November 14, 2011 by Paul Curtin
I’ve been seeing a lot of press over the past few months for the upcoming book-to-film adaptation, The Hunger Games. The novels have received tons of praise from both critics and consumers for being gritty and violent stories for young adults. Wondering what all the fuss was about and having not read any of the books myself or even heard of “The Hunger Games” before, I did a quick Google search a few months back to find out all the information I needed to know:
The Hunger Games introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where the United States once existed. This is where a government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of 12 districts for a massive televised battle in which only one person can survive.
Didn’t we just see this exact same concept but with convicts, cars, and virtual reality video games? I’m shocked that there’s so much hype for this film that looks and sounds like a toned-down PG-13 version of bad movies that have already been released in the past four years like 2007’s The Condemned, 2008’s Death Race, and 2010’s Gamer. The only good parts of all three were the violent action scenes which I’m sure Hunger Games won’t come close to topping based on this trailer that lacks any at all and looks to be geared hard towards the Twilight crowd.
The Hunger Games is set for release on March 23, 2012 and stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Amandla Stenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Stanley Tucci.
