MOVIE REVIEW 1: The Hunger Games

MOVIE REVIEW
The Hunger Games (M)
Review: Katherine Weston

When a book is adapted to the big screen, I am one of those people that has to read the book first — and the bookis nearly always better.
With The Hunger Games however, I went in blind.
I knew the general gist of the storyline, but further than that I knew little about the series that has come to rival the Harry Potter and Twilight series on teenagers’ bookshelves around the world.
I now have to admit that after viewing the film, my interest has been piqued and the trilogy by Suzanne Collins has been added to the top of my to-read pile.
For those who haven’t picked up a magazine or read an entertainment website over the past six months, The Hunger Games is set in a post apocalyptic world in the nation of Panem, which is made up of a wealthy Capitol and 12 districts, each one poorer than the last.
Each year the Capitol holds the Hunger Games, in which a boy and a girl from each district are chosen through a lottery as tributes who must then fight to the death until one remains in a televised event, apparently as punishment for a previous rebellion of the districts.
In district 12, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence) bravely nominates herself to take part in the games after her younger sister’s name is drawn.
Along with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), the male tribute, she is whisked away to the Capitol where she is primped and preened before being introduced to city’s residents and potential sponsors, who can provide food, medicine and tools to their favourite tributes throughout the competition.
Once the games begin, many tributes are immediately killed, but Katniss uses her hunting and survival skills to try and outwit the others.
Chosen from more than 30 actresses vying for the role of Katniss, Lawrence has a commanding on-screen presence and immediately gains the sympathy and support of the audience.
Hutcherson, meanwhile, is slightly awkwardand less believable as the supposedly love-struck Peeta while Australia’s Liam Hemsworth, perhaps better known as Miley Cyrus’ other half, is intriguing in his small roleas Katniss’ best friend, Gale.
After an emotional start the film drags slightly during the tributes’ preparation, but once the games begin, things start to pick up until an extremely underwhelming ending that may leave audiences less than impressed.
However, we all know this is the first in a trilogy (with one of the books rumoured to be split into two films in the spirit of Twilight’s Breaking Dawn), so there is plenty of opportunity for the franchise to redeem itself.
Fans will be glad to know Lawrence, Hutcherson, Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson, who plays mentor Haymitch, have all signed on to return for the rest of the films.

Book Review 2: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is fiction in the young adult genre, which is not my age group, but I found myself unable to put it down. Its combination of nerve-racking tension, thrilling action, and engaging love story kept me up until the wee hours. I was surprised at how completely engrossing the plot was. Like Brave New World, this story is set in a future where the government oppresses its people, but the book also borrows ideas from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

When the book opens, North America as we know it has been destroyed and is now divided into 12 districts, ruled by an oppressive government located at the Capitol. Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl from District 12, takes her younger sister’s place as one of 24 “tributes” selected every year to participate in the Hunger Games at the Capitol.
The Games pit children from ages 12 to 18 against each other in a fight to the death in a giant, treacherous arena. Everything is televised and highly publicized all over the country. Katniss must not only survive the Games, but deal with a romance between her and another tribute from District 12, all the while deciding if she is willing to kill strangers her own age as a pawn of an oppressive government.

The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy, and it was released in 2008. I wish I had known it was a trilogy before I finished the book, because then I would have been prepared for the ending, which was a transition into the next book rather than a totally satisfying end. The third and final installation of the series came out in August 2010. Suzanne Collins, the author, worked for Nickelodeon and wrote The Overlander before she wrote The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games won several awards and was a New York Times bestseller. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down.

The Games provided a backdrop to one of the most enthralling plots I have ever read. Katniss constantly battles thirst, fire, hunger, wild animals, injuries, and other teenagers for survival. She makes and loses friends, and I became so attached to her and her fellow tribute from District 12 that I was dying to find out how the book ended. While the plot is mainly what drives this book, the creativity of this future world and the concept of the Games also impressed me. In addition, the characters are all very strong and exhibit character development throughout the book.

While I found this book absolutely enthralling, I was surprised it was aimed at an audience of young adults. It seems extremely intense for anyone younger than 16 or 17. For example, there is a scene where one young tribute is slowly eaten alive by wolf-like creatures all night long, and Katniss has to finally throw a weapon at him to end his misery. I found this a little too disturbing when I considered the age of the character.

The intensity of the action was something one would find in a more mature book, but the age of the characters and the simplicity of the prose were aimed at a much younger audience. In addition, this book was written in present tense, which I found annoying, but that’s more of a personal preference than a stylistic fault. It was also edited somewhat poorly, but that rarely distracted from the plot. For example, the author often spoke in sentence fragments to describe how Katniss felt, which might have been an attempt to reflect on her thought process, but I found it disorienting to read a lot of really short sentences all together. It would have been better to vary the sentence length on occasion, but the story was still coherently.

Overall, The Hunger Games was an excellent, enthralling read that I highly recommend. If it was more clearly marked for older teens, it would have been better, but it was a fantastic book with a wonderfully creative plot.

By  Brittney Brown, Blogcritics.org      Updated 05:07 p.m., Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Book Review 1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a dystopian novel written for young adults (YA). Even though the main audience targeted, the book has struck chords with parents as well and has been a best seller since it came out.
North America has been destroyed and is now run by the powerful Capital and is divided into 12 districts (district 13 has been destroyed due to a rebellion). In district 12 ace hunter Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl, carves out a meager existence for herself, her younger sister Prim and their widowed mother. In order to keep the 12 districts aware of who runs the county, the Capital arranges a game to the death each year in an elaborate arena. Each district holds a drawing of one boy and one girl to go as tributes. When her sister is picked, Katniss exercises her option to volunteer for the games. Along with Katniss comes also Peeta, the baker’s son, who grew up with her.
Katniss and Peeta must fend for themselves against natural elements, the Gamemakers and the other contestants whose only option is to kill or be killed.
I’ll admit it, I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins because my wife did and I didn't… we can’t have that now.
Can we?
I can certainly see why the book was such a hit. The novel struck many chords and many themes (teenage anguish, love, work, poverty and more), was an easy and quick read, as well as full of action.
Ms. Collins built a fantastical and believable world where the United States is no more and instead the country is now called Panem which is run from “The Capital” and divided into 12 districts. The story progresses quickly and fluently with well defined characters who have lame names. Don’t tell me that the baker’s son is named Peeta (Pita) by accident.

I can certainly understand how the YA crowd fell head over heels for this novel.
For me though, and I understand perfectly well I’m not the target audience, the love triangle was cliché, but I loved the violence and speed of this novel. The constant suspense kept me turning page after page as, I assume, most of those who read the book. Once I got over my name prejudice, I even liked the protagonist – a bow and arrow wielding female Wilhelm Tell, how can you not like her?
Ms. Collins’ prose is efficient in a no-nonsense style filled with humor which causes the book to become addictive. Like any good story, you are immersed in the universe built around you, yet you know it is not real but you can’t stop reading.
That being said, there were some aspects of the book which were too convenient, when Katniss babysits Peeta in the second half of the book, the stuff she needs floats down from the sky. That might be passable for the intended audience, but not for me. Also the ending was a bit disappointing. I especially disliked the mutated werewolves but, since this is part of an extremely successful trilogy and the audience certainly stuck around to find out what happens – who am I to say anything?

Author: ManOfLaBook.com — Published: Mar 24, 2012

This movie replicates Suzanne Collins' novel The Hunger Games.

Finally the biggest day has arrived. Millions of fans were eagerly waiting for the release of the movie The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games was released on March 23, 2012 and has already made $155 million in its opening-weekend box-office debut. In three days, The Hunger Games created the third-biggest record in Hollywood history. It overtook the past records of the blockbuster hauls of the Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Twilight movies, among others. The Hunger Games reached beyond the young-adult market which was targeted by the Suzanne Collins’s novel The Hunger Games, more than half of Hunger Games moviegoers, 56 percent, were aged 25 and older. In my opinion this is a movie for all ages.

The author of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Author Suzanne Collins arrives at the world premiere of "The Hunger Games" on Monday March 12, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)

Suzanne Collins is the author of a very acclaimed and New York Times bestseller novel The Hunger Games (September 2008). Ms. Collins has studied at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and at New York University, where she was awarded an MFA in Dramatic Writing. She first gained her popularity in children’s literature with the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles series for middle grade readers. Another of her most popular novel was Catching Fire (September 2009), the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. It was named a Time Magazine Top Ten Fiction Book of 2009, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and a People Magazine (Top 10) Best Book of 2009. In April 2010, Suzanne Collins was named to the TIME 100 list of “the world’s most influential people.” Ms. Collins has also had a prolific and tremendous career writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains It All. She received a Writers Guild of America nomination in animation for co-writing the critically acclaimed Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Recently she wrote the screenplay of Lionsgate’s upcoming movie The Hunger Games. That movie replicates her novel The Hunger Games. Ms. Collins is a very  popular and an accomplish science fiction novel writer. She is science fiction writer because most of her writing is science and technological form. In the novel The Huger Games, Suzanne Collins uses science fiction novels as the relationship with the principles of science.these stories involve partially true-partially fictitious laws or theories of science. It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures into the genre fantasy.