The Running Man Was Better

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2017)

I have managed to resist watching this series ever since a friend attempted to ram it down my throat. Mind you, some people have a really annoying habit of not taking no for an answer, and these people are generally known as sales people – I believe one of the keys to being a successful sales person is the mistaken belief that a no is in fact a yes that needs to be drawn out a bit more. I guess that is why there is also this mistaken belief that when a girl says no what she is really saying is 'maybe, I just need to be convinced'. Okay, my friend is nowhere near that bad (nor is he a salesperson), but I happen to be one of those people who, when somebody is trying to persuade me to do something that I don't particularly want to do (such as buying a bottle of coke from the service station), then I end up becoming even more resistant.
Anyway, I finally decided to watch this film, and I have to be honest that it really didn't impress me. Okay, it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near as good as some people have made it out to be. In fact, right from the beginning my thoughts where basically that this was just another version of The Running Man, however I enjoyed The Running Man so much more. In fact, the ending of this particular film seemed to be somewhat of a let down – it was anti-climatic. Okay, there are three more movies in the series, however even when we have a series of movies, I am still somewhat expecting a climatic ending.
So, the Hunger Games, as you have probably already worked out, is about a dystopian society where everybody is kept under control through an annual game where two children from each of the twelve districts are nominated and then sent to fight to the death. Mind you, that didn't particularly seem to be a very effective method of control, particularly since it was only held once a year, and it was also pretty clear that a lot of the districts really weren't very keen on sending their children off to die (since there were some districts that seemed to always win). In a way the Running Man was much better, and even the way our society use of sport works a lot better than this idea of an annual game. Well, they also have police who brutally suppress riots, but this seems to go against the President's belief that hope is a much better way of controlling people than fear.
That is true, it is just that this film doesn't really portray it all that well. Sure, this may be a dystopian future, but the thing is that these novels are supposed to paint a picture of the world in which we live in today, and the reality is that hope is a much better way of controlling a people than fear. As they say, Americans don't see themselves as oppressed because they all see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires – in a way there is this belief that everybody has the opportunity to become wealthy, they just need to find the right idea, and the right time, to get there. The problem is that this is a very individualistic view of society, but then again this also works well because if we view everybody as a competitor, or a potential competitor, then we are less likely to band together and work towards the common goal of improving life for everybody.
Maybe this is why unions don't work so well in certain environments because everybody is competing against everybody else for the lucrative management positions, and because everybody is a competitor – they have the job that should have been mine – then they are less likely to band together and work out that it isn't each other who they are fighting against, but the powers that be that keep us fighting amongst themselves. This is another reason why sports work so well as a method of keeping people under control – sporting rivalries result in competition, and even bitterness towards those who do not support your team. However, in the end, do you actually get anything if your team wins? No, you only get bragging rights, and in the end bragging rights are simply not going to improve your quality of life.