I've just finished rewatching the trailer for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." And of course, something irks me. This isn't my first time seeing a trailer for this film, but all of a sudden, while I was watching the trailer this time, I was again hit by the feeling that something was off. Here's the trailer, in case you've missed it:
It actually looks pretty great. Lots of interesting designs for the Capitol and wardrobes, as well as a clear feeling of the sense of menace and danger that evolves in the second book. So far, I love how they've depicted the scene with the District 11 man getting shot. Now, I was pleasantly surprised by the first film, and ended up liking it quite a lot. I've rewatched it several times. But I've always had the same issue, which comes up perhaps tenfold in this trailer.
Think about it. In whose point of view are the books told? Katniss's, obviously. She's narrating them in first person. We experience everything with her.
Now think about it again. In whose point of view is this trailer told? In whose point of view was the first film told? Much of it was Katniss's, sure. But not exclusively.
Small spoilers ahead, proceed with some caution.
I understand that there are difficulties in translating a first-person novel into a film, because you automatically lose the omnipresent voice of the narrator. Unless you have constant voice-overs, which would be totally hokey, it's impossible to maintain that feeling of being utterly in a character's head. Yet with the "Hunger Games" movies, something different is going on. We're not just seeing Katniss's point of view. For the first time, we're getting into the heads of the Capitol. We're seeing President Snow's thinking painted out right in front of us.
For me, this makes the story lose something. In the books, we only experience things from Katniss's point of view. I wouldn't go so far as to call her an unreliable narrator, but every character – every person – comes with his or her own set of biases and interpretations.
Think about those parts in the book, where Haymitch sends sponsored gifts to Katniss in the arena. She imagines him saying certain, specific things by the way that he sends each gift. It's likely that Haymitch does mean the things Katniss thinks he means; after all, she thinks later about how she and Haymitch were able to "communicate" while she was in the arena. But the thing is, Haymitch isn't sending her literal messages, written out on pieces of paper for her to find. He's not whispering those exact words into her ear. Much of what Katniss thinks he means is probably right on the mark; but Katniss is starving, thirsty, injured, and fighting for her life. She's not going to get everything exactly right. But we accept that Haymitch is almost literally talking to her, because that's how Katniss views it.
In the film, it's not really a big deal, on a narrative level, to have the messages there for the audience to read. It diminishes Katniss's intelligence some, and makes me groan and roll my eyes with how overt everything is, but ultimately, its okay.
Now, think about the Third Quarter Quell. The tributes get reaped from the existing pool of victors. Katniss has a strong idea, but no actual proof, that the Capitol has chosen this as the theme for the Quell specifically for her. She doesn't believe it's coincidence that, seventy-five years before, the Capitol decided that this is what the Quell would be. Katniss is pretty sure it's rigged, and we're pretty sure it's rigged, but we don't know for sure. We only know what Katniss knows.
And then comes this trailer. Then comes, she has to die, none of the victors are safe, we must exert our power in front of these cameras because you audience members are too stupid to pick up on subtlety.
Okay, so maybe not that last one, but that's what it feels like to me. Like we're being coddled. Like we need everything to be spelled out for us. I get that it's neat to delve into the workings of the Capitol, because the filmmakers have this excellent opportunity for visual world-building, something authors don't really get to do, because their medium is obviously different. But I think the point of view shift is detrimentally excessive, and removes much of the suspense and nearly all of the ambiguity that makes this series so special.
Worst of all, though, it humanizes the Capitol. It gives us a penetrable brain, rather than an unknowable, unmovable, oppressive force that is almost godlike in its might. So if Katniss decides to aid the rebellion, she's not fighting against this mythical monster. She's fighting people.
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