Panem once known as North America is now a nation that has been divided into 12 districts. The Capital is it at the center of this new place, and to keep the twelve districts in order. It harshly demands that from each twelve district that one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games. The games are aired on live television and each boy and girl has to fight to the death to survive. Due to the rebellion the games is a reminder that in order to keep the pace this particular sacrifice has to be made each year.
Now that we have a tidbit of history on Panem, we open with our heroine Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence who did an excellent job by the way). Katniss is sixteen years; she is fearless and carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. We see that family is very important to her the way that she cares and consoles her younger sister. Her relationship with her mother is strained and we learn that through her flash backs of memory and the death of her father who worked in the mines in district twelve. Katniss lives in district twelve which is the poorest district, there was a district thirteen. However; due to poor living conditions and the people not happy with the wealth that the Capital had, the Capital in turn responded with very brutal attack that they say wiped out district thirteen. Thus the creation of the Hunger Games with a series of even harsher games that is set to remind all remaining districts that they in the end have the ultimate control.
As mention above, the games consist of one boy and one girl from each district that have to fight to the death in the games and the ages are between twelve and eighteen. These young people are shipped off to the Capital in a process that is called the reaping, here they are made beautiful. For some they are fattened and given food that they never have seen in their district. They tell children that the last person alive is the winner of the annual games and they will be able to live there in the Capital once the games are over. We learn that this is the 74th Hunger Games and everyone in Panem will be watching the games are they unfold.
We return back to Kantiss, being fearless doesn’t describe have of this young woman. We see her reach for a bow and arrow and she crosses a fence as she goes hunting. Take note crossing the fence is prohibited. As she is in the process of hunting she is interrupted by a young man by the name of Gale who is her best friend. The two talk about the reaping and the upcoming games, Katniss tells Gale that she will never have children because of fear that they will to have to take part in the games. Katniss after speaking with Gale takes her hunt to the Hob, this is the underground market where she can sell the meat (which is illegal). While at the Hob she see a mockingjay pin, this mockingjay bird is a hybrid of a mocking bird and also a combination of a jabberjay (a concoction of the Capital).
Once Katniss returns home she cleans herself up to be ready for the reaping. She is explaining the system the reaping to her younger sister. And Katniss gives her younger sister the pin and tells her that as long as she has the pin nothing will be able to hurt her. All kids from the district are then assembled in the town square. An eccentric dressing woman Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) reaches into the bowl and pulls the name for the girl, and it is Primerose Everdeen. As the guards are taking Prim to the stage, Katniss is shaken out of the shock of hearing her sisters name called, rushes to the front and says that she volunteers as tribute and takes her sisters place.
Effie asks for a round of applause from the crowd for the volunteer, but she only gets silence. As the district instead give a solute which represents unity and rebellion against the Capital. Next Effie then selects a boy from the district Peeta Mellar. Katniss has a flashback of Peeta, when she was in the rain and starving and Peeta was put out of his father’s bakery for burning bread. Together Katniss and Peeta are the current district twelve tributes. The two tributes are whisked away on a high speed train, after saying their goodbyes to their family and friends from the district. Once on the train the kids meet Haymitch who many years previously won the Hunger Games. Haymitch first encounter with the kids leave a lot to be desired to say the least. He drinks and doesn’t really provide the two with actual incite on how to win the games and stay alive.
Katniss is turned off (at first) by Haymitch whereas Peeta tries the approach of appeasement. Once they the two get a little more warmed up to Haymitch he tells them that they need to make friends, this doesn’t sit well with Katniss who pouts and makes her feelings known. As the tributes arrive at the Capital, Katniss meets her stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) who promises that he will come up with a great costume for the two of them for the gala entry parade. Katniss hits it off with Cinna from the start that is due in part because she likes that he is down to earth and very realistic. As Cinna promised the two tributes do in fact make an entrance and an impression on the Capital.
Haymitch starts to give Katniss his full attention and guidance when he realizes that she truly has a chance to win the games. Haymitch also advises Katniss that she needs to avoid the bloodbath at the beginning of the games, and he tells her to find water and he tells her that water is her best friend. As the countdown to the games begins Katniss looks at the bow and arrow and she turns and looks at Peeta. He is shaking his head no more or less telling her not to go for the bow and arrow at all. As the tributes step off the plat form and the games begin, we see Peeta running toward the woods and Katniss looking confused, and then she spots a back pack and goes for it. Katniss takes the bag and then she too runs off into the woods and follows the advice that Haymitch provided to her.
As the games are going on, we see all the faces of the children that have died at the cornucopia at the start of the games. Katniss goes through her bag and finds all that she needs, a rope that comes in handy because she is able to rope herself into a tree to be safe at night, and a container where she can be able to put water in from the stream. As the games are going on, we see Peeta teaming (or so it seemed) with Cato and company from district one and two to kill Katniss, however; Katniss gets a little assistance from Rue a kid form district eleven. With assistance from Rue Katniss cuts down a nest of trackerjackers, and the nest falls right on the kids at the bottom. The kids scatter, with an exception of one who dies from the sting of the trackerjackers. Peeta tells Katniss who has suffereda few stings by the trackerjackers to go and move (which she listens even though she can barely focus).
Katniss awakes a few days later to see Rue, the little girl from district 11 who has dress her stings. Katniss and Rue form a bond and use the tool that each other have to stay alive. Rue tells Katniss about what the kids from district one and two have in relation to supplies, food, and how they have it guarded. Katniss and Rue decide to destroy their supply. Katniss destroys their supplies and as she returns to Rue, she hears Rue cry out to her for help. Katniss get to Rue and cuts her out of the net that she was in, however; a kid from one of the district throws a spear and it hits Rue in the stomach. Rue dies in Katniss’ arms. Katniss then solutes district eleven with the symbolic hand solute that incites a riot from the district. The Capital is quick to put the riot down, President Snow, then tells the game master to nip this behaviour in the butt in so many words. President Snow is not happy with the rebellion from district eleven and because of this he has some arrangements made to kill Katniss at the games.
After what happens to Rue Katniss then sets out to find Peeta, when she over hears the careers saying that they left Peeta for dead by the river, this is the direction that Katniss takes. As she sets off she finds a trail of blood and follows it. She finds Peeta who has camolfauge himself to a rock. Katniss realizes that Peeta has blood poisoning and the only way he can survive is with medicine, specific to his needs. Katniss realizes as well that the medicine is expensive and she has to follow Haymitch advice if she is going to get the medicine. By magic an announcement is made stating that there will be a feast at the cornucopia and that it will have what each tribute will need.
Peeta tells Katniss not to go and promises that she will not, however; once Peeta is asleep Katniss goes to the cornucopia to the feast. Once she is there there are four bags for the four remaining tributes. As Katniss is about to run to get her bag she see foxface from district five run out and grab her bag and take off. Katniss then makes the same move, but is stopped by Clove a girl from district one Cato’s partner. The two girls fight, and when it looks like Katniss is about to be killed, Thresh then lifts Clove from her feet and yelling at her asking if she killed Rue. Thresh kills Clove and tells Katniss that he gave her a pass for Rue and it is only for this one time. Both kids run off in opposite directions. Katniss goes back to Peeta and puts the medicine on his cut and Peeta puts some on Katniss’ cut from the fight she had with Clove.
The two starts hiking through the woods looking for food and Katniss hears the sound of the cannon. She rushes back to the woods looking for Peeta and finds him and yells at him because she thought that it was him. It was foxface, she died eating the poison berries that Peeta had found, Katniss slaps the berries out of Peeta’s hands tells him that they are poison and he would have died if he ate them. The kids remain together, because earlier a voice stated that two tributes from the same district can be winners if both survive. Katniss and Peeta are making their way through the woods, but they both are unnerved by the sound that they are hearing in the woods. Peeta is attacked by a wolf or dog looking creature, Katniss shots it with an arrow but it and company keep coming. The two make their way to the cornucopia where they are confronted by Cato. The two fight with Cato and he has a strong hold on Peeta, as Katniss is holding her bow and arrow with the intention to shoot, Cato threatens to throw him and Peeta over.
Katniss shoots after following the signal give to her by Peeta. Cato then falls off the cornucopia and is being attacked by the wolf or dog looking creatures. He bags for mercy and Katniss kills him with her bow and arrow. The two are waiting for the game to be over, but a voice comes back and says that the previous rule was not in accordance with the original rules. So Peeta tells Katniss that she should kill him and that one of them should be able to go home. Katniss doesn’t want that and decides that they should both die and gives Peeta some berries. Just as the two are about to eat the barriers, the same voice returns telling them that the previous rule stands and they are the winners of the 74th Hunger Games.
Haymitch tells the kids and especially Katniss how they should not have showed up the Capital and how they will need to play up the love struck teenagers. The game master Seneca Crane is lead into a very fine polished room and the door is locked behind him. As he make his way to the center of the room, we see a bowl on a table and in the bowl is the same berries that Katniss and Peeta were going to eat. Crane knows that he is not going to be leaving the room alive. Katniss and Peeta travel home to district twelve and a crowd of family and friends (which included Prim and Gale). Peeta sees Katniss reaction when she see Gale and he realizes that Katniss was just playing up this love struck teenage romance from district twelve.
The Hunger Games is a really good movie, and I would highly recommend that reading the book before seeing the movie is a must to understand the history of each character. As with any literature that is turned into visual art, you cannot have the same amount of detail that is in the book. That being said, director Gary Ross was able to capture with great precision Suzanne's vision and what Suzanne had described in the first book of the series. The entire cast did an excellent job portraying the characters, from Jennifer as Katniss to Josh as Peeta. It will be nice to see the second book in the series turned into film. With all current actors and actress portraying the characters and the new characters that we meet in the second book, everyone needs to ensure that they have this movie in their dvd collection. If you have not read the book or the series I recommend that you do, because I plan on completing the series myself.
Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Suzanne Collins
Stars: Jennifer Lawernce, Josh Huutcherson
Running time: 142 minutes
lionsgate film
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