Film Review: The Hunger Games

Another movie I saw recently was the current 4th-time #1, Box-office-smash-hit-wonder, and one of the most talked about films of 2012, The Hunger Games starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, and Lenny Kravitz.

Here's part of my The Hunger Games review...

The Hunger Games (2012)
starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson,
Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland

Watch the trailer for The Hunger Games

(source: TheHungerGamesMovie)

[Warning! ... for those who haven't seen this movie and don't want to be spoiled...]

Synopsis

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

I saw The Hunger Games a week ago or so! I wanted to read the books first before the release date and seeing this movie, but I didn't get to and ended up watching the movie first without reading the books. It was actually good that I didn't get to read the books before seeing this movie as I loved and enjoyed watching it. Another good thing about not reading the books before seeing this was that I didn't have to compare the movie to the book(s). I enjoyed watching the movie so much more as I didn't know much about it nor did I know what to expect and what was going on. It made my viewing experience so much more fun and enjoyable. I only knew very little about this trilogy (books) and only seen the trailer and was only familiar with the few lines I've seen on the many TV spots I saw online and TV. I only expected to see/hear Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen utter her memorable line from the trailer and TV spots, "I volunteer. I volunteer as Tribute!" or when Elizabeth Banks' Effie picked a random name "Primrose Everdeen," as well as when I hear Donald Sutherland's President Snow saying "Happy Hunger Games. May the odds be on your favor." Other than those, I don't know anything and it's nice to seat in theaters watching the movie and just have some fun...and it's always a good thing. Some of the movies I've seen had been pretty good thus far and a few of them were an unexpected surprise that I didn't expect I would see (which I also happen to not know much about...I love that) and when I did,  I enjoyed watching them. This movie was on my Must-See Movie list for 2012 and I'm glad to have finally seen it.

This film, I must say, had lived up to its hype. It was great, fun, entertaining, and makes you root for Katniss Everdeen to win The Hunger Games! Although I didn't have a lot of expectations, I loved and enjoyed watching it more than I thought I would. It didn't hurt that this film had a great ensemble cast that worked very well together starting with the always wonderful Jeniffer Lawrence as the protagonist Katniss Everdeen...and Donald Sutherland as President Snow was pretty good as well. Even the other Tributes were pretty good in their parts...

Read my full Film Review: The Hunger Games!