The international success of The Hunger Games saga has been seen by some commentators as a sign of renewed interest in revolutionary ideas. The Guardian’s Ben Child recently examined the “anti-capitalist message” of the films in an article about “how The Hunger Games inspired the revolutionary in all of us,” while Donald Sutherland, the actor who plays the cruel and merciless President Snow, declared that he wanted The Hunger Games “to stir up a revolution” that could “overturn the US as we know it.”

Many view the world described in the movies based on Suzanne Collins’ trilogy as a metaphor for our own society. This isn’t surprising — the extreme inequality between the districts and the Capitol of Panem, the technologically advanced city in the series where the elite live, is reminiscent of the world we live in.

But the politics of The Hunger Games aren’t quite what they seem, and its heroine, Katniss Everdeen, won’t be inspiring an anticapitalist revolution anytime soon.