Review of The Hunger Games (2012) by Mia K — 13 Nov 2018

The Hunger Games, a dystopian action/adventure film by Suzanne Collins, is about a girl's fight to survive the government's death games. The protagonist, a teenage girl named Katniss who struggles in part poor of the society with a wealthy government, must survive a pawn game that the wealthy government of "Panem" forced onto the districts of the society. While in the middle of fighting, destruction, she realizes the only thing that will allow her to survive the senselessness, is love. The Hunger Games is a cinematic, action-packed, engaging movie with many hidden love stories.

The Hunger Games were created by the Capitol to show the people of Panem who was really in charge and to stop the rebellion. The 12 districts surrounding the capitol of Panem were not only living in poor conditions with no aid, but also were required to send people to participate in the games. A boy and a girl from each district compete to the death, and if two people didn't volunteer, they would pick randomly. On the day of the choosing, the person who pulled the tributes, Effie, choose Prim (Katniss's little sister). To save her innocent sister from the games, Katniss volunteers not thinking about her life at stake.

The other tribute was Peeta, a boy who loved Katniss but wasn't loved back, who spent the pre-games helping Katniss. During the games, Peeta joined the powerful group of fighters to survive; while Katniss remained the targeted loner. Throughout the Hunger Games, she used her hunting skills to survive and lasted a long time before meeting up with Peeta again. They realized the only way to survive and to get the capitol's support is to fake their love and care for each other; through fan support this later caused the capitol to make a rule saying if both tributes from the same district survived, there could be two winners. While Peeta was her fake love, there was also a connection between Gayle (Katniss's close friend from district 12 that would do anything for her) and Katniss, which made the movie have multiple love stories woven into it. In the end, they worked together to survive and to defend themselves from the strongest tributes, until it was only them left. But the capitol, sly and untrusting, changed back to the old rules and forced the "lovers" to fight themselves to the death. Instead, they were just going to poison themselves at the same time; if they both can't win then there is no point in both of them living. The capitol stopped the madness before it happens in fear of how the citizens will react.

The movie was very cinematic and thought-through; there didn't need to be a lot of dialogue but scenes of the society and the actor's actions. There was also plenty of fight scenes and action for viewers that a thrilling action movie. It was so engaging and left you on the edge of your seat because each character had a strong desire and will to live. But what I think made the movie so appealing was the government's part, it seemed like it was related to the reconstruction time in our country after the civil war and showed different people oppressed by different things. The government oppressed the districts and did no like to spread hope and rebellion. Even within the capital, it restricted the citizen's knowledge and understanding of how the other districts lived. The movie seemed to have multiple messages that made it so relatable and inspiring.

The Hunger Games, while slightly brushing up on hidden love stories, is engaging, cinematic and action-packed. I recommend it, just by its ability to capture the audience's perspective and emotions to be empathetic for the storyline. It can be fantasy, love story and historical fiction, which makes it so appealing to different types of audiences.