting.  I feel as if The Hunger Games was as much of a commentary about the state of reality TV, the distribution of wealth, perception of class, the public's general obsession with death, and the power wielding of a corrupt government, more than it is about a teen adventure in a dystopian future.  This is a very entertaining movie, but what would have put it over the top was a little more background on the tributes so that the audience was more attached to them. Even a little more focus on the Capital forcing these kids into this blood-sport could have given us a better feel for the state of the union versus the 12 Districts, but instead we are led from point A to point G without a proverbial road map.  It could have also been more entertaining if this was purely an action film, and considering what the movie is supposed to be portraying, there is not as much on screen "action" as I would have expected, especially in light of the fact this movie is 142 minutes long.  It seemed the director did his best to cover all of the plot bases, background, with some action mixed in - very well - but I felt like each of the many elements suffered just a little from underexposure because there were so many plot points to expose the audience to.
Ideally a director's cut will be forthcoming, and the subsequent films will fill in some of the unanswered questions.  In the meantime, it is worth seeing, and I will definitely have to read the books.