The Hunger Games

[Pheidippides]

I'm going to see the movie this week with the missus after reading the books over the weekend. Glad to see it's so well reviewed.

Also, whoever said that book three needs a rewrite is crazy. That was my favorite of the three. Ended exactly the way I thought it should.

[Moliere]

I'm going to see the movie this week with the missus after reading the books over the weekend. Glad to see it's so well reviewed.

Also, whoever said that book three needs a rewrite is crazy. That was my favorite of the three. Ended exactly the way I thought it should.

We are going Friday night. I'm almost done with book 3 and frankly, it's boring me to death. Hopefully the end is good.

[Surfah]

We are going Friday night. I'm almost done with book 3 and frankly, it's boring me to death. Hopefully the end is good.

I started Mockingjay and I have read about 30 pages in the time that it took me to read about 100 of Hunger Games.

[Moliere]

I started Mockingjay and I have read about 30 pages in the time that it took me to read about 100 of Hunger Games.

If I didn't ride the bus I'd probably not finish it. I don't mind the way the story is going, but the inner struggle in Katniss is played out so much that it's boring. It's chapter after chapter of her analyzing her thoughts, walking around, not fighting, and analyzing more thoughts. It's like listening in on a two hour long chat between teenage girls. I'm almost to the point where I'm hoping someone does kill her and the story finally gets some action into the plot.

[jay santos]

Questions:

Spoiler for questions:

1. What's the purpose of the Hunger Games? It seems they keep saying the purpose is something related to preserving the Union and avoiding rebellion, but it seems pretty counterproductive to that. Everything that happens in the Hunger Games ends up pissing everyone off.

2. When Katniss flashes the three fingers to District 11, what does that mean?

3. The leaders seem so hypersensitive to Katniss not playing the game correctly, and becoming a symbol for potential rebellious causes. Yet it also seems this is a natural thing that would potentially happen every year, which leads me back to the point of the games question #1.

I feel like if I read the book there would be more context that would help me understand some of these motivations.

[Pheidippides]

If I didn't ride the bus I'd probably not finish it. I don't mind the way the story is going, but the inner struggle in Katniss is played out so much that it's boring. It's chapter after chapter of her analyzing her thoughts, walking around, not fighting, and analyzing more thoughts. It's like listening in on a two hour long chat between teenage girls. I'm almost to the point where I'm hoping someone does kill her and the story finally gets some action into the plot.

It gets quite violent in the end. My wife and I were discussing the ambiguity of some of the major plot points this morning.

[jay santos]

I should be in parent prison for a while. I took my kids to this on a family trip. Youngest two being 5 and 9 years old. I had no idea the content, and for some reason assumed it was another Harry Potter type series. Dumb parenting. The five year old I could cover his eyes and he didn't really get what was going on. The 9 year old is completely traumatized. Sounds like this was a common parenting mistake, as several kids in his primary class also saw it, and they all sound equally traumatized.

Wow, seriously should this be rated R?

[ERCougar]

I should be in parent prison for a while. I took my kids to this on a family trip. Youngest two being 5 and 9 years old. I had no idea the content, and for some reason assumed it was another Harry Potter type series. Dumb parenting. The five year old I could cover his eyes and he didn't really get what was going on. The 9 year old is completely traumatized. Sounds like this was a common parenting mistake, as several kids in his primary class also saw it, and they all sound equally traumatized.

Wow, seriously should this be rated R?

I'm guessing that your kids didn't read the books first?
My wife is torn on whether to let my 10 year old see it. I say he can because he knows what's coming because he's read the books.
Would it make a difference?

[jay santos]

I'm guessing that your kids didn't read the books first?
My wife is torn on whether to let my 10 year old see it. I say he can because he knows what's coming because he's read the books.
Would it make a difference?

My two girls read the books, one was with us one wasn't. The one with us mentioned a little bit about the content, but it just wasn't registering with me that this could be bad for kids. If the 10 yo has read the books, I'd say do it, but don't blame me if he has nightmares.

[Moliere]

I should be in parent prison for a while. I took my kids to this on a family trip. Youngest two being 5 and 9 years old. I had no idea the content, and for some reason assumed it was another Harry Potter type series. Dumb parenting. The five year old I could cover his eyes and he didn't really get what was going on. The 9 year old is completely traumatized. Sounds like this was a common parenting mistake, as several kids in his primary class also saw it, and they all sound equally traumatized.

Wow, seriously should this be rated R?

Um, it's rated PG-13 and your kids are 5 and 9. You know what PG-13 means right? It means you might want to be cautious about taking kids younger than 13 to see the movie.

[kccougar]

Wow, seriously should this be rated R?

Hello, it was PG-13.

[jay santos]

Hello, it was PG-13.

Yes, you are correct.

[dabrockster]

At least I am bigger then the other one...

[wuapinmon]

I should be in parent prison for a while. I took my kids to this on a family trip. Youngest two being 5 and 9 years old. I had no idea the content, and for some reason assumed it was another Harry Potter type series. Dumb parenting. The five year old I could cover his eyes and he didn't really get what was going on. The 9 year old is completely traumatized. Sounds like this was a common parenting mistake, as several kids in his primary class also saw it, and they all sound equally traumatized.

Wow, seriously should this be rated R?

I took my kids to see the second Transformers movie, including the camera lingering on Megan Fox's ass several times. I was in parent prison for awhile after that one. I respect the MPAA ratings when it comes to my kids now.

[Eddie]

Questions:

Spoiler for questions:

1. What's the purpose of the Hunger Games? It seems they keep saying the purpose is something related to preserving the Union and avoiding rebellion, but it seems pretty counterproductive to that. Everything that happens in the Hunger Games ends up pissing everyone off.

2. When Katniss flashes the three fingers to District 11, what does that mean?

3. The leaders seem so hypersensitive to Katniss not playing the game correctly, and becoming a symbol for potential rebellious causes. Yet it also seems this is a natural thing that would potentially happen every year, which leads me back to the point of the games question #1.

I feel like if I read the book there would be more context that would help me understand some of these motivations.

Spoiler for Some answers...:

It's been a while since I read the books - so maybe I'm remembering wrong. But in the books I don't think that all of the rebellion stuff actually begins until the second book. In the first book she doesn't signal the 3 fingers to the camera like that. But in the book they take the winners on a tour of all the districts and they do some kind of salute there when she is visiting district 11 - which leads to the peacekeepers firing into the crowd.

But I don't think the tour, etc., happens in the first book - I think they do that in the second.

As for the purpose of the games - it never is super clear, but from what I recall it has something to do with showing the districts that they have complete control over them. They could kill all of them if they wanted to - but for now they are just going to kill two of their children every year to remind them that they don't want to rebel or they will all die. Of course, having a winner who lives is to show that they can also be kind. But remember - the winners are almost always from district one or two. So in some ways they are also demonstrating that district one - the capital - and district 2 (that from what I recall essentially is with the capital) will always win in a fight. They have very little reason to hope that they will ever be successful against the trained killers from 1 and 2.

My wife got a text from a friend Friday night. "I'm a HORRIBLE parent. My 12 year-old wanted to go to Hunger Games, so I took her. That movie is pure evil! Children killing children."

My wife's response "Have you read the book? Do you know what the movie was about?"