By Vanessa Fiske, Director of Marketing
What started as a research project for Comic Con quickly became an obsession. Even though I had read and watched Twilight, whenever I saw The Hunger Games books in stores, I passed them by. The book jacket simply didn’t draw me in:
“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.”
Dystopian novels and movies have been around for a long time and given us classics like A Clockwork Orange, Mad Max, The Matrix, and, of course, Blade Runner. But 2012 marked the start of the dystopian young adult novels-turned-movies era. No surprise that one of DVD’s most popular titles that year was blockbuster The Hunger Games.
When I popped The Hunger Games disc into the player for the night, I fully expected to keep multitasking on my laptop, my attention split between two screens. Within minutes, the laptop was closed and I was hooked. It wasn’t just the premise of the movie; the film was visually stunning, too. Jennifer Lawrence as the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, was stoic, beautiful, and resilient. Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson play the young men in her life. I hesitate to use the phrase "romantic interests" as it wasn’t really a time to have fun and games, plus I struggled to like Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) and much preferred Gale Hawthorne (Hemsworth).
Photo credit: Murray Close, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
The star-studded ensemble cast included Donald Sutherland (President Snow), Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks, to name just a few.
Photo credit: Murray Close, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Photo credit: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
By the end of the evening, the movie was back in its red envelope because I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. There were three more movies to follow. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015).
Photo credit: Murray Close, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Even though first Hunger Games movie had the best box office performance ($650M worldwide), critics and audiences alike felt that Catching Fire was stronger visually and had meatier character development. It was also one of the last times Philip Seymour Hoffman would be on the big screen. He joined the cast as Plutarch Heavensbee, the Head Gamemaker.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
It was on February 2, 2014, during the filming of Mockingjay – Part 2, that Seymour Hoffman passed away. At that time he was the head of propaganda and worked closely with President Coin (Julianne Moore) to win Katniss’ trust.
Even if you are past the young adult novel demographic, The Hunger Series is worth a watch, especially during a time when the role of the media is in question. For those who liked The Hunger Games, there are two other series worth noting in the dystopian youth story movement: the Maze Runner and the Divergent series.