The movie review of the Hunger Games

The Hunger games is about an unchanging courageous and resourceful heroine by the name of Katniss Everdeen. Out of 12 districts, a boy and a girl must be drawn under a raffle known as “the reaping” to fight to the death on television with one winner. Upon drawing the name of her beloved younger sister, Primrose Everdeen, emotion is spurred through the audience as the scene silenced. During the hunger games, Katniss has nothing to rely on but her mastery in archery and hunting so that she can see her loved ones once again. Gary Ross utilizes the quality of realism and precise effects in order to maintain the audience’s attention through the long precarious journey of Katniss Everdeen. 

In a scene where Katniss painfully suffers through a hallucination in which the camera evades the field of view of the characters, portraying a “tired” effect of Katniss. In concurrence, sound is muffled, and delayed screaming and echoing is heard throughout. Both of these tools of filmmaking emphasize the quality of realism and precise effects the director is utilizing in the movie. The same audio effects are used when a flashback of her father’s death in a coal mine explosion is played. This unforgettable haunting scene in Katniss’ dream plays perfectly in with visual design in conjunction with audio effects: with rubble on the ground from an obliterated home, it is built back together with the use of reverse playback in pair with a slow, sorrow music.

The emotions run high throughout the movie as Katniss yearns to see her younger sister again. Katniss professes her love during the hunger games for her district twelve partner, Peeta, earning tools for her crucial survival. Later revealing that her partner had an undisclosed crush on her the whole time, the thought that only one of them could live had the audience on their seat. At the beginning the movie, district twelve’s mentor, Haymitch, and winner of a hunger games, seemed snobby, lazy, and willing to help. But throughout the games, Haymitch’s emotions come out as he watches his tributes suffer through the certain vulnerability of death. In a scene, the audience’s emotion, in conjunction with the calming guitar music, brings a ray of hope when a care package is dropped to Katniss’ suffering image with the help of Haymitch.

Throughout the movie, the visual aspects of the movie convey a sense of a first-person style. The shaky cameras move as if the audience itself is a part of the action, stumbling around in first person go-pro style. The scenes escalate from the poor slums-like district twelve, the lavish life of the capitol (the ones controlling the game), and finally to the perilous wilderness arena for a free-for-all. The Characters’ talents represent the status of their origin as we see well-fed, strong tributes from another wealthy district. Similarly, the wealthiest citizens of this world come from the Capitol, as we see the bejeweled, not starving, colored-haired citizens that kind of in a sense rule over the people of the poor districts. The people of the capitol are the kings, while the districts must provide characters to be put into a gladiator arena to fight to each others' deaths.

Furthermore, Ross directs the movie so that the story moves so swiftly that the audience is on their seat the whole time, even though the actual games do not start until over halfway through the movie. In the beginning of the games, the muted characters paired in junction with a scene of spine-chilling murder and eerie music exemplifies the realism of the emotions they go through. It really draws the audience's attention to the scene compared to a for example boring scene where people's thoughts will wander away or they will be on their phone.