I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire about two and a half years ago and fell completely in love with the dystopian society that could possibly be our future. It made me think hard about society and mankind in general. Today, however, the fandom is massively larger than I could have imagined with “Panemanics”, “Tributes”, or “Mockingjays” around the world!
I went to see The Hunger Games yesterday after school with about 9-10 of my friends, all but one of which had read the books and fell in love. However, my best friend’s dad also wanted to come along with us in an attempt to understand what The Hunger Games phenomenon was about and to get to know what his daughter’s interests were. However, that plan seriously backfired.
After the movie was over, he started yelling about how this movie was “the worst movie ever” and “evil”, and he even went so far as to call it the “devil”. I felt that he seriously misunderstood the point of the movie, and my friend was desperately trying to defend it, without success.
However, once I got home, I thought about what he said and kind of understood where he was coming from. When I thought back to the movie, I realized that many of the important messages of the movie were not emphasized, if present at all.
The rebellion and the history of the Hunger Games was fast, muffled, and difficult for anyone watching to understand, let alone someone who never read the books like my friend’s dad. Without this background story, the movie (and the book) just seem like a society in which kids kill each other for fun. And we the people watching the movie, enjoy this. But this couldn’t be more wrong of an interpretation.
When Katniss whips out the nightlock and tells Peeta that she wants the double suicide, her motivation in confusing. A normal moviegoer would just be like, “kill him!” because the love aspect was not as emphasized as it should have been. When she returns to the Capitol, the reason that Haymitch warns her and Snow is suspicious of her is confusing, as the moviegoer doesn’t completely understand the gravity of the situation in which Katniss wanted to “show up” the Capitol. The whole theme of “rebellion” is confusing and not focused on.
All in all, although I believe that my friend’s dad was VERY wrong and seriously misunderstood what The Hunger Games was saying about society, I can understand where he is coming from, due to the fact that the movie didn’t fully explain the concept of rebellion and the other important political messages of the series.
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