Katniss Everdeen hits the mark in The Hunger Games

Watching Katniss Everdeen raise her bow in defiance to the Capitol emboldened me to make a heretical statement of my own—The Hunger Games movie is better than the book. While author Suzanne Collins wove intricate themes of class struggle, civil war, and even counterinsurgency strategy into her trilogy, The Hunger Games movie conveys with complex cinematography and precise casting what prose marketed to eleven-year-olds could not.

Of course, director Gary Ross’s adaptation of the enormously popular young adult novel can only impress because of Collins’ impeccably constructed dystopia, in which an authoritarian central government reminds its 12 surrounding cities of the costs of rebellion by choosing two children from each district to compete in a match to the death. Called the “Hunger Games,” the Capitol televises the bloodbath as quasi-reality TV entertainment to remind their territories of their absolute rule.

Ross translates the sooty descriptions of the downtrodden District 12 into a shockingly real set reminiscent of the mining towns depicted in dramas like North Country. Rusted electrical fence signs, faded linen dresses, and weathered concrete buildings sweep by the camera as it follows a group of men down into the mineshaft.

Against the impoverished districts who must offer up children to compete to the death in annual “Hunger Games,” the lavish Capitol harbors sickening luxury. Costume designer Judianna Makovsky succeeds in draping the wealthy Capitol citizens in the most garish frocks and coats imaginable, while blue hair gilded with silver highlights and beards seemingly shaved with French curves add to the gaudiness of the privileged citizens. With shots of chrome bullet trains racing behind cascading waterfalls, Ross’s depiction of the Capitol sometimes relies a little too heavily on CGI, but the blatant artifice of the city creates a stark contrast with the realistic, gritty districts.

When Capitol citizen Effie Trinket toddles up the dirty cement steps of District 12 in her wedge heels, grasping onto her silk fuchsia skirt and patting down her matching-colored hair, The Hunger Games depicts the true message of the book it is based on. The opulence is not a caricature, but a deeply saddening and infuriating reminder of the injustice lived daily by the citizens of the broken nation of Panem.

Showing an almost inhuman lack of empathy for the district citizens, actress Elizabeth Banks embodies the aloof Effie Trinket magnificently. While Jennifer Lawrence deftly gives life to the movie’s fierce heroine, Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games does not rely on its stars alone to hold up the script. Minor characters are memorable, with Lenny Kravitz delivering his few lines as the designer Cinna with heart. The careful selection of skilled actors for smaller parts comes, perhaps, from an expectation that their characters will show up again in two following movies to complete the trilogy.

The Hunger Games succeeds in part because it sticks so closely to the book’s plot. Where the movie diverges, however, is in its commitment to darkness. While descriptions of severed limbs and bleeding wounds grace the novel, seeing a twelve-year-old beat a fellow child to death with a rock on-screen simply strikes a deeper nerve. Ross doesn’t shy away from the sheer violence of the fight-to-the-death Olympiad, and his willingness to depict killings for a more mature audience gives the movie a deeper feel than one simply aimed at attracting a gaggle of the novel’s fans.

Intertwined in all the action are a few horribly sappy exchanges between Katniss and her fellow fighter Peeta, but audiences can groan along with Gale, the third point in the love triangle. Luckily, the film didn’t fall prey to making the love story bigger than need be—at its heart, The Hunger Games is pure action and dystopic sci-fi. With fans of the novel clamoring to see midnight showings, however, regular moviegoers may have a hard time finding tickets this weekend. As Effie would say, “may the odds be ever in your favor.”