Peeta and Katniss

So I watched the Hunger Games earlier. I definitely enjoyed the movie. I'm going to start reading the books before the next movie comes out. Being a movie, they can't cram all the interactions and other materials in the book. There's so much more that I need to know. Character background, the setting, etc.

Like any movie or book, I always do my reading. I learned that people are comparing this to Battle Royale and saying it's a rip-off. There are similarities: alternate future where kids are to fight each other to the death for the amusement of others. That's about it, really.

There's only one problem. This is a tired and recycled concept. Many have written about the upper class using the lower class to fight each other for their amusement. If we really want to extract the abstract concept, it's about overcoming your oppressors.

Ancient Rome made gladiators and slaves fight each other in the Colosseum as a spectator sport for their amusement.

Stephen King wrote a book called The Running Man. I saw the movie back in 1994. I didn't read the book, but the movie was about this game show that used prisoners as prey for their hunters to chase and kill them. The audience get a chance to bet on the "gladiators" who can capture/kill a running man.

Battle Royale came out in 1999. It's about an alternate - Japan where 12 male and 12 female school children were to fight each other to the death. This was a military exercise to scare the population so there wouldn't be an uprising of some sort. They also broadcast the killings for the people to watch.

A movie called The Condemned came out in 2007. It's the same premise as The Running Man. Convicts were given a chance of freedom, but they have to kill other convicts in this remote island and be the last survivor. The organizer streamed the event and filmed the convicts.

The Hunger Games was released in 2008. It's set in the future, where kids 12-18 years old are chosen from the 12 districts: 1 male and 1 female. They are to fight to the death. Rich people watch the event.

In all of these novels, movies, movies adapted from novels and the Ancient Rome inspiration, someone rose up to the occasion to show up their oppressors. But that's not the point. It's not about whether they have similar themes. If everyone hated something because it is similar to another entity OR that something "stole" or is inspired from a similar theme, we would all be hipsters. How the material is presented, digested and what you took away from the experience is what's important.

I haven't ranted in a while, but I just needed an excuse to talk about this:

In the Hunger Games, there's Peeta and Katniss. Their celebrity couple name...

I'm done.