The Hunger Games: A movie with hunger, love, and action

The media, ranging from websites such as “Yahoo” to popular news network such as Cable News Network, was featuring articles about “The Hunger Games”, a dystopian movie that was based on the novel of the same name. People were agonizing to see this long-anticipated movie for over a year.  The wait ended on March 21, 2012, when the movie was finally premiered across the United States.

“The Hunger Games” takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future in the nation of Panem. The nation is divided into twelve districts; it starts with the wealthy District 1 and descends down to the poverty-stricken District 12. As a punishment for past revolt, Panem issued an event called “Hunger Game.” Every year, each of the districts is required to contribute one male teenager and one female teenager to The Capitol, the city where the president resides, to participate in the Hunger Game. The participants are beautified, trained, introduced to crowds, and put into an arena for the Hunger Game. The game only ends when everybody is dead and one survivor is alive. Unfortunately, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mallark, the main protagonists of the movie, are chosen to participate in the 74^th annual Hunger Game.

In the midnight premiere of the movie, “The Hunger Games” earned $19.7 million dollars, which was the highest midnight gross ever for a non-sequel film and the seventh highest midnight gross of all-time. As of April 2012, the movie has garnered more than $356 million, topping many box office records. “The Hunger Games” became the first movie to keep the number one spot on box office for four consecutive weeks since “Avatar.”

Critics are also raving over this action-packed film. Rafer Guzman of Newsday referred to the movie as being “darker than ‘Harry Potter,’ more sophisticated than ‘Twilight’.” Rotten Tomatoes, a major movie-rating website, gave The Hunger Games an 85% rating and an average score of 7.2 out of 10. Roger Ebert, the only Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic, called the movie “effective entertainment.” Despite the movie being lengthy, the general consensus was positive.

However, skepticism emerged, mainly due to “The Hunger Games”’ striking similarity with past films, notably “Battle Royale,” a Japanese movie that also deals with teenagers killing other teenagers for survival. Although Suzanne Collins, the author of the novel “The Hunger Games,” denied any plagiarism, skeptics are still suspicious about the correlation between “The Hunger Games” and “Battle Royale.”

The movies depiction of religious allegories also sparked debate. Donald Brake from The Washington Times stated that Katniss’s action of volunteering to participate in the Hunger Game for her younger sister drew similarity to Jesus sacrificing himself for humanity’s sin. The Christian image of the Bread of Life was also prevalent throughout the movie, since Peeta, one of the protagonists, gave Katniss a piece of bread to save her life.

Despite the controversies, the movie attracted audiences regardless of their gender, age, and interest. The thrilling storyline and tightly-woven character development makes this film a beauty.