The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

Rating 8.5 out of 10


As I'm sure anyone reading this knows this movie is based on the first of a trilogy of books by Susanne Collins.  I read the first two books and enjoyed them.  Once I knew there were movies being made I decided to wait and read the third book just before the movie comes out.  I know there are millions that have read the books and I will say you will not be disappointed.

In the movie we see North America in the future.  We find it is being run by the evil Capitol goons that live in the lavish city surrounded by twelve districts who live in literal starvation while providing goods for the fat cats.  In punishment for a squashed revolution many years before the Capitol created a yearly battle where one boy and girl from each district (age between 12-18) are chosen at random to fight to the death with one winner.  The winners district gains extra food and goods for the upcoming year.

Our hero is Katniss Evergreen played perfectly by Jennifer Lawrence.  She is tough as nails and has honed her hunting skills slipping into the forbidden land killing food to feed her mom and sister. When her younger sister is selected Katniss steps up to go in her place.  Most of the cast is how I pictured from the book.

If you have not read the book I feel you will enjoy the movie as much as those who have.  If you are worried it will be a blood and guts movie with sixth graders killing each other it is not.  The fighting is done tastefully.  Probably more in the movie than the book since they had to have that PG-13 rating.  This is a good movie for all.  For the very young (under 12) I'd leave it to the parent to decide.  There are some scary parts with rabid dogs and killer bees.

I only have one gripe with the movie.  When I bought my first video camera I thought it was very cool to zoom in and out rapidly and was not the best at holding the camera still.  When we watched the movies later it was clear someone should have held off on the caffeine before filming.  The director (Gary Ross) took the same approach with much of this movie.  I wanted to yell at the screen to hold the camera still!

I overcame my hostile feelings to really like this movie.  It was 2.5 hours in length but flew by for me.  I highly recommend it for everyone.