Mikko Chino R. Salvador / 2013-70157
Reaction Paper #2
December 5, 2013
Catching Fire is the second installment in The Hunger Games trilogy. I haven’t read the books yet but I went to see the first film when it came out mainly because of plain curiosity. I liked the first movie but it didn’t catch my interest. The idea of a group of teenagers fighting to death didn’t appeal that much to me but nonetheless, I enjoyed watching the film. With Catching Fire, I got a better view of the story and surely, it has caught my interest. The Hunger Games is not just about teenagers killing each other nor is it only about the typical teenage love story; it’s a whole lot more.
In my opinion, the movie is considered as science fiction, for now. Science fiction is purely relative. I have this belief that most of the things that we view as science fiction today can be a possibility in the future. The advanced technologies used in Catching Fire, holographic simulations, force fields, perfectly controlled environments, advanced clothing aesthetics, genetically-altered animals and the likes, in my opinion, are all possible in the future. Technological development is on the rise today and breakthroughs after breakthroughs are coming up every now and then, so this is, for sure, a possibility in the future.
In my honest opinion, the film is a commentary on the present and possibly, the future human society. Today, we are experiencing indirect tyranny and the government is trying to control and observe our every move. This can be seen in the recent leaks from the NSA. Tracking our every move and maintaining order without giving us freedom, our society right now is already close to the circumstances presented by the film. The film also presents a clear distinction of the rich and the poor. In our society today, the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing with each passing day. If we stay this way, it is very possible that we end up in a world that is closely comparable to the world of the 13 districts.
The coherence of science, technology and society failed in the world of the 13 districts, in my opinion. Society is mainly the one that separated the three. In the film, society used science and technology wrongly. Hunger for power and control is what ignited this. The capitol is constantly trying to contain the people and prevent any rebellion to occur. Every year, “The Hunger Games” is done to constantly remind the people of the capitol’s power. Anyone who crosses their path is shown no mercy and is killed right away. They try to show off their power to the people to kill any hope left in them.
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