Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is based off the popular teen fiction series written by Suzanne Collins. Katniss Everdeen is a 16 year old girl who lives in a world split into 12 districts that are controlled by The Capitol. Many years ago the districts rebelled against The Capitol, and as punishment The Capitol forces the 12 districts to participate in an event known as the Hunger Games. Each district must choose one male and one female tribute between the ages of 12-18 to send to the Games where the tributes must fight to the death. During the selection process known as The Reaping, Katniss's sister is called as a tribute, and Katniss volunteers in her place. Peeta Mellark is chosen as the male tribute to fight alongside Katniss. What follows is a fight for survival that neither of them are entirely prepared for.

For an adaptation of a popular book series, I have to admit The Hunger Games is one of the best and most faithful adaptations I have seen in a long time. Director Gary Ross did a great job of keeping most of the important details from the story into the movie. There were a few minor details I wish he would have expanded on, but if he had put those details in the movie it might have made it too long. One thing I'm not exactly happy with, but I understand why Gary Ross did it this way is the cinematography during the fight scenes. He filmed these scenes in a shaky, blurry way so that you can't clearly see the carnage that is happening on screen. It drives my eyes crazy to see that kind of cinematography, but Gary Ross said he didn't want to make the violence itself the focus of the movie. Instead he wanted the disgust and horror of Katniss and Peeta towards the Games as the focus.

One argument I have heard brought up is that someone thought The Hunger Games should have been rated R. I have to be honest, I completely disagree. If you make The Hunger Games rated R then two things happen: 1) you just lost your teen fanbase that the books are geared towards; and 2) if you make it R then you do the exact opposite of what the primary message of the movie and books is. The Hunger Games is a critique on the fact that our generation has turned violence into something that is entertaining. We have become numb to the horror of seeing blood and gore spilling out onscreen. We have gotten to the point where we watch a movie such as the Friday the 13th series and instead of cringing at the sight of Jason X stalking his prey, we sometimes bust out laughing. I do think The Hunger Games would have benefitted from pushing the PG-13 limit, making it dark and violent, but not graphic. If Gary Ross had followed in, say, the Lord of the Rings footsteps or The Dark Knight then I think The Hunger Games would have been even better.

While I greatly enjoyed The Hunger Games and recommend people go see it, I have to issue a warning to parents of young kids: This is by no means a kids movie. The story is about teenagers killing each other and the rest of the population turning this bloodbath into entertainment. Suzanne Collins wrote the series as a critique on our generation's love of movies such as Gladiator, 300, and other war movies that have excessive amounts of blood and gore. Our generation has become subjected to this type of entertainment so much that we have become numb to it. The books themselves are superbly done, and the movie is also well-done, but they are both meant to bring to our attention the horrors of violence. If you think your child is old enough and mature enough to understand how horrible the situation in the story is, then I'd say use you're own judgement whether to allow your child to see The Hunger Games. However, personally I would 100% listen to the fact that it's PG-13. No child under the age of 13 should see The Hunger Games.