The Hunger Games books and movies were peak dystopian YA installments in the early 2010s. While there are only five Hunger Games movies in total, fans have some pretty varied opinions on the ranking of each movie. The series centers on a totalitarian government that broadcasts an annual twisted Battle Royale “game” with children: a male and female from ages 12 and 18 in Panem are randomly selected to compete for their lives. The competition is to the death, with one victor each year.
Panem is broken up into 12 Districts and the Capitol. The Districts consist of lower-class citizens who are relegated to a specific function - between jobs like mining and fishing. And most of the fruits of their labor go to the rich, extravagant citizens of the Capitol run by tyrannical leader Coriolanus Snow, whose name is indicative of his ghastly personality.
Throughout the first four films, we watch the escalation of a revolution rise up to take on the Capitol and eliminate the Games once and for all. As for the prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, we see the origin story of Snow and the OG Mockingjay who unknowingly helps spark the future revolution decades later.
- 117 VOTESPhoto: Lionsgate
Premise: The first film centers on the poorest District of them all: District 12. Welcome to the underdog of the death match. The District is home to Katniss Everdeen, a teenager with an affinity for a crossbow. When Katniss's younger sister Prim's name gets drawn in the Hunger Games reaping, Katniss volunteers as tribute to save her sister in a martyr move that wins the hearts of the morally corrupt losers who watch kids off each other for entertainment.
The baker's son Peeta Mellark gets chosen alongside Katniss and the two form an alliance to work together to beat the system by winning the games as a team.
Katniss, a rebel, openly questions the Capitol and sparks a revolution that prompts the Districts to fight back against the tyrannical leadership with the aim of disbanding the Games.
Tribute Of Honor: The ever-sweet, smart-as-a-whip young girl named Rue steals the hearts of Katniss and the audience alike. She serves to illustrate just how utterly barbaric this tradition is. At just 12 years old, Rue manages to survive with savvy wilderness skills, and Katniss would perish without her help.
The young girl lasts for a long time but eventually gets picked off in a gut-wrenching scene. Her passing incites rage among the Districts and furthers the efforts of the rebellion. She and Katniss communicate through whistles that emulate a Mockingjay, which eventually becomes the symbol of the resistance (again).
Underrated Scene: When Katniss takes her turn showing off her archery skills before the Games, the Capitol representatives completely ignore her, chatting away. In one of her ballsiest scenes in the movie, she shoots an arrow inches from their faces and onto the apple sitting in the mouth of the dead pig on the table. Her impressive marksmanship shocks the Capitol given that she could have easily killed them - marking her as a target in the Games that the Capitol tries their best to rig.
Pros: Not only is the acting in the movie phenomenal, but it certainly serves to break fans' hearts with the spine-chilling politics and lack of humanity the Capitol displays. The movie stays fairly true to the book for a YA adaptation, though it obviously can't be a carbon copy. The development of the world is incredible
Cons: The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale is more irritating and distracting than it is beneficial to the plot and stakes. Love triangles were already mind-numbingly stale at the time of the film's release and we didn't need another.
Some of the violence is harsh and unnecessary and kind of completely defies the message of the series that watching kids eliminate each other for entertainment is not a cool thing to do. The ending is pretty predictable and lacks stakes because we know the lead Katniss is safe and they're not gonna kill off her love interest in the first film.
- 219 VOTESPhoto: Lionsgate
Premise: The Capitol isn't exactly thrilled about how Katniss and Peeta gamed the system and low-key started a revolution, so the powers-that-be are determined to punish them. For the 75th Hunger Games, they decide to negate the entire premise of the Games that is supposed to ensure that the winners get to live. Yup, they decide to peap Hunger Games participants from the pool of living winners - two from each District as usual.
Well, District 12 only has three victors: Katniss, Peeta, and their mentor Haymitch. Peeta, being the martyr he is, volunteers in Haymitch's place when he gets called. Peeta and Katniss are all about the strategy, and announce they're married and expecting a baby.
Unbeknownst to Katniss, some of the tributes plotted behind her back to ensure she would come out victorious to further the efforts of the resistance. Multiple Tributes get saved by the resistance, but Katniss wakes up to find out that Peeta has been captured. Rude.
Tribute Of Honor: Fans immediately fall in love with Finnick. Not only was he the youngest Tribute to ever win the games, but he's brave, compassionate, and loyal to a fault. His relationship with the sweet and shy Annie wins fans over, along with his protection of his elderly mentor despite her having no chance of survival.
He's particularly skilled with tying knots and combat. His strength is legendary, as is his stamina.
Underrated Scene: Mags sacrificing herself to the poisonous fog because she knows either Finnick or Peeta will perish trying to save her is gut-wrenching. She walks right up to the fog after kissing Finnick goodbye. It's an act of sheer bravery and her desire to see the younger Tributes make it out alive. She's such a sweet woman and her impact is felt by everyone.
Pros: Although the first movie's action was a bit repetitive and stale, Catching Fire switches things up, has a ton of surprises, and keeps fans guessing. The film is dark, devastating, and highlights how bad things are with the harshness of the Peacekeepers and the betrayal of the Victors at the hands of the Capitol. The stakes are high, and anything goes at this point.
Cons: The movie is 2.5 hours and the beginning drags on… a lot. Thirty minutes could have easily been cut from the movie or at least spent more on the action, the resistance, or the incredibly seedy aspects of the Capitol.
- 325 VOTESPhoto: Lionsgate
Premise: Katniss, Finnick, Peeta, Gale, and a few other rebels work their way from District 13 to storm the Capitol. That's prettttty much it. Along the way, we discover that by the command of Coin, Gale helped let off the bombs that kill Katniss's sister. Meanwhile, Katniss has to contend with Coin's aspirations to become the next Snow and coordinate a new Hunger Games - until Katniss takes Coin down and finds her barely happily ever after.
Tribute Of Honor: Peeta shines here, working through his programming and telling Katniss to kill him if he becomes a liability. He also doesn't push her for romance at the end of the film and allows her to come to him in her own time. He doesn't push for physical contact and simply waits for her to lead the charge.
Underrated Scene: The movie gives space for the epilogue that accurately depicts Katniss and Peeta's debilitating PTSD. The film keeps Katniss' book speech to her baby in the movie and we see why she chooses Peeta for a life of quiet peace following their trauma.
Pros: The ending in the film is arguably better than the book in how it plays out. Katniss's choice to eliminate Coin, and the Tributes choosing to instate another Hunger Games, seem to be strategic moves because they know what Katniss is planning. In the book, Katniss is ready to instate another Hunger Games through vengeance, which defies everything she stood for - because at the end of the day, children shouldn't have to pay for their parents' sins. If anything, force the people responsible for the Games into a death match.
Cons: The pacing in this movie is dreadful. It becomes even clearer that the two-part film was a mistake. There are barely any action sequences, and the characters basically just walk through the sewers for half of the movie. Characters like Tigris and Finnick who enrich the book are barely touched on despite having ample dead air to fill.
- 411 VOTESPhoto: Lionsgate
Premise: We've moved past the Hunger Games and into the full-fledged resistance. It's time to take things to the Capitol. At District 13 - a District the Capitol doesn't even know still exists - Katniss gets reunited with her mom, sister, and cat.
As Katniss fully becomes the Mockingjay symbol of the resistance, President Alma Coin uses her for her own ends - and it becomes clear that she's just as power-hungry as Snow.
Meanwhile, Peeta becomes a brainwashed pawn for the Capitol as Katniss and the Capitol make it known they aren't playing around, and an entire hospital of civilians dies by their hand to punish Katniss. Even when they rescue Peeta and the other captive Tributes, he's been turned into a lap dog for Snow with the belief that Katniss is the villain.
Tribute Of Honor: Haymitch really steps up in the movie. He's trying to kick his drinking problem and sees through the PR efforts from 13. He sticks up for Katniss and Peeta and does his best to help her navigate the situation.
Underrated Scene: Katnisss' struggle with filming the resistance video is a moment of levity in an otherwise dark-as-hell movie that has an air of hopelessness and devastation. Haymitch insisting that Katniss go into the battle for authenticity is the way to go.
Pros: With each movie, the harshness of the Capitol becomes clearer. Finnick helps reinforce the fact that the Games have no winners, and the promise of prosperity was a flat-out lie. Snow sex-trafficked Finnick by threatening his loved ones if he didn't comply.
Moments like the “Hanging Tree” song, the destruction of the hospital, Peeta's brainwashing, and the rest of the dismal scenes increase the stakes.
Cons: This movie did not need to be two parts. The plot is stuffed way too much, and it would have been better as a single longer movie. There's not enough action in the movie, making it drag unnecessarily.
- Photo: Lionsgate
Premise: How did Coriolanus Snow become a dictator? By being a sneaky little sociopath. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a two-part movie that the filmmakers thankfully opted not to split up. The first part is a typical Hunger Games matchup. This is before the Tributes were given appropriate lodging and amenities and before people could sponsor gifts for Tributes - which is something Snow cooks up.
As usual, the Capitol consists of a bunch of slimy creeps, who try to finish off all of the Tributes after a rebel attack - a movement that is much more prominent here than by the time the 74th Hunger Games roll around.
The second half of the movie has Snow sent to District 12 to be a Peacekeeper as punishment for helping Lucy Gray cheat. But it turns out, unsurprisingly, that he's a conniving little backstabbing jerk. Lucy Gray tries to run away with him until she starts to see him for who he really is. Everything he did for her was self-serving and every drop of care he has for her stems from a place of ownership and not love.
Tribute Of Honor: Okay, so Sejanus may do the bare minimum to help the Tributes, and puts them even further in jeopardy when he crashes the Games, but at least he's doing something. He openly speaks out against the Games, and though it's futile, he still deserves moderate props by being one of no people who stand up for what's right and eventually joins the rebels in District 12.
Even Highbottom, who unwittingly dreamt up the Games, fails to publicly decry the Games. Instead, he just drugs himself to numb the pain.
Underrated Scene: The absolute absurdity of Lucky Flickerman not only provides some chaotic levity, but also speaks to the utter obliviousness of the Capitol residents and their inability to see the Tributes as people. This guy is seriously doing magic tricks when kids are locked in a cage and about to be sentenced to death. He's even worse than his descendant Caesar Flickerman, who takes on the hosting reigns in the OG series.
Pros: Some people might shade the singing, but it really sets the tone of the film. Rachel Zegler is a phenomenal performer, so it just works. Also? Olivia Rodrigo's single; chef's kiss.
Lucy Gray is arguably a much more likable protagonist and better symbol for the resistance than Katniss. The movie also highlights the stupidity of how the Games started.
Cons: The stakes in the arena are pretty low. We know Lucy Gray has to survive because the entire second half of the movie takes place in District 12. And before Katniss and Peeta, there were no other Games that had more than one victor. So right from the jump, we know that everyone but Lucy Gray is toast. This is similar to the issues in the first movie.
We also don't see as much sociopathic behavior from Snow as we need to. He's not exactly over-romanticized, but the book has him as the narrator so we hear his every twisted thought, and without that context, we need more scenes showing us who he really is.
It's clear he views Lucy Gray as something to own rather than to love, but we just need more of that energy. The snake scene is pretty ridiculous as well.
