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'The Hunger Games' Series on 4K Ultra HD
(Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, et al / 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD / PG-13 / 2016 / LGF)

Overview: Lionsgate has just released all 4 films in 'The Hunger Games' series via a quite brilliant 4K Ultra HD set of combo packs! As I'm sure you all know, 'The Hunger Games' is a hugely popular series with some breathtaking visuals that most definitely take full advantage of the 4K Ultra HD picture quality this exciting new format offers.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Verdicts: Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight to the death with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

And so The Hunger Games (2012) was brought to us, and has proven to be one of the most incredible, highest-grossing movies series' of all time. That said, it was slated from the off as being a sad remake of 'Battle Royale', which is, quite notably, a way better movie, sorry. Moving on, and here on Hunger Games, in general, the acting is OK, but the dialogue seems pretty trite and the future-scape and costumes, look like someone has just watched a combination of 'Equilibrium 'and the '5th Element' over and over and over again!

Anyway, another issue here was that the violence is fairly none existent due to the intended teenage audience, therefore surely losing any power about the wrongs of such a tournament? If you're trying to make a point about violence being glorified in the media or a tournament, to water it down or even worse allow the viewer to 'escape' this horror just seems pointless.

The kids are all good looking and clean cut, some of whom are slightly annoying but are given no back-story in the film. So aside from our two heroes you really don't have any vested interest in seeing them survive and obviously because you don't really see any of them die it just doesn't seem that meaningful and they appear to just be making up the numbers.

Indeed, many lovers of the aforementioned Japanese original would agree that is the ambiguity of the protagonists' and antagonist's morals, memories and actions that resulted in the incredible emotional impact of the film - all of which has been lost in explanation. What we are left with are slight caricatures, hollow and empty, all of whom cannot capture the visceral emotions that loaded every scene of the original with a dominant sense of significance.

As for these wonderful, crisp, bright, and, well, lifelike 4K Ultra HD Special Features, the two that stood out to be the most insightful, to me, at the very least, were both Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Phenomenon Featurette and The World Is Watching: Making The Hunger Games Featurette. The latter because it cleverly merges the world of 'The Hunger Games' with that of the here and now, in our very own world ie: the en masse of teenagers that flocked to this movie, and how the movie studio watched as the ticket sales pushed the success skyrocketing upwards over the three day opening weekend.

The former because we get to peak inside Suzanne Collins' brain for a while, and not only hear what she was thinking when she put these characters together, but how she herself was even worried that the cinematic version would just not be able to meet the mega high standards set by the book itself.

'THE HUNGER GAMES' 4K Ultra HD BLU-RAY - SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary with Editor Stephen Mirrione, Visual Effects Supervisor Sheena Duggal, and Supervising Sound Editor Lon Bender (4K Exclusive)
Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Phenomenon Featurette
The World Is Watching: Making The Hunger Games Featurette
Letters from the Rose Garden Featurette

'THE HUNGER GAMES 4K Ultra HD' Purchase Link

In the thrilling sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2014), Katniss Everdeen and fellow tribute Peeta Mellark have barely returned home after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games when they are whisked away once again by the Capitol. Forced to leave her family and best friend Gale, Katniss is dispatched on a victory tour of Panem with Peeta, where rebellion is seething in all 12 districts. The Capitol is enraged and ready to strike back ... as President Snow prepares the most diabolical edition of the Hunger Games yet.

So, after winning the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark return home to District 12. They go back to their old routine (kind of; they now live in the Victor's Village, and possess terrific wealth) with Katniss and Gale hunting together, Peeta baking and isolating himself, and Haymitch getting very drunk. Katniss shows major signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

President Snow pays an unexpected visit to Katniss' house. Apparently, because her and Peeta broke the rules to survive the Games, they have ignited rebellion in the Districts, against the Capital. Snow threatens everyone Katniss loves, and tells her that on the upcoming Victory Tour, her and Peeta need to convince the public they are in love. This will show the Districts that their stunt with the berries was out of love, and not in defiance of the Capital.

The Victory Tour is a disaster. The Peacekeepers are murdering and terrorizing innocents, and Katniss and Peeta can only helplessly watch it all, forced to praise the Capital. When they get back home, the violence and repression against the population only escalates. Then the bombshell: for the seventy-fifth Hunger Games (a special "Quarter Quell" Games is held every twenty-five years) they will reap from the pool of past victors. Katniss and Peeta are both chosen, and so they are going into the Games a second time, in a new arena, with a murderous batch of past winners.

Nearly two-and-a-half hours should easily be enough time to satisfactorily explain matters, but certain aspects of the plot still left me puzzled! Sorry, but I was frequently left scratching my head in bewilderment at certain things. Such as if Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) wanted to keep Katniss alive, why did he risk killing her with poison gas, mutated apes and a rapidly rotating island, all of which almost finish her off?!

Also, the new police uniforms, a departure from the more standard half-visors seen in the first film, are a little too much like Star Wars storm troopers crossed with The Stig, and look downright bizarre when worn without a helmet. This undermines some of the intensity of the new police chief of District 12, who is otherwise brutal and intimidating.

Anyway, back on track, and somewhere in this morass of high and low is Jennifer Lawrence, whose career has taken a major up-turn since starring in the last Hunger Games. Now she has an Oscar and the freedom to choose whatever film she likes. She is one of the best and most natural actors of her generation so when you see her in Cleopatra make-up and synthetic flames, she looks uncomfortable. She doesn't need make-up or special effects. Her natural talent is all she needs.

The Special Features here are a wee bit sparse, and aside from some ho-hum Deleted Scenes, a Documentary about the Making of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire', it's the Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson that really, **ahem** make this section catch fire! Aside from the fact we get to view the movie again in its crisp, clean, 4K Ultra HD bad-ass self, they both spit out chucks of what-we-already-now-now set design, screenplay, and Jennifer Lawrence on set tidbits (mostly all to to with her love to do her own stunt work), but we also get a nice "look" into how Studio wrangles meant certain scenes not filmed should have been - and what that meant to the overall finished picture.

'THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE' 4K Ultra HD BLU-RAY - SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson
"Surviving the Game: Making The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" Documentary
Deleted Scenes

'THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE 4K Ultra HD' Purchase Link

'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' (2015) finds Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in District 13 after she literally shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and a nation moved by her courage.

OK, this has to be said: I do absolutely acknowledge that unlike the two previous films, 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' doesn't feel like a complete film; it is practically all build-up and doesn't have a proper ending, and I agree that splitting the last book into two films was an inherently stupid, purely greed-driven decision by the studio.

Also, due to that idiotic split of the last chapter, the film is largely deprived of the action/adventure elements that so many fans loved in the first two films, which must be especially disappointing to non-book-readers who didn't expect such a drastic change in tone. But if we ignore its most obvious flaws for a moment, the film has actually quite a few things going for it.

For instance, it offers a surprisingly realistic portrayal of a totalitarian society on the brink of an all-out civil war, and unlike other Hollywood adaptations of such tales, it dares to put the emphasis on the human drama instead of the special effects. And it remains faithful to the book: it would have been fairly easy to invent a couple of heroic battle scenes to amp up the spectacle (Hollywood is notorious for such disregard of source material - and such disregard for the fans), and I must say I appreciated the film precisely because of its NOT solely action-driven narrative.

But the most impressive aspect about 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' is how layered it actually is. This is not the good-against-evil story of the first two films anymore: this is a really smart study on how propaganda works and how one fascist system is about to be replaced - albeit with the best intentions - by another. This kind of moral ambiguity (and again: faithfulness to the novel) is not what we usually get in blockbusters aimed at teenagers, and for that alone the film deserves some credit.

So my verdict on this third installment of 'The Hunger Games' is that as much as it offers intelligent entertainment that doesn't solely rely on special effects and one mindless action scene after another, and as much as it truly is a fitting continuation of Katniss' journey, sadly, it doesn't lead that journey to its logical conclusion! Nope. That the studio wants you to pay once more to see how the journey ends may be understandable from a financial standpoint, but it is also a major flaw in the storytelling of an otherwise very good film.

Once again, the Special Features are, in their own, sweet crisp and clear way a special treat to view. Also, yet another Audio Commentary with both Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson proves to me heavy on the insightful tidbits of both the crew and the sets. But what makes this one a little more juicy is that Jacobson goes deep on several occasions about injuries sustained, about stunts that proved to dangerous to even go ahead and film, and interestingly, about other actors that were up for certain now-famous character roles!

Another massive, albeit sad joy to watch was the Straight from the Heart: A Tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman Featurette. Man, what a talented actor, a lovely man in the clips, but an enormously troubled soul, by all accounts. A lovely piece on him here by LGF, but not nearly as deep, as rich enough as he truly deserved. That said, a lovely, educating in places piece, for sure.

'THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1' 4K Ultra HD BLU-RAY - SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson
“The Mockingjay Lives: The Making of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” Documentary
Straight from the Heart: A Tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman Featurette
Songs of Rebellion: Lorde on Curating the Soundtrack Featurette
Lorde “Yellow Flicker Beat” Music Video
Deleted Scenes

'THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 4K Ultra HD' Purchase Link

With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss confronts President Snow [Donald Sutherland] in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends - including Gale [Liam Hemsworth], Finnick [Sam Claflin] and Peeta [Josh Hutcherson] - Katniss goes off on a mission with the unit from District 13 as they risk their lives to liberate the citizens of Panem, and stage an assassination attempt on President Snow who has become increasingly obsessed with destroying her. The mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games.

At the end of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I', Katniss was lying in a hospital bed having almost been murdered by her 'boyfriend', Peeta after he suffered a psychotic episode due to being tortured with trackerjacker venom whilst being held by the psychopath President Snow in the capitol of Panem. 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part II' opens with Katniss, unable to speak, preparing to help the rebels storm the capitol and break Snow's stranglehold on the Districts.

The story is told briskly, with a good sense of tension building as they advance on District 2, the only thing standing in the way of the Capitol itself. After being shot in an ambush outside of District 2, Katniss finds herself being sidelined by Coin, the President of the rebels, forcing her to smuggle herself on a medical plane to get near to the Capitol, thereby giving herself the opportunity to fulfill her promise to kill Snow.

Along with a small band of fighters and her Propaganda film team, Katniss negotiates several ugly and ingenious traps set in the Capitol by the Games makers. Her fight is further complicated by Coin's decision to send Peeta to join them, the reason for which she surmises is Coin's attempt to dispose of her. Now that the Mockingjay has propelled the troops to the gates of the Capitol itself, she has become a threat which Coin feels she has to eliminate. In the final fight, well, in case you have yet to make your way to the end of this series, I won't spoil it for you!

As usual, well the second, third and now fourth installments anyway, the stand out highlight here is the Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson. Why this insightful double act never made one for the first Hunger Games 4K Ultra HD Special Features is still beyond me, sorry! Anyway, moving on and this time it's Director Lawrence who spills more of the beans about what went on actually on the set, who caused certain scenes to fail time and time again (and why), and also what the studio wanted to see, regardless of the book, or what the director himself knew would be seen better (by the fans) and would work better (on screen).

Panem on Display: The Hunger Games: The Exhibition is a rather stand-alone interesting feature also. Showing us what we have already seen in the four films, it also showcases areas, massive areas in some cases, that were never explored within Panem. Thoroughly fascinating and well worth a look at as is the lengthy, but worth it “Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2". Man, lengthy doesn't even do it justice, but what we learn from a massive amount of behind-the-scenes tidbits truly enhances our secondary viewing when it comes to these films, trust me!

An 8-part Documentary, the parts that were interesting to me included the insight into the actual actors, how they got on with one another, who befriended who off the bat, who couldn't wear certain items of clothing (and why), and why certain items of clothing didn't make the cut (even after they had been in the very first ever promo for 'The Hunger Games'! The other one was the joint venture of the on set version of the special effects vs. the Post-Production unite - and how they came together to create a whole bunch of something when the actors were acting against a whole bunch of nothing!
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 4K UHD/BD SPECIAL FEATURES “Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2" - An 8-Part Documentary With An In-Depth Look At All Aspects Of The Making Of The Final Movie Including The Acting Ensemble, Visual And Costume Design, Special Effects, Post-Production, And More!
The Hunger Games: A Photographic Journey
Cinna’s Sketchbook: Secrets of the Mockingjay Armor
Panem on Display: The Hunger Games: The Exhibition
Jet to the Set (Blu-ray Exclusive)
Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson

'THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 4K Ultra HD' Purchase Link

'The Hunger Games', 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1' 4K Ultra HD Combo Packs will each be available for the suggested retail price of $22.99 and 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2' 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack will be available for the suggested retail price of $42.99.

As noted, all these brand new 'Hunger Games' come as 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD (which means 4X the resolution of full HD!), feature HDR (High Dynamic Range) which means sharper, brighter, more vivid color, and come complete with immersive, object-based audio for the best quality sound. These are all Widescreen Presentations (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

www.LGF.com.com





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