The Hunger Games.

Yesterday I went to see The Hunger Games, a movie I was very skeptical about. It has received a lot of hype and excitement, but for the most part I've heard people cheering about how original the story was, and what a great story Suzanne Collins has created.

The movie is about a society where the government is forcing civilians, one boy and one girl picked from every of the twelve so-called "division" (making a total of 24), to fight each other until only one remains. This is done as a reminder and a general scare tactic to keep the country in check as to avoid a repetition of a great rebellion.

After seeing the trailer, it made me think of another movie I have seen. This may require some introduction to illustrate my personal attachment to this film.
When I was in my first year of high school I had a classmate with a passion for manga. One day he brought one of his many books to school, this one was called "Battle Royale" he explained it was a series of books describing the tale of a group of high school students who got abducted and placed on an island. They were told that they would have to kill each other until only one person would remain, that student would be allowed to go home.
This "Battle Royale" was held as a punishment and a government intimidation tactic because of the ongoing rebellion they were experiencing in their country. Hm... this sounds familiar.
So I read some of my friend's books and I was excited because the books were incredibly brutal, which makes them a lot more fun to secretly read during high school classes.

This manga series has been made into a movie unsurprisingly called Battle Royale.


Having seen and read Battle Royale, the story Suzanne Collins has created and which Gary Ross and visualized did not seem as original to me as it seemed to a lot of people I've talked to about it.
This made the Hunger Games feel like a bad rip-off to me, a lot of what attracted me to Battle Royale was missing from the Hunger Games, probably in order to make it more appropriate for the western cinema.
I feel like the natural reaction to being told by your government that you are being sent out to fight for your life in an arena should be falling to the ground and shaking and trembling in the fetal position for hours, perhaps days. This expression of utter fear was incredibly lacking in the Hunger Games, sure they were scared and they were nervous. But the kids crying for days at end shaking and trembling, fearing for their lives, were absent. This bothered me heavily.
There are several other points I could ramble on about, which I have to my accompanying friend yesterday evening. But I shouldn't turn this into a giant rant.

I think what I'm trying to say is: The Hunger Games has been made into a movie appropriate for western cinema, which I feel is a giant mistake, since it's a subject that should be incredibly disturbing. If you want an entertaining movie, with action, emotion and pretty girls, go see The Hunger Games.
If you want a movie that shows you what happens when high school kids are forced to fight for survival, go see Battle Royale. I personally highly recommend the latter.

Live long and prosper,
Teun