"The Hunger Games"

"The Hunger Games" The movie based on Susan Collins’ young adult trilogy, The Hunger Games, has less to do with hunger and games than it has to do with violence, mayhem, and just plain silliness. The entire premise of the film is predicated on an absurdity and the action punctuates that absurdity with such elements as arbitrary rule changes in the 74 year old government-mandated tradition of kids killing kids for the entertainment of the elite and teenagers making decisions that are even dumber than the choices often made teens. As the teens pursue one another, two contradictory rule changes that radically alter the games are implemented via strategically-placed loudpeakers in the forest; when a group of five form an unlikely alliance to track down and kill the protagonist and trap her in a tree, they decide to build a campfire and party rather than smoke her out with a fire under said tree. To backtrack, in a futuristic, apocalyptic world, the all-powerful, wealthy, centralized “Capitol” government of Panem conducts nationally-televised annual holiday festivities featuring 24 poor kids aged 12 to 18 chosen by lottery from twelve, outlying, impoverished “districts.” With no consideration of their physical prowess to fight to the death of all but one participant, following a few days of training, the two dozen “tributes” are let loose to wreak havoc on one another while the ruling class watches the progress of the blood-letting on TV. The winner? After murdering all the others, he or she gets to go home to the dismal life of poverty he or she had left before getting “lucky” in the macabre sweepstakes. The winner’s reward after grueling, bruising days of being hunted like an animal is more akin to a booby prize. “The Hunger Games” does incorporate redeeming features, including the central character, Katniss Everdeen, played by 21 year old Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=22168.)