Today, I went to see what seemed like my 100,000th movie this year, one that is being hyped as the new ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’. You may have heard of it, it goes by the name of ‘The Hunger Games’
The Hunger Games is based in a post-apocalyptic country of Panem (Panem is where the USA and Canada is) where the ‘Capitol’ (possessing the majority of the country’s wealth) is punishing the surrounding 12 districts for their uprising against the Capitol, which resulted in the destruction of a 13th District. Said punishment involves one male and one female between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the 12 districts to compete in the annual ‘Hunger Games’. Competitors, or ‘Virtues’ as they are referred to in the movie, are selected by lottery. As the Capitol is the possessor of the country’s wealth, the other 12 Districts are enduring extreme poverty, and therefore for every time a family has to go and ask for a food handout, they agree to the names of any of their children eligible to enter into the Hunger Games to be entered into the lottery for the next Hunger Games (i.e. 1 entry for each handout the family receives).
The first hour of the movie is spend informing viewers of the aforementioned back story, but nonetheless keeps you very much interested in the story. As this movie is an adaption of a book, I think the background story is explained exceptionally well, something that very few book adaptations do. Many book adaptations are purely for the entertainment of those who have read the book, where those who haven’t read the books are ‘left out of the group’ so to speak and don’t understand what is happening in the movie. But the Hunger Games is very much the exception. As I said, the first hour of the movie was spent explaining the origins of the Hunger Games, which makes everyone feel like they are a part of the club, because after all, if you hadn’t read the book, how would you know why Panem holds the Hunger Games?
the Hunger Games is a really well done movie, where the viewer really feels like they understand what’s going on. This is most defiantly a movie that could suit everyone, where there’s plenty of action, plenty of emotion and plenty of romance. The only downside for me was, as interesting as the start of the movie was, it took a while to get into the movie due to the background explanation, as well as the open ending to the movie, as the book is the first of a trilogy, with Part Two of the movie series to be released in November 2013.
My Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Krash Bandikoot 
good movie eh hun
For sure babe
The UK has cut out some of the language and blood and relabelled it as 12A (12-yr-old children if accompanied by an adult). What ‘s your view?
I certainly wouldn’t be happy with a child any younger than that going to the Hunger Games because a). the themes portrayed in this movie aren’t really appropriate (there’s a lot of violence in this movie) and b) I wouldn’t expect a child younger than that to sit through such a long movie.
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