Review: The Hunger Games

       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.

The Hunger Games Opens in Third... Of All Time

Helped by the fact that there were virtually no other movies opening this weekend, largely because no one wanted compete with this juggernaut, The Hunger Games raked in $155 million. That's the third best opening weekend of all time behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight. This means that this series has at last fulfilled its destiny as the next big thing now that the Harry Potter movies over and the Twilight Saga coming to a close (and finally ending our long national nightmare). I haven't seen the movie or read the books yet, but something with this much cultural impact that isn't about sparkly vampire romance is something I'm bound to see. From what I've heard about the plot though it sounds an awful lot like Japan's Battle Royale, a movie based on a novel in which a group of young adults are forced by the government to fight to the death. But ultimately everything is a rip-off of something else, so who gives a shit?