The Hunger Games

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⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

We watched this kinda in anticipation of the new movie, but also kinda just because it's a good movie and it had been a while. I'm not on Beans's level of love for this series, but I do think they are really exciting and unique. The stakes are impossibly high and it's hard to look away. This is not a review of the book, but I definitely remember that being the ultimate page turner where I just couldn't stop reading until I was done.

Anyways, this movie is very similar to the book, so they are similar reviews, but I do think this movie adds some nice things. I think the atmosphere and aesthetic they build at the beginning is very effective and disturbing, everyone dressed in like, colonial outfits that reminds me of The Village or like some messed up Amish cult. And then contrasting that with the excessive look of the capital works really well.

There are also some terrific performances here. Jennifer Lawrence is the highlight of course, but I thought we got some great stuff from Woody Harrelson, Donal Sutherland, but most of all from Stanley Tucci as the epitome of capital attitudes. He's amazing in this!!

So yeah, I just think this is a very solid, very intense and visceral movie. It gets a little too... shall we say YA at times, and there are definitely some cheesy bits. But this movie definitely lasted the test of time (or at least it's first post-launch decade).

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