Review of The Hunger Games (2012) by Billie P — 08 May 2014

Weird movie. Seems to be about the exploitation of young people for public entertainment. Meanwhile, the film features an up-and-coming starlet as the heroine (Jennifer Lawrence), and she's becoming a fixture of Hollywood entertainment in her own right.

All the scenes in the film look very anodyne and clear; even dirty people, dirty rooms, dirty floors look like something clean trying to look dirty. Violence is rampant throughout the movie but it's softened by soft focus and overlaid by orchestral music suggesting that while yes this is a lot of violence for a PG-13, nobody involved with this motion picture condones it, and anyway isn't it nice that we cut away right before a young boy's neck is snapped? The film's heroine, by the way, who is fighting for survival, makes her first kill in the film and shows no remorse, as I imagine a young woman in her situation, I, or almost anyone on the planet who is not a sociopath would.

Nobody seems to be too torn up that they are killing other children and young adults. That said, the movie is slick and flashy, and I'm sure the rest of the films will continue to attract a lot of attention.