mp’s rating: 3.5/5
The Hunger Games: this is the movie that everyone talks about.
Set up sometime in the future, the government, aka ‘the capitol’ rules over 12 districts. To make these districts tremble in fear and respect the capitol, each year two teenagers (a boy and a girl) aged between 12 to 18 must participate in a brutal killing, where only one winner could live, named ‘The Hunger Games’.
Katniss, upon knowing that her little sister is chosen for the upcoming game, volunteers herself and becomes the female candidate for the district 12. And a boy, Peeta, who has a crush on Katniss since forever, is chosen too.
Then the brutal killing starts.
Twenty-four teenagers from the 12 districts take their parts on the battle, only one would come home alive.
I sat there in the cinema with no less than 300 other people. I was on the third row from the screen.
And like all theaters, the first couple of minutes were filled with commercials and trailers, but because 98 per cent of the seats were filled, they extended the commercial and trailer time to 30 minutes – and when you started watching at 9pm, the movie went for quite a while.
Receiving good ratings, great even, I watched the movie with high hope, fingers crossed on my neck that became sore right after the movie was finished.
It was good. It deserved its good rating. It was just… Dark.
A friend told me that the novel was written for teenagers aged 12-18 years old. Impossible.
Like critics used to say, Harry Potter stopped being a teenager book starting book 5. The Hunger Games, I believed, stopped being a teenager book right from the very beginning.
But only a great story could make me still be awake at 12.36am, trying to decipher the story and Wikipedia-ing the second and third book. And a great story it was.
Actors and actresses were great. Cinematography? Could have been done better with less moving hand-held camera that is a bit disturbing because it is used every time the contestants got into a fight, but overall it was ok. Plot? Interesting, fascinating, striking. But it’s dark.
It is very dark.
It tells us of every flaw of human, of our basic instinct that has been woven since the time of the gladiators.
It tells us what will happen, if humankind fails.
But there’s still hope, no matter how small it is.
If you are looking for some fancy science fiction like The Chronicles of Narnia, or a heroic movie like Harry Potter, this is not it. I really doubt that this movie can be the next Harry Potter (well, who knows, but in my humblest opinion, I am not sure). However, it is still quite a good watch.
Read other reviews:
4 Things The Hunger Games Can Teach Us About the War on Women | Good News
Hunger Games vs Twilight: Why Games rule, … vampires suck | Straits Times
