Product Description
The Hunger Games (2012)(#ad)
Rating: Pg-13
Running Time: 142 minutes
Director: Gary Ross
Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence
Liam Hemsworth
Elizabeth Bank
Lenny Kravitz
Woody Harrelson
Josh Hutcherson
Stanley Tucci
Donald Sutherland
Stars: 4.5/5 stars
Overview
This 2012 movie is a post-apocalyptic science fiction and action adventure film. It was directed by Gary Ross and is based on the novel of the same title by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is the first film in the trilogy.
The setting of the amazon prime video is a post-apocalyptic/dystopian future in the country of Panem that includes 12 districts. One boy and girl from each of the districts must participate in a yearly fight to the death until just one survivor is left.
Katniss Everdeen volunteers to play as a substitute for her sister. She then goes to the Capitol in order to train for the upcoming Hunger Games. She’s trained by a past winner named Haymitch Abernathy.
The movie’s development started in March 2009 when Lions Gate Entertainment teamed up with Color Force that had just received the legal rights. The characters and stories were developed for the series of three movies. The movie’s filming took place in North Carolina during 2011.
The Hunger Games was released in the US in March 2012. It set records for opening day and opening weekend for a movie that was a non-sequel. The movie was a box office success and earned more than $694 million internationally with a $78 million budget.
It was the third-highest grossing film in the US for 2012. The movie was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in August 2012 and was 2012’s best-selling DVD. The movie’s sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released the next year in the US.
Plot Summary
If you want to watch movies online it’s important to consider the film’s plot. The nation Panem holds a yearly fight to the death as a punishment for launching a past rebellion. The battle includes one both and one girl between the ages 12-18.
Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her sister’s place and is trained by an alcoholic past winner named Haymitch. After the first day, there’s just 11 after the first day of the Hunger Games. Katniss first ignores the advice of Haymitch.
Haymitch convinces officials to change the games’ rules so there are 2 winners since they represent the same district. Katniss hears the news then find Peeta who’s been injured badly. She gets medicine that’s able to heel Peeta.
Katniss then hears a cannon while she’s looking for food, which is a sign that there’s a death. They then find that berries Peeta found were poisonous and find a District 5 competitor died from eating the berries. Some wild beasts are then released and chase Katniss and Peeta.
They survive and are the last two contestants. However, they learn that the rule change wasn’t approved. However, they were both named co-winners of the Hunger Games. Haymitch then gives a warning to Katniss that here actions have resulted in many enemies. She tells Peeta to forget everything about what’s happened between them.
Director/Cast
This is one of the amazon prime videos directed by Gary Ross. He also directed the movie Pleasantville and Seabiscuit that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Background
This is one of the Amazon movies that has an interesting background. Distribution rights for the book The Hunger Games reportedly cost $200,000.
Lions Gate hadn’t made a profit for 5 years made sacrifices to raise $88 million for the movie’s budget. The studio also received $8 million in tax breaks for filming the movie in North Carolina. The final budget cost was $78 million.
Collins adapted her novel for film and worked with the movie’s screenwriter and director. The movie’s screenplay is very close to the original novel. The director explained that he thought the movie should be subjective so it’s told in the first person point of view.
The film includes the expansion of some characters and also new scenes between some characters. These additions were added to improve the film version of the book.
Another change was the control center of the Game makers was developed into a location. This helped to remind the audience that the arena was artificial. There’s a lot of action in the woods so it would be easy for the audience to forget that it’s not actually taking place in such an environment.
Another method that helped to achieve that goal was holograms. It prevented the need to explain things like the animals that show up at the end of the movie.
Release/Reception
The Hunger Games received mostly positive reviews from movie critics. It was praised for the themes/messages and acting from most of the main cast including Lawrence.
In fact, it was argued by some reviewers that Lawrence’s depiction of Katniss was very accurate compared to the novel. There was some criticism that the movie’s action sequences included a shaky cam and the length
The movie received an 84% approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes based on over 270 reviews. It received a lower score of 68/100 on Metacritic, which was based on reviews from about 50 critics.
It was also compared to movies/books with similar themes. The author explained that her book was inspired by various sources including ancient Rome, media coverage, reality TV, etc. The Hunger Games was also nominated for various awards.
The Hunger Games earned a total $408 million in North America and over $286 million in other nations. The total box office total for “The Hunger Games” was $694.4 million.
The movie had the biggest opening weekend among all movies released during the summer/holiday season, which was $211.8 million. It barely beat the previous record of $210.1 million earned by Alice in Wonderland.The movie set many box office records.
The movie was released in North America on DVD/Blue-ray in August 2012 than the rest of Europe during the next month. The home media versions included extras. Lionsgate reported that it sold 3.8 million DVD/Blue-ray units and over one-third of them were Blue-ray. The move later became the top-selling video of the year after selling over 10.33 million units.
