The Hunger Games Double Bill

Now this is a double bill that just feels like a warm hug. Sure, it’s about children fighting each other to death in a horrible dystopia, but it’s just a slice of that time between 2012-2016 that hits my nostalgia spots. In the first film, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutchinson), are thrown into the arena for the entertainment of the Capitol during the 74th Hunger Games. These Games are designed to keep the population afraid of the Capitol, and keep them settled in their illustrious power. Only, as a lot of YA dystopian protagonists did at the time, Katniss inadvertently ends up fighting the system, when her actions lead to an unprecedented end to the 74th Hunger Games…

Cue film 2 – picking up after the end of the Games, Katniss needs to deal with the life she has left with herself, which isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, as she and Peeta are paraded around Panem in order to try and sell the love story that got them out of the Games in the first place. But that’s not all! President Snow, aware of the power Katniss has accidentally managed to hold, decided that for the 75th Hunger Games (given the snazzy title of Third Quarter Quell), that tributes will only be selected from the existing victors of each district. Surprise: Katniss is the only female victor in District 12. I think you can see where this is going.

It’s a great double, and surprisingly light, in the way that these dystopias are, if you can call them that.

Sueda Oktay