Christopher

This was my third time watching this movie. I was able to see it twice in theaters. I love it! It’s no award winner but it’s pretty much everything I want in a summer blockbuster. I think the only thing I really don’t like is that Lenny Kravitz is in it. It’s not that I don’t like Lenny Kravitz but it’s really distracting. It’s a lot like having Tyler Perry in the first Star Trek movie.

What I’m really excited for is the second movie. It was by far my favorite book and I cannot wait to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in it.

Elizabeth

What struck me most about The Hunger Games was how brutal it was. Even though I’ve never read the books, I still roughly had an idea of what the plot was, but I was still surprised when I saw kids murder other kids. I think some of that has to do with how well-paced the movie was. There’s a good amount of build-up before The Hunger Games starts, showing how the tributes are prepared and shown off to the rest of the country. By the time the games start, it’s easy to forget that the games are not so much about showmanship but mostly about punishment; punishment that children must take for wrongdoings committed generations in the past. There are a lot of parallels you can make with that, too.

I also really like Jennifer Lawrence, especially here. She does a good job of playing someone who looks and seems young, but still mature and capable of manipulating and winning The Hunger Games. Also, Jennifer Lawrence has an incredible body. Just saying. It also took me at least 3/4 of the way through the movie to realize Peeta’s name wasn’t Peter. I guess it fits in the world of the movie, as most characters don’t have what we would consider standard Anglo-Saxon names. But it was still weird that his name wasn’t Peter.