With the recent release of the movie "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" I have taken the decision to visualize in the next days the four movies released between 2012 and 2015.

The Hunger Games (2012)

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As usual, I started by watching the movie released in 2012 and that I had seen in 2013 during a transoceanic flight, so you can imagine that with a small airplane screen I had not had the best experience at the time and in fact until yesterday I had not had the curiosity to watch it again.

Introduction

This movie is set in the nation called Panem, what was at one time the United States. As told in the movie, Panem is divided into 12 districts with different levels of wealth, with no connections between districts and governed from the Capitol, where wealth, power, abundance and to my way of seeing extravagance can be seen every corner.

Years before the story is told, it is shown that the distribution of the twelve districts and the severe control of these by the capitol is the result of a past rebellion and as a result as a means of control over these districts each year are held what are called the hunger games.

These games are where each district must provide a boy and a girl between 12 and 18 years old to fight to the death in televised games where the main objective is that only one of the tributes is victorious, but in reality it is a way to put each of the districts at bay and let them know that the Capitol and its elites are the ones in charge of them all.

Protagonist and the Tribute Harvest

The film's protagonist is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), she is a 16-year-old girl lives in District 12 and is one of the few people who dares to go outside the district boundaries to hunt animals with her bow that she can then sell to feed her family.

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In the opening part of the film, it can be seen that Katniss has a sister whose name is Prim and who is 12 years old. Therefore, she will face for the first time the election of the tributes with the bad luck of being chosen. However, Katniss, knowing her sister's weakness, volunteers to participate in the hunger games, knowing that her skills as an archer and hunter can be useful for her to survive.

On the male side, the chosen tribute was Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). A young boy of similar age to Katniss who is known from the district, because Peeta threw a loaf of bread to Katniss instead of giving it to his farm animals behind his mother's back. It should be said that the 12th district is extremely humble and poor.

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Journey to the Capitol and meeting their mentor

For the trip to the capitol, which is the place where the hunger games are held, the tributes are taken in a luxurious train where the poverty of the two tributes contrasts with the amount of luxury and food inside the train.

Inside the train awaits their mentor, Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson). The only living victor of the 12th district. Which presents a state of drunkenness accused and has more interest in drinking than in being his mentor. Since he is aware that the tributes of districts 1 and 2, which are the richest, present boys who have been in academies training for the hunger games.

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However, in a moment of lucidity, he gives them one of the best pieces of advice for the games and that is to try to please the public to get sponsors and thus have more chances to get medicine, food or any other object inside the fighting arena during the games.

Arrival at the Capitol

The arrival of the capitol, contrasts greatly with the humility that is in the 12th district from which the protagonists come from.

Katniss and Peeta are housed in rooms with all kinds of luxury and are assigned a stylist, Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), who is very innovative and helps them to polish their appearance, wearing a suit that attracts the attention of those attending the gala presentation of the tributes, as fire comes out of it and that helps them to get more sponsors.

The next day, the tributes are interviewed on television by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), causing sensation again Katniss thanks to the dress designed by Cinna, which, when it turns on itself gives the sensation that it burns.

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For his part Peeta admits, when asked if he likes any girl, that there is, but she does not know, and when the interviewer tells him that if he wins he will conquer her without any effort, he tells him that winning will not help him at all, since the girl is also competing, which angers Katniss who at first thinks it is just a strategy to win, but then understands that it is not so, being Haymitch happy as he believes that their love story will give them many sponsors.

After the prolegomena, they go on to explain the rules they must follow, warning them that most of them will die of natural causes, after which they begin training to learn the rules of survival, noting that some of them are very professionalized.

And finally they will undergo an evaluation in which they will have to show their skills being very important to get a good grade for the sponsors.

When Katniss misses her first shot with the bow, the evaluators lose their interest in the second shot, although she will know how to win their attention by sticking her next arrow in the apple that had a roasted pig in its mouth, which will earn her a score of 11 out of 12, the best in history, with Peeta having an 8.

In my opinion it is one of the scenes that mark a turning point in the plot of the movie and because from the top of the capitol Katniss begins to be seen as a threat that can give hope to the poor classes that are subordinated to the desires of the Capitol.

The action begins

At the start of the games, most of the tributes rush to arms, with 13 of the participants dying in the first 8 hours.

Katniss flees into the forest, noting that Peeta has formed an alliance with several other tributes to have more strength, considering the rest of the group that Peeta will be very useful to find Katniss.

Katniss, to my way of seeing follows a very successful strategy trying to evade the fights and managing to hide from their enemies, reaching the edge of the land where the games take place, so that the organizers of these forced her to flee by throwing fire projectiles, and making the forest burn. So it can be seen that these games can be manipulated at the whim of the capitol and the tributes are merely pawns with which to entertain themselves.

During this fire and flame-throwing, Katnis ends up wounded, finally managing to reach the water, from where she hears how the 5 allies approach, who upon seeing her chase her, having to take refuge at the top of a tree, deciding, on Peeta's advice to leave her there until she is forced to come down or starve to death, although it is most likely that it is the infection of her wound that will finish her off.
But it won't. The sponsors provide her with an ointment that will help heal her wound and help her survive.

In addition, another of the participants, little Rue from District 11, helps her by telling her how to get rid of her stalkers, telling her that there is a swarm of genetically modified wasps whose stings can cause death, so she cuts the branch causing the wasps to fall on her rivals, one of which dies, leaving Katniss with her bow, although the wasps also stung her, who begins to have hallucinations.

When she finally wakes up, she realizes that someone has placed leaves over her stings, finding little Rue beside her, who explains that she has slept for several days, during which she changed the leaves.

From that moment on, the two girls become allies against their enemies.
Knowing the place where they store their food, they decide to destroy them, for which they distract them by preparing a bonfire.

They manage in effect that the group leaves when they see the smoke leaving only a watchman next to their supplies, around which they have placed mines. And upon realizing their existence he shoots his arrow into a bag of fruit causing the fruit to roll out and set off the mines.

His plan is a success. But Rue falls into a trap, and although he manages to free her, he cannot prevent another participant from shooting her, before Katniis finishes him off.

Saddened by the girl's death, Katniss covers her body with flowers and sends a greeting to District 11, where the people, saddened by the death of their little girl revolt against the police.

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For me this is an important turning point in the plot, because it lets see how a single heroine can make the districts rise up against the capitol and it angers even more the capitol rulers although initially to try to calm the spirits and provoke the empathy of the viewers, they propose that there is a change of rules in the game, allowing, for the first time, that there can be two winners if both are from the same district, a circumstance that only occurs with respect to those of district 13.

Looking for Peeta

Katniss then leaves to look for Peeta, whom she finds injured, taking him to a cave, where he confesses to her that he saw her return home every day, as he loved her since the first day he saw her at school.

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All the survivors need something special, and the organizers decide to give it to them, pointing out that they will give it to them in the Cornucopia, an open place, which they must approach if they want to get it, risking that the others will end up there with them.

Katniss goes to the place to find the medicine that Peeta needs, being surprised by another of the participants who is about to finish her off, saving her life thanks to the other contestant from district 11, and in gratitude for what she did for Rue finishes off her opponent, warning her that if they meet again she will have no mercy on her.

Thus, having gained Rue's friendship saved Katniss from certain death.
With the medicine, she goes to the place where Peeta is hiding and manages to cure him.

Poisonous berries a good ally

The next day, the protagonists go out to look for food in the forest.
Peeta is about to die when he picks some berries that he doesn't know are poisonous and that he is about to eat, saving himself by being found by Katniss and discovering that another of the tributes was on his trail, having escaped death at his hands thanks to the fact that he did eat the poisonous berries known as nightlock.

Soon after, they learn that Umbral, the remaining living tribute from District 11, also died, and to create more excitement, the organizers introduce mutant animals similar to wild dogs, running Peeta and Katniss to try to avoid their attacks to the Cornucopia, on whose roof they think they are safe, but where they meet Cato, the only survivor along with them, fighting hard, until Cato manages to overpower Peeta, despite which Katniss manages to save him by throwing her dart against Cato, who falls and begins to be devoured by dogs, before which Katniss, and to avoid his suffering, shoots him again, ending his life.

A denouement against the capitol

When Peeta and Katniss believe they have won, the organizers inform them that the rule that there could be two winners was revoked, to which Peeta tells Katniss to finish him off, to which she refuses, splitting some nightlock she still had on her, knowing that the organizers will not allow there to be no winners, being in effect restrained before taking them, declaring them both victors.

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But the decision has displeased President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who does not believe that two young people can shake the government, deciding to sacrifice Seneca Crane, the head of the games for not having known how to manage them, for what they take him to a room where they leave him locked up next to a fountain full of nightlock berries.

Meanwhile, the two winners are greeted by an enthusiastic audience before which they are shown as two lovers, returning soon after to their district, where they are awaited with great expectation by their neighbors, among whom Katniss immediately distinguishes Gale, who carries on his shoulders his sister Prim.

My Opinion

In my opinion it is a very entertaining movie in which there is a very good proportion of airtime introducing the characters, presenting the plot and the importance of the games, showing how the protagonists fall in love and with a dose of action well proportioned without being a bloody movie.

However, one of the things that I enjoyed the most about the movie is the camera movement in many of the scenes of this movie directed by Gary Ross. Actually, when watching it on my computer screen there were many moments where I turned away from the screen because I had a certain feeling of dizziness.

As for the ending of this first movie, I liked the story because it leaves open the story of Katniss and Peeta as catalysts to a revelation that the capitol does not want to happen. Maybe, because I am a person who hates that the power rules over the lives of the weakest, the movie has transmitted me that revelation against the power and the desire to see the successive movies of the saga to see if the poor districts can bring down the powerful elites.

Jennifer Lawrence's performance for me was very good and the character that I liked the most although it is a sequel role is the role played by Woody Harrelson.

Seeing how the character he plays changes his vision throughout the film and ends up getting involved to make his pupils succeed is a very well executed interpretive turn.

In a couple of days I will make my summary and opinion of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.