Profanity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Violence:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sex: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Summary
The Hunger Games start off with an interview. The "head game maker" (essentially the guy who ruins all of the tribute's lives) is doing an interview with the guy who is in charge of making this brutal fight to the death seem like a fun game that everyone enjoys (Caesar Flickerman). The game maker is rich and doesn't get that people actually die or something because he says that people enjoy coming together for the games. Of course, the most dramatic thing to do at that point is to smash cut (which they do) and make you jump by splitting a nice quiet interview with a terrible scream.
Katniss is consoling her sister Prim who had a nightmare about being reaped into The Hunger Games. She then dumps her sister (not literally, its just to make you laugh) and decides to go hunting in the woods.
In the woods, she almost catches a deer but her friend Gale scares it off by walking into the woods next to her and acting so badly that the deer runs away. Katniss and Gale exchange some words which talks about the Hunger Games and then Gale throws a rock to disrupt some birds, one of which Katniss shoots and kills. She laughs for some reason.
Then, suddenly, dramatically, and totally not talked about again in the whole movie, a hovercraft comes above and Katniss and Gale hide in the trees. Then, we see Effie Trinket, a very posh woman from the rich capitol city, The Capitol (really creative name, by the way). And then Katniss is getting undressed and redressed at her house in clothes that her mother gave her. She doesn't like her mother because when her dad died, her mom shut down and wouldn't talk to anyone. She shows Prim a mockingjay pin that is supposed to mean good luck that she got (for free, so she only gives her sisters freebees, I guess) at a black market in her city. She says that it's a pin that will make sure that nothing bad happens to Prim as long as she had it.
Of course, the next thing that happens is that Prim gets reaped into the Hunger Games at the city's reaping ceremony.
You know, it might be useful to know a little backstory at this point. The Hunger Games are a set of games that happen every year in the dystopic nation of Panem. The Capitol forced them on the 12 "Districts" (essentially just a very sci-fi name for city) after District 13 rebelled against the government. Of course, this means that The Capitol supposedly (actually not) burned down District 13 and started the Games.
24 kids (called "tributes")between the ages of twelve and eighteen (a boy and a girl from each district) had to fight to the death in the Games until only one was left standing. The child would be named Victor.
So, back to the story. The girls get called first and, naturally, Prim gets picked. Katniss screams in horror and volunteers to take her sister's place in the games (wow Prim, guess that pin worked after all).
Then, the boy is reaped. It's a kid from the rich sector of town who once chucked bread at Katniss's head when she was hungry. The twos tributes get given 3 fingered edition of middle finger (which somehow means "I love you" which I don't get. Whenever I try to give people middle finger, all I get are glares), and get to say goodbye to their loved ones. Prim hands Katniss the mockingjay pin while Katniss is saying goodbye ("Here, you have this. It didn't f**cking work anyway. Have a good trip!") and Katniss almost yells at her mom to get her to be present and not shut herself out like when their dad died. Then, it's Gale's turn and Katniss hugs him and asks him to take care of her family ("Uh no, I'm good thanks. But I'll send you a postcard!!!").
The unlucky tributes then board a train to go to the Capitol (why they took a train, I don't know as it would have been much faster to just to take a hovercraft, and they meet there drunk mentor who was once a Victor and has to teach them to survive. Of course, their mentor has a drinking problem and won't help them. Wow, that pin really didn't work.
It takes one day to get to the Capitol where they are groomed and cleaned. Katniss meets her "stylist" who is supposed to make her look good for the parade that evening where the sponsors (who give the tributes stuff to help them stay alive) can see them for the first time. Katniss's stylist's name in Cinna. Cinna makes her an awesome costume that apparently he didn't like because, right before the parade, he sets it on fire. Unfortunately, Katniss is wearing the costume when it sets fire. Actually, he meant to set it one fire, it doesn't burn her. Peeta has a similar costume that also catches fire.
They hold hands at Peeta's suggestion and get paraded down main street.
Upon arriving at the other end, the evil president named Snow (a punny name, he's a really cold guy) makes a speech before the tributes are marched back to their rooms.
They train and train in the training room (Duh) over the next few days, getting ready for the games. Then, they have an interview where the flamboyant Caesar Flickerman asks them stupid question as if the Hunger Games were a stupid ball game or something.
The next morning, they board the hovercrafts (which look like giant pieces of twisted metal) and go to the games.
There is an epic countdown after the tributes have been lifted through a tube into the arena where they play the game, interspersed with footage of the place where the game makers are working.
When the countdown is over, there is total chaos and the tributes run everywhere, the weak/smart ones running into the woods while the big and dumb ones stay and fight it out. The cameramen drank a little too much before the shoot and the camera is very shaky.
Katniss build a wicked cool trap but decides that it's not good enough and leaves it alone. That night, she sees the pack of ultra strong tributes kill a little girl who was dumb enough to make a fire. The next morning, Katniss goes too far away from danger so the game makers reward her for her intelligence by lighting a forest fire. She is badly burnt and makes it to a lake that she had been near the day before. The "career" pack (the pack of really vicious tributes from the rich districts) sees her and nearly catches her. But, thanks to a combination of blessings such as Katniss is good at climbing and the bad tributes are really strangely bad at climbing and shooting arrows, Katniss survives by climbing into a tree. She sees that Peeta, who said he loved her at the interviews, is with the pack.
For some reason, in the middle of the night, a random girl tribute gives Katniss a hint to cut down a poison beehive that is very conveniently situated directly over where Katniss's enemies are sleeping. The bees in the hive called tracker jackers cause hallucinations.
Katniss gets stung a few times while cutting down the tree with the tracker jackers but it falls nicely onto the bad guys, killing the one who had Katniss's preferred weapon and going nicely away with the stung bad guys.
Katniss gets the bow (her weapon) from the dead girl and Peeta arrives and tells her to run away. Conveniently, she runs far enough away that they can't find her and faints right at the right moment.
When she wakes up, Katniss is being helped by the same girl who stupidly told her how to get the bad guys. Her name is Rue. The two decide to make a (very stupid in Katniss's book) alliance and they plot to blow up the bad guys big selection of food. They pull it off but Rue is killed in the process. Katniss makes a huge collection of flowers for her that she puts around her body to honor her. Then it smash cuts to District 11 (Rue's district) who are having a riot. This is kind of dumb as, you'd think they'd be used to their tributes dying as at least one dies every year.
Katniss is crying in the woods and an announcement blares: It says that two tributes may be crowned victors if they are from the same district. Katniss immediately forgets that she's sad about Rue dying and goes to find Peeta. He has drawn himself into a rock.
She brings him to a cave and they make camp there. However, Cato (the leader of the career tributes) stabbed him with a sword and he now has a bad boo boo on his leg. Katniss gets a jar of ointment from the sponsors and dabs it on his leg. They then make out.
Another announcement plays (by the way, the medicine didn't work on Peeta) and says that each of the tributes needs something and that there is stuff for each of the tributes by the starting line. They will have medicine for Peeta. But, since deadly tributes will be there, wanting to kill Katniss (Peeta's too wounded to go), Peeta tells her not to go. She waits until he's asleep and then goes to the place. Sure enough, somebody tries to kill her. However, Rue's friend Thresh saves Katniss after learning that Katniss helped her. He kills the person who was trying to kill he, takes his stuff, and leaves. Katniss gets her stuff and goes back to Peeta. This time, the medicine works and Peeta is slightly better.
Slowly, the rest of the people die off until it's them vs. Cato. All 3 of them get chased by rabid dog things that look like some crazy hairless well, dog. It chases them to the starting area where Katniss manages to shoot Cato in the hand so he gets eaten alive by the dog things.
They think they have won but then there is an announcement that says that there can (once again) only be one victor. So Katniss and Peeta try to kill themselves but the announcement comes back that says that they've both won and that they both can live.
So they go home and basically the only other thing that happens in the movie is that the head game maker is killed.
The next morning, they board the hovercrafts (which look like giant pieces of twisted metal) and go to the games.
There is an epic countdown after the tributes have been lifted through a tube into the arena where they play the game, interspersed with footage of the place where the game makers are working.
When the countdown is over, there is total chaos and the tributes run everywhere, the weak/smart ones running into the woods while the big and dumb ones stay and fight it out. The cameramen drank a little too much before the shoot and the camera is very shaky.
Katniss build a wicked cool trap but decides that it's not good enough and leaves it alone. That night, she sees the pack of ultra strong tributes kill a little girl who was dumb enough to make a fire. The next morning, Katniss goes too far away from danger so the game makers reward her for her intelligence by lighting a forest fire. She is badly burnt and makes it to a lake that she had been near the day before. The "career" pack (the pack of really vicious tributes from the rich districts) sees her and nearly catches her. But, thanks to a combination of blessings such as Katniss is good at climbing and the bad tributes are really strangely bad at climbing and shooting arrows, Katniss survives by climbing into a tree. She sees that Peeta, who said he loved her at the interviews, is with the pack.
For some reason, in the middle of the night, a random girl tribute gives Katniss a hint to cut down a poison beehive that is very conveniently situated directly over where Katniss's enemies are sleeping. The bees in the hive called tracker jackers cause hallucinations.
Katniss gets stung a few times while cutting down the tree with the tracker jackers but it falls nicely onto the bad guys, killing the one who had Katniss's preferred weapon and going nicely away with the stung bad guys.
Katniss gets the bow (her weapon) from the dead girl and Peeta arrives and tells her to run away. Conveniently, she runs far enough away that they can't find her and faints right at the right moment.
When she wakes up, Katniss is being helped by the same girl who stupidly told her how to get the bad guys. Her name is Rue. The two decide to make a (very stupid in Katniss's book) alliance and they plot to blow up the bad guys big selection of food. They pull it off but Rue is killed in the process. Katniss makes a huge collection of flowers for her that she puts around her body to honor her. Then it smash cuts to District 11 (Rue's district) who are having a riot. This is kind of dumb as, you'd think they'd be used to their tributes dying as at least one dies every year.
Katniss is crying in the woods and an announcement blares: It says that two tributes may be crowned victors if they are from the same district. Katniss immediately forgets that she's sad about Rue dying and goes to find Peeta. He has drawn himself into a rock.
She brings him to a cave and they make camp there. However, Cato (the leader of the career tributes) stabbed him with a sword and he now has a bad boo boo on his leg. Katniss gets a jar of ointment from the sponsors and dabs it on his leg. They then make out.
Another announcement plays (by the way, the medicine didn't work on Peeta) and says that each of the tributes needs something and that there is stuff for each of the tributes by the starting line. They will have medicine for Peeta. But, since deadly tributes will be there, wanting to kill Katniss (Peeta's too wounded to go), Peeta tells her not to go. She waits until he's asleep and then goes to the place. Sure enough, somebody tries to kill her. However, Rue's friend Thresh saves Katniss after learning that Katniss helped her. He kills the person who was trying to kill he, takes his stuff, and leaves. Katniss gets her stuff and goes back to Peeta. This time, the medicine works and Peeta is slightly better.
Slowly, the rest of the people die off until it's them vs. Cato. All 3 of them get chased by rabid dog things that look like some crazy hairless well, dog. It chases them to the starting area where Katniss manages to shoot Cato in the hand so he gets eaten alive by the dog things.
They think they have won but then there is an announcement that says that there can (once again) only be one victor. So Katniss and Peeta try to kill themselves but the announcement comes back that says that they've both won and that they both can live.
So they go home and basically the only other thing that happens in the movie is that the head game maker is killed.
Review
This is the first film I have reviewed so far that I actually enjoyed watching. I mean, The Hobbit and WW Z were okay but R.I.P.D was so bad that..... Never mind.
The Hunger Games is a great movie and I appreciate that it was not too violent because I personally think that violence detracts from the movie quite a bit. I like that, for example, you didn't see that people dying close up and with a stable camera. I also think that it was nice that they didn't completely overdo the mutts (the dog things) at the finale. In fact, they almost under did them in my opinion.
Another great thing about The Hunger Games movie was that it followed the book remarkably well. Of course, they had to abbreviate several of the scenes as they are in the arena for like 2 weeks and that doesn't change well into two hours.
The one thing I would have changed is that the pre hunger games part of the movie was, in fact, longer than the Hunger Games themselves. So, you know. There's a bit of a boring factor there at the beginning.
But overall, I'd say this is one of the better movies I've reviewed (other than The Dictator which was oddly good for a modern movie).
Posters
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Parental Guidance Information
This movie, being a giant bloodbath, is incredibly violent. However, like I said in the "Review" section of this post, they really downplayed the violence that happens in the book. I still think that the 13 in PG 13 is a pretty good estimate. I mean, if you kids can take violence, go for it. It really depends on how much you children can comfortably handle. I'd say that this movie is no more violent than say, Harry Potter 7 Part 2. If your kids have seen that, you're good! However, there is some suggested gore without any blood. So if your kids are scared of what did happen rather than what they saw, they probably should go see something else. For people who do bring their kids, here are some scenes where your kids should close their eyes:
- Katniss on her bed in the train watching tv scene.
- The scene where the Hunger Games begin (after she goes in the tube)
- The scene where Rue dies (Start being alert when Katniss shoots the apple to blow up the pile of food)
- The grand finale scene (Start being alert when Katniss and Peeta are in the forest hunting for food all the way until after the dogs have gone).
Be on alert all the way through the Hunger Games themselves (starting when Katniss is in the tube) and it is probably best if you can easily reach your young kid's eyes at a moment's notice during these scenes just in case you child is sensitive.
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