Hungry for more Games.

The Hunger Games. It's fairly likely that you've heard at least one of your friends going on about how amazing it is, whether they're talking about the book, the film, or both. I haven't read the book/s - though I think they'll be on my (rather long) to-read list - but I have watched the film recently. And you know what, it's pretty good.

The Hunger Games is set in a futuristic world; and at some point between now and then, there was something akin to the Russian Revolution, but it got knocked back. Basically, the high class are on top, subduing the lower class. Sound familiar? The high class decide that to remind the lower class of what they did, each year, two kids (guy and a girl, of course) from a certain age bracket will be taken from each district (of which there are 12, #12 being the worst off) and put in an arena to fight to the death, a bit of a cross between gladiators and Survivor. Whoever comes out the other end gets glory, fame, and food for their district.

The story follows a girl from District 12 who volunteers to go into the Games, so that her sister (who was chosen by the lottery) doesn't go in. She's a dead shot with a bow, and is noticed fairly quickly. The guy she goes with has a crush on her. (Of course.) The rest of it is a combination of the lead-up and training for the Games, as well as the event itself. And its quite an event - basically the big game show of the year for them.

There's some quite interesting things about the movie; District 12 is portrayed like a very poor country town in some backward place in the middle of nowhere - while in the Capitol (which is, strangely enough, the Capital), they have weird/wacky/fluoro hair, similar dress sense, futuristic - well, everything, pretty much. The difference between the upper and the lower is very exaggerated, very much polarised. It presents an interesting image.

Also, in the arena, everything is controllable. They can smack down a tree over here, introduce some wild beasts over there, and they have cameras everywhere. Literally everywhere. And it really is a game to them. That's it, nothing more. The movie certainly raises some interesting questions in this respect, that aren't necessarily fully resolved. I walked out thinking, "Yep. There's going to be a sequel." I think there's three books.

All over, it's quite a good movie, that I'd certainly recommend watching. Not really one for the little kids - as you can imagine - and does provoke some thought, so if you're not into being challenged too much with what you watch, then you won't get as much out of this.

Positives: Amusing fashions in the Capitol, asks some good questions, clever idea, well done.
Negatives: Not quite sure what to think of some characters, differences between upper and lower classes seem slightly extreme, some issues unanswered.
Just weird: The second-in-command's beard, and the show-host guy's smile.