ELLA: Hey y’all, it’s Ella.
STELLA: And Stella.
ELLA: And welcome back to Media Meltdown.
STELLA: Over the weekend, we watched the original Hunger Games movie.
ELLA: And we felt like we should give it a very honest, non-biased review. So that’s what we’re gonna do today. So Stella, do you want to start by saying the plot of the movie?
STELLA: Yeah. So if you haven’t seen the movie, you should know that it features a 16-year-old girl named Katniss who lives in a society that makes teens fight to the death for their rich capital’s entertainment. Now there are twelve districts that people live in, with number one being the richest and twelve being the poorest. The Capital runs the games and makes one teen boy and one teen girl be chosen at random from each district to fight in their games.
ELLA: So do you want to talk about the ending plot? Because the movie is kind of three different ideas, the beginning plot, the middle plot, and the end plot.
STELLA: Yes. So the beginning of the movie, Katniss’s little sister, Prim is chosen, but because Katniss wants to save her life, she volunteers to join the game. Now she ends up being trained along the other tributes, which are the kids chosen, and along the way, she and a boy from her district, Peeta, end up falling in love, and they have a little romance in the games. At the very end, they end up getting thrown into the arena, and then they have to fight to survive.
ELLA: So, Stella, what did you think of the movie?
STELLA: Personally, I really enjoyed it. I thought that the acting was actually really good. And I liked the whole, just the whole, like the different ways that the storyline progressed and how it changed over time.
ELLA: I agree it was definitely very drama-filled, and the little romance going on really helps give it just more, just more to this movie and story. But here are the critiques from people other than us. So this is what the media thought about the movie. The acting, people said was very good. A lot of people enjoyed the plot. The adaptation, because there is a book about it, they said it was very good, very similar, with changes that really helped the movie. They said the characters were very good, relatable, and complex. The pacing, they thought, was good. The music, some people said was too much, which I can kind of agree with. I think sometimes the music got a little…
STELLA: I mean, at certain moments it was like a little bit too much, but I actually really enjoyed it. I thought it was-
ELLA: For some of it, the music was good.
STELLA: I thought it hyped it up.
ELLA: Yeah. So Stella, what was your favorite part or idea about the movie without spoiling anything?
STELLA: My favorite part, of course, had to be the romance. I mean, it really just added more to the story. It made us see the progress between Katniss and Peeta because they grew up in the same district, and they kind of knew about each other, but they weren’t like friends or anything. But, along the way, they kind of…it’s like a bonding experience.
ELLA: When her fellow mate from her district came with her and on the television said that he like, liked her. How did you feel about that? Did you feel like he was threatening the relationship?
STELLA: Oh, yeah. So, one moment, Peeta actually kind of confessed his feelings at the very beginning of the movie, too. And I think that I don’t really know if it was, he was telling the truth or not because I kind of feel like he was just doing it for…
ELLA: Attention and to get more views.
STELLA: To get more people to like him and then want to save his life because that’s the entire strategy of putting the games.
ELLA: Oh guys, pause. So a little side note, basically, before the games start and during the games, rich people can send money to the players to help them with medicine and aid. So, a lot of people would try to almost market themselves out there. So people would send that money. So that’s what Stella means when they say, try to get more viewers.
STELLA: Right. So they also have these people called their mentors. And these are people from their district that have won the games before that kind of teach them the ways of how to win. And Katniss’s mentor was Haymitch, and, he had a very impactful quote where he said that the entire purpose of the games is just to get people to like you. And it doesn’t matter if you’re good at survival. In the end, if people like you, then that’s how you could get medicine and food and supplies.
ELLA: I liked his character, he was very…pep-full and very… interesting. So, if there’s anything about the movie that you could change, if it’s like a certain character or like end plot, what would it be?
STELLA: I had to say, there was this boy from her (Katniss’s) district, Gale, and he stayed at home-
ELLA: Ugh Gale.
STELLA: And he really angered me because I’m with Katniss, or I’m a Peeta and Katniss (romance) fan, for sure. And Gale was, like, really annoying the entire time, honestly. They would show him back home, and he would just be all grumpy and stuff.
ELLA: Yeah, no, I wish they would have changed the beginning, when they show her, not tribe…
STELLA: District!
ELLA: Her district. I wish they showed it a little bit more, and I wish they changed the actual district. I didn’t like the setting of it, and I felt like it was very not interesting. I wish there was more to the district, or something more interesting because it felt just so bare.
STELLA: I mean, I think that the reason why it’s the poorest is because it’s the coal mining district.
ELLA: Yeah. I mean, to their credit, they were trying to go off what the book said. But I wish for the movie, they would have given it some sort of special…something.
STELLA: Part of what I think happened was it’s (the movie) supposed to highlight how the government kind of leaves a lot of its citizens in poverty. Which, kind of transitions us into our next question.
ELLA: So our next question, we had these written down, was there anything in the movie that connects with our own life, like if we see any similarities? So I think me and Stella are both gonna say two. We think… do you want to go first or do you want me to start?
STELLA: Yeah, I can go first. One thing that I thought that I could connect, which I think was the point of the book and the movie The Hunger Games, was the government’s role in the story. That’s because the government leaves multiple of its districts in absolute poverty, and chooses to prefer and favor other districts over those (poverty-stricken) districts.
ELLA: You can see that in government, governments will favor certain people.
STELLA: Yeah, I feel like in our world. It’s kind of like, you can see the same effects in, you know, not just in America, but just all over the world. And that there’s different, kind of like the districts, countries are at different points in times. And monetary values and, you know America might have a lot of supplies and money, but a smaller country might not, and they could be living in poverty. I feel like it’s kind of influencing us to take action, or just to be aware that our world is not too far off from The Hunger Games. And just to be cautious of the future, because The Hunger Games is a dystopian (book) so it’s what would happen in the future. I think it kind of horrified me that it wasn’t too far off.
ELLA: That is…yeah. A second similarity I thought, or saw, and thought was that it reminded me a lot of the Olympics in the sense of-
STELLA: Yes!
ELLA: In the sense that it was, it (The Hunger Games) was about going against each other. But it almost felt like the Olympics plus war combined, like the way people were fighting. For example, not to spoil it, but the government was giving weapons, and they (the kids) would…hurt each other ending in fatal consequences. This reminded me a lot about war, but it was almost as if it was a war with a reward.
STELLA: It was like a show.
ELLA: Olympic war! Yeah, so it was really weird because the Olympics are like a show to, show off your skills, but it’s also like war because it’s all the districts coming together and fighting each other.
So anyway, we hope you guys enjoyed our segment on our views about the Hunger Games, and make sure to follow us on Spotify at Media Meltdown, with Stella and Ella. Anyways, bye!
STELLA: Thanks for listening!
