Now that the Harry Potter movies
are over and the Twilight series
is (thankfully) drawing to a close, there is a sudden
movies-based-on-young-adult-literature void in Hollywood. The heir
apparent to these two series is The Hunger Games, based
on a series of books by Suzanne Collins. I should preface my review
by saying that I haven't read any of the Hunger Games
books, so I am approaching my
review of this movie solely on it's merits as a movie, with no
reference to its merits as an adaptation. However, I did see this
movie with my girlfriend who has read the book this film is based on,
and she said that it stayed relatively true to the source material.
The books detail the lives of the citizens of Panem, a fictional,
futuristic, dystopian North America. Panem is ruled by a wealthy
capitol, called simply 'The Capitol” which is surrounded by 12
powerless districts. Every year the districts must pay tribute to the
authority of the Capitol by having one boy and one girl each between
12 and 18 years old, to be chosen at random to fight the death
against the tributes from the other districts in an arena filled with
hidden cameras so that all the citizens of Panem can watch the
battle. The winner of each year's Hunge Games is given immense
wealth in an otherwise starving country. The books, like much of the
sci-fi genre, are a parable for our present day and age. There is a
stark and growing difference between the small wealthy ruling class
and the so-called 99% who are distracted from the real issues by
reality television.
