The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

 The Hunger Games is a film where Panem is divided into 12 districts and then the Capitol. Each district has two people, who have been drawn from a lottery, represent them in what is called the annual Hunger Games. These games are held by the Capitol as a reminder of past rebellions and to keep each district in order and in the correct hierarchy.  

When Katniss Everdeen from district 9, one of the poorest, volunteers in place of her sister she is thrown into the games and into a somewhat love story. District 9’s other representative of district 9 being Peeta, who she has history with. As the story goes on there is the thrilling adventure and action of the games with having the two survive from the other districts who have trained their whole life and watching the relationship between them develop.

Katniss Everdeen is portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence who is an idol for many teenagers for her behaviour and personality. Despite the fact Katniss is meant to be 16 and olive skinned, Jennifer Lawrence has been called the perfect Katniss. She manages to embody everything that the Katniss in the book is. Completely the opposite of boy crazy and she manages to be good looking without having the usual look of a female when cast as the lead role, not there just for the male gaze and to be sexualised. She also manages to get Katniss’s personality across easily, the strong silent type and makes the audience think she’s always thinking and always has a plan.

Peeta Mellark is played by Josh Hutcherson.  I’m not entirely convinced that he is the right choice for this role. To me the reason for him being in the film is the fact that he is known and loved by teenage girls which would make a hype for the film. His eyes are the wrong colour to how Peeta should look which could be forgived but he is also a small height and not as a big and strong build he should be. Hutcherson could make this forgotten if he had played it a lot better and played it more confidently and well, manly. 

The smaller roles are played genuinely well, for example Woody Harrelson plays Haymitch perfectly and gets the drunken man who starts of with no hope and not caring who then realises there may be hope with Katniss down to a T. 

Overall I think this is a great film and gives us everyone the idea of a different world and makes the audience think 'what if' and really wonder about the current state of our government and society. Although it is only the first film in a series it manages to stay true to the book. However the story itself is a little far fetched. The fact that small children are being killed and hacked and what the audience is being made to root for is for Jennifer to kiss the male lead role. Ignoring that fact the adventure fiction really keeps me entertained and alternate history intrigues me with the contrast of how different each district is and how they all seem set in different time periods compared to The Capitol.

I give this film 3 and a half popcorn buckets due to the overall film being great but with peformances and details being differently in the book for example I think the use of fire in the district 9s clothing wasnt used aswell as it could of been and some scenes where missing.