A future dystopian society where kids must kill kids.

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2012)

A dystopia is the idea of a society, generally of a speculative future, characterized by negative, anti-utopian elements, varying from environmental to political and social issues,usually hypothesized by writers of fiction.
Yes, "Hunger Games" is about a future dystopian society, decades after a rebellion. As a type of penance and reminder that the Capitol has the power, each year each of the 12 outlying districts must choose two youngsters, one boy and one girl, to travel to the Capitol and participate in the Hunger Games. This is the 74th Games. There will be one victor, one survivor, all the rest will die. Children killing other children.
This story focuses on district 12, a mining district where people struggle to feed themselves and have established a barter system. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is the older daughter of the family, she hunts and fishes, is good with a bow and arrow and survival in general. Against the odds her younger sister, more the girly type, is chosen in the lottery, but Katniss speaks up and volunteers to go in her place. Along with the boy, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) that she only knew casually.
The story becomes one of survival. Neither Katniss nor Peeta want to kill any of the other kids, but they also are determined to defend themselves. The days, perhaps most of a week, of the actual competition takes place mostly in a forested area, monitored by technicians in a center with virtual reality displays. The citizens of the Capitol look at the Hunger games as a big entertainment event, perhaps like the ancient Romans did for their arena battles to the death.
A saving grace for the movie is that, although we know kids are killing kids, it is done with a certain grace. We don't see a lot of blood and gore, or graphic killings, which makes the movie more palatable for such a distasteful topic.
Fortunately the main story of survival turns into a love story as Katniss and Peeta form a sort of bond, particularly after he reveals in a pre-games televised interview that he has always had a secret admiration of Katniss.
Stanley Tucci is one of the flamboyant citizens of the Capitol, he moderates the "show" before the games begin, interviewing each participant before a live audience in a large theater setting. He comes across most as a host of a TV show like "America's Got Talent", ignoring the fact that almost all of these young kids will die shortly.
I didn't read the book so I can't compare the two, but I suspect they had to leave some things out to keep the running time around 2:15. I found the movie enjoyable, it makes one think about the freedoms we mostly take for granted.
SPOILERS: The people monitoring the Games also have a viewing audience they need to keep entertained. So to generate interest they announce, and the participants hear this, that for one time only they will allow two survivors for the same district, if it turns out that way, to play up the budding relationship of Katniss and Peeta. They in fact do "win" the Games, but then it is announced that they changed their minds, one must kill the other. Peeta encourages Katniss to kill him so that she can survive, but instead she gets a handful of poisonous purple berries, and indicates they will both eat them at the same time, both die rather than have to kill one. Peeta starts to object but Katniss says, "Trust me. Trust me." And what she guessed, happened, instead of seeing both of them die they call it off, let both live and travel back to district 12.