Reviewing The Hunger Games Without Having Seen It

Unfamiliar with the premise of The Hunger Games? Here’s a paragraph from the movie’s promotional material:

In a future where society is on the verge of collapse, massive unemployment and inflation have thrown most adults into a state of chaos; the nation’s youth culture responds with unprecedented violence, delinquency, and truancy. Desperate to restore order, the government selects students at random and sends them to an isolated island, forcing them to play a rigorous war game in which all but one of their number are killed.

My mistake, that’s the plot of Battle Royale a 1999 Japanese book that was also turned into a movie and whose premise The Hunger Games blatantly rips off. “The Hunger Games was a concept I came up with on my own. I’ve never stolen anything from the Japanese,” said author Suzanne Collins moments before filing a patent for a Nintundo video game system. “Just something I whipped up in my spare time. I guess I’m a bit of a Renaissance woman,” said Collins.

As for the movie, The Hunger Games is an adaptation of the first in a wildly popular series, which means it’s going to be a clusterfuck of cramming in every character possible so that the geeks in the audience can go “OMG THEY INCLUDED CHARACTER X?!?! I SOOOOOO CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT MOVIE!!!” You could pour acid in my eyes then show me a silent film and I’d be able to understand more of its plot than if I watched this thing.

Tagged as: Movie Review.