The Hunger Games (2012) - Science Fiction

Movie DVD Cover

Another science fiction with such a damn good scope – unfortunately never works for me. The killer here is the length of the movie – almost 140+ minutes with nothing happening at times. I wonder, what was the point of such a long introduction of almost an hour showing all the CGI – flying train, those buildings, amphitheater, where everyone is just waiting for the games to begin. Made me wonder – do they even work? Or they just wait the games to begin every year? What are the other sources of entertainment for a society like 50 years from now – I guess that’s the period that they are talking about in this movie – although never mentioned clearly but with technological advancement – you can guess that much. The actual action starts almost an hour from the start of the movie and that too isn’t that great to watch – nothing new – just run of the mill stuff – I guess the TV series “Survivor” I found better than this one. Another reality show based movie – I was shocked to read the collections on Wiki – simply WOW – dunno what others liked in this one – it was too long too bland for me. Jennifer Lawrence in lead and Woody Harrelson as her mentor was the saving grace for me with Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland wasted in thankless roles. Cant even call it a one time watch – It certainly doesn’t have a repeat value either. If you haven’t seen it yet – trust me – you are not missing something. But if you have seen it – please tell me what did I miss?

The Cast

The Movie: Starts in some North American country with a wealthy and technological advanced Capitol surrounded by 12 poor districts. As a punishment to the districts they have a tradition of picking up two candidates each aged between 12-18 from all the districts – collected for a death match. All have to participate and the names of one girl and one boy from each sector is picked up randomly, one survivor wins the prize every year and we witness the 74^th Hunger Game. It actually starts off on a very high note with protagonist Katniss Everdeen (played by hottie Jennifer Lawrence) is shown hunting a deer with bow and arrow – my hopes soared to roof top. Further advanced when they pick them up randomly and Katniss volunteers for her younger sister who was actually picked up for the game with a guy who she already knows from the colony as the bakery guy, who helped her once by offering her bread when her family was starving. Finally they are put up on a flying train of sorts traveling at 200 mph to reach the Capitol where the big games will start with 22 more contenders from other 11 districts fighting for survival with them in a jungle. After a lot of CGI made buildings and areas we reach the grand theatre where they all are introduced to us in a colorful ceremony which had me yawning all the way – waiting for real action to begin. They all have their own mentors, our girl and boy get Woody Harrelson (one of my favorites) as theirs who has hardly anything to teach them. I was surprised to see Lenny Kravitz in a thankless role – dunno why and how he signed up to do that silly role – why of all?

Hottie Jennifer Lawrence

Finally, the game begins when they are transported in glass tubes to the jungle they are supposed to survive. Here we realize that some contestants were actually trained from birth to prepare for these games – they make their own teams and start killing the lesser mortals – in no time half the contestants are gone. Katniss’s own friend from her sector goes against her and joins the rival gang in tracking her initially. By the time I realized where it’s going – it went on to become too predictable with almost no chilling, thrilling, killing or action moments. It was been there seen that stuff from this point and had a predictable ending. Nothing surprised me like sponsors sending goodies and tools to help their favorite contestants; everything is watched live by the audience including the sectors from where the contestant came etc. Games administrators making it tough for them at times by launching new adventures and stuff – what I disliked big time about the movie was its length – I found it to be over stretched. I am sure had they worked on its length a bit – it may have made me happy. But the box office figures are too good for the movie – it almost made 4 times more than what it was made up of – and that is quite a good deal. Although, I am yet to find a friend in my circle who liked this movie – let alone loving it. It has its own good moments too but they are too few and hardly deserve a mention. I was surprised to see that it can’t even be called an average one time watch and seriously have no multiple viewing values either.