The Hunger Games – movie review

@Mark Clyne (Irish Wig)

because the age rating is based at a 12a, there not gunna put that much violence when 12 year olds etc will want to go see it.

in the end of the 1st book, theres an interview and she says where she got the idea from: tv reality show and war. also there is a lot more to the story than the games, the games is just a small part of the story, the last quater/half (inbetween that amount) is spent on the games, the rest is their like in 12, and after on the tour. im not going into what else its about because of spoilers.

Yeah I wanted to see this after seeing the trailer a few months ago. Having heard of battle royale but never seen it , i thought oh wow a new take on running man (then logans run lol) so was well excited. Didnt know the film was based on a series of books until accidentally coming across them in a book store, but this made me even more excited about the film as i thought well the books seem to have done alright so the story must be solid.

I was really disappointed with this film, for some reason the fact is was a 12A completely escaped me until I was sat in my seat and the film was about to start. There is no way a film with this kind of back drop can be classified a 12A and be any good, it defeats the whole reason why people go to watch it. Other than that though the film gets ages to get going, when it does the whole point of the games and who will survive etc just seems pointless. Im sure they will go into this more with the sequels but i honestly couldnt care. One big question throughout the film I had was - 'why do these hunger games even happen?', the film does give a kind of flimsy explanation, but it makes so little sense that its wondrous that the population didnt up rise when they were first introduced.

In hindsight I guess its obvious that this was an attempt by an author to emulate the success of harry potter and twilight but with a different backdrop. I'm guessing she went "lets see: they've had wizards and witches for kids/teens, vampires for teens, what can i do pirates? oh no The pirates of the carribean caters for that, hmmm bingo ill take on science fiction/dystopian future- then watch the money roll in"(next will be teen cowboys trust me). Its a valiant effort but they should have put art before commercial success, the set up is brilliant and the world they have painted is the kinda thing I like, but for a 12A it is never going to work.