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The Hunger Games (2012)

 The Hunger Games (2012)

RELEASED March 23, 2012 RUNTIME 142 mins DIRECTOR Gary Ross 

WRITERS Suzanne Collins (novel), Billy Ray (screenplay), Gary Ross (screenplay) 

STARS Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English 

STUDIOS Lionsgate, Color Force 

GENRES Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Streaming on: imdbTV, TubiTV, Freeform, Fubo, Sling





The plot: Jennifer Lawrence takes her little sister's place in a Battle Royale, a circus if you will, dictated by a place in Panem, Latin for "bread". Roman names are bastardized to underline the fact that humans always have been and always will be raging dickbags.


Random observations: 

  • It's super easy to sing "I want my MTV" to the underlying score and I highly recommend you do so. Emphasis on "high"ly.
  • We've got a Wilhelm Scream when Katniss cuts off the tree branch with the tracker-jackers.
  • Danny Elfman was the original composer for The Hunger Games, but due to a scheduling conflict he left the production and was replaced with James Howard Newton. I like picturing what a Danny Elfman Hunger Games would look like.

I didn't read The Hunger Games books until well after the films came out because I was doing research on "Bread and circuses" for my Roman history class. 

The films hide the connections slightly less blatantly, except every character's name is pretty transparent. 




0.5/1 Directing
0.4/1 Cinematography
0.6/1 Visual design
0.5/1 Editing
0.7/1 Plot 
0.5/1 Dialogue
0.4/1 Acting
0.5/1 Soundtrack/Score/Sound
0.6/1 Originality
0.5/1 Rewatchability
Total: 5.2/10 Binge Bones



The verdict: Shaky cam meets pacing issues, but decent overall.

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