Some thoughts I had while watching the Hunger Games.

I saw this movie when it was called Running Man.

Where is Billy Zabka? (He is the evil kid from the 80s, known best for his role as Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid). He should have played Cato.

Honestly, I don't think the film was a bad film but I don't think I was watching the right movie. At some points the dialog and settings reminded me of an 80s movie, but without the depth. Yes, I am saying a movie in the 80s might have had more depth than Hunger Games. The reason I say this is from people I know who have read the book, it is a surprisingly hard hitting book. If you start off with a premise of taking children away from their parents to fight to the death, there have got to be some serious issues with the portrayed society. I didn't get a sense of that in the film. Why would some kids be ruthless killers and some not? In the movie, you don't get ruthless killers. OK, I can hear some arguing that there was a lot of violence in the film but believe me, a lot of the violence was depicted in a shaky camera, check out the focused aftermath sort of way. I'm not saying you needed to make this a gory movie, but other than the first kills when they are dropped off, a sympathetic character was killed off screen, then in retaliation the character that killed the sympathetic one was killed off quickly.

Here was something else that bothered me about the movie – How many magic Negroes did Katniss need? She got help from the stylist when she got scared. When she was bitten by the hornets, Rue nursed her back to health, then she was killed later. When Katniss tries to get the pack to get the medicine for Peeta, she is attacked by Clove and is saved when Thresh kills Clove for killing Rue.

Are you kind of getting an idea of the problems I've had with the film? It's not the racial issues, which, I admit, could possibly be dismissed. Many films have bad dialog or are based on other films with interesting twists. My problem with the film is the story underneath the main story seems more interesting. Because the movie had so many elements that hearkened to other films, I kept looking for something extra. When I found extra stuff, there was nothing to take me to those levels. I had to stay with the surface love story or the surface fake battle stuff.

When I was watching the movie I realized how much of a propaganda film this would be for the Republican Party. Yeah, you think that's out of left field. Think about the current Presidential race. Santorum famously said that the elite think of themselves as being so much better. Common sense is something people should use to survive. There was one tribute in particular who was shown to have a keen analytical mind. In fact she states this would be her key to winning. She died because she got fooled into eating poisoned berries by someone who had common sense. Because of the lifestyle and decadence of the people in the Capitol, they seemed a lot like rich Democrats. They were big government being supported by the outlying districts, who had to live by their wits and guile. I admit it might be a stretch, it might not even be the intent of the author or filmmaker, but I have seen a number of books (I even own a few) which talk about how Star Wars is about the Christians in the modern world or how The Matrix symbolizes Christian morals.

We didn't see the world presented by the filmmaker because the constant focus was on the game. In an early part of the movie, it is hinted that Katniss' mother may not be that strong. We find out later her father died in a mine explosion and all we know is Katniss had to be the protector of her sister. What sort of burden would that put on a young woman? What about the care packages? How did that work? It was hinted at but never delved into. There were so many things that cried out to be explained but weren't in the film.

I wanted to know more about the underlying society, because it struck me as odd, even after more than 70 years of the games, that people continued to support them, watch them on TV much like people watching Dancing with the Stars. That's why I say that while Hunger Games wasn't a bad film, I wish I could have watched an in depth movie about the citizens of this new world rather than the focus on some teenagers and a game. On that point the film was lightweight to me because it didn't dare go where it needed to go, showing the real violence of the games, thus giving us a real insight to the society.