Movie Review – The Hunger Games (2012)

This movie is based on the first novel in The Hunger Games trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins.  The other two books are called Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  The main plot of this story is that the Capitol (President Snow and his government) forces children to participate in these games and then televises it so that their family and friends can watch them fighting for their lives.

Each year one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts is chosen by lot.  Their names are written on slips of paper and then picked at random.  Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to go in place of Prim, her twelve year old sister, when her name was chosen.  The boy that was chosen to go along with her is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). He is around the same age as Katniss and has had a secret crush on her for a long time.  

They arrive at the Capitol and are treated like celebrities.  They get to stay in a fancy hotel, eat the finest food, have clothing designed for them, and their hair and make up done.  But they also have to train for the games.  They have to learn to fight, to use a knife, a bow and arrow, how to survive in the wilderness, and how to kill another human being, otherwise they will be killed themselves.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie as I have read all three of the books written by Suzanne Collins, and I was curious to see if the filmmakers stayed true to the story.  The movie came out in March 2012, here in Canada, but I didn’t get a chance to watch it until last night.  To tell you the truth, I should have gone on waiting.  The movie was a big disappointment in my opinion.  First of all the movie was quite long.  It was around 2 hours and 20 minutes long, which is fine with me as long as it is worth it.  It took well over an hour before they even got to the games part of the movie. They spent most of the time on the getting their hair done, and the interviews that they did for the television show.  It just seemed to drag on and on.  I was very disappointed in this movie.  I felt it was quite a let down.  Maybe if I hadn’t read the books, I would have liked it more, but I doubt it.  I give this movie a 6 out of 10.