The Hunger Games

[Pheidippides]

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?"

The superficiality of analysis bugs me. There is a lot of social commentary in the books, some of it not even all that subtle. There are myriad horrible things that happen (the third book in particular is crazy) and it's not accidental.

[BigPiney]

The superficiality of analysis bugs me. There is a lot of social commentary in the books, some of it not even all that subtle. There are myriad horrible things that happen (the third book in particular is crazy) and it's not accidental.

If they stay true to the third book there are going to be a lot of pissed off people out there.

[Pheidippides]

If they stay true to the third book there are going to be a lot of pissed off people out there.

I don't know why. I loved the ending. Very appropriate. Lots of parallelism. It's not a happy ending necessarily, though, I agree.

[Jacob]

The superficiality of analysis bugs me. There is a lot of social commentary in the books, some of it not even all that subtle. There are myriad horrible things that happen (the third book in particular is crazy) and it's not accidental.

I haven't followed much of the analysis, but it was the superficiality of the books that bugged me. I thought there was a lot of potential there to explore some very interesting issues. But it was a YA novel, not a work of literature. I enjoyed the first 2 books. The 3rd was just boring, so I didn't finish. Hopefully you are right that the ending is interesting as I'll be seeing the movie when it comes out.

[BigPiney]

I don't know why. I loved the ending. Very appropriate. Lots of parallelism. It's not a happy ending necessarily, though, I agree.

I liked the ending too.

Spoiler for third book:

I can see people not liking that the rebels killed her sister. There are not many true heroes or villains in the books.

[lambdacoug]

I guess I'm horribly desensitized by all the violent video games I play, but I didn't see much in the movie that would cause me to question my parenting ability for taking the kids to see it. Then again, I took my kids to see Zombieland...

[Pheidippides]

I liked the ending too.

Spoiler for third book:

I can see people not liking that the rebels killed her sister. There are not many true heroes or villains in the books.

Spoiler for hunger games:

The end of the third book was the 76th hunger games. Katness realizes this when they vote to have one more with the children of the Capitol to save more lives and quell anger. She realizes that children of the capital - the people vying for power - were Snow, Coin and her as the Mockingjay. Coin was simply using Prim as Snow used Peeta and was just as bad. And so the contestants were her, Snow and Coin - which is why she said yes to the idea. For Prim. With Snow as good as dead anyway, she chooses to kill her supposed ally Coin to defy the system - it was the berries from the first book all over again, as she tried to kill herself too. Only Peeta, the embodiment of Hope, saved her. Just as he saved her from all those nightmares on the train and elsewhere.

[Pheidippides]

I haven't followed much of the analysis, but it was the superficiality of the books that bugged me. I thought there was a lot of potential there to explore some very interesting issues. But it was a YA novel, not a work of literature. I enjoyed the first 2 books. The 3rd was just boring, so I didn't finish. Hopefully you are right that the ending is interesting as I'll be seeing the movie when it comes out.

I would suggest that the books are not nearly as superficial as they seem.

[Maximus]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd7ZjCSs9ps&rel=0"]The Marriage Games - YouTube[/nomedia]

[HauteCoug]

I quite enjoyed the movie - like I had said before, I really feel like the series is written perfectly to be adapted for a screenplay. And personally, I don't care if they make changes, because outside of the Games and the overarching theme of how we will watch anything for entertainment, I don't really care about Katniss at all.

Honestly, Lenny Kravitz was my favorite part. The kid playing Peeta grew on me, although poor thing needs to grow. He's such a hobbit. Jennifer Lawrence was phenomenal in Winter's Bone, and while I don't think she was given much to work with in this film, she was definitely the right choice for the part.

Finally, I'm with all of you on the people taking their kiddos. And I can't help but laugh at the people on facebook who are having such a fit over the subject material. Besides, I felt they covered through the slaughter with a sensitive hand.

[Moliere]

Spoiler for hunger games:

The end of the third book was the 76th hunger games. Katness realizes this when they vote to have one more with the children of the Capitol to save more lives and quell anger. She realizes that children of the capital - the people vying for power - were Snow, Coin and her as the Mockingjay. Coin was simply using Prim as Snow used Peeta and was just as bad. And so the contestants were her, Snow and Coin - which is why she said yes to the idea. For Prim. With Snow as good as dead anyway, she chooses to kill her supposed ally Coin to defy the system - it was the berries from the first book all over again, as she tried to kill herself too. Only Peeta, the embodiment of Hope, saved her. Just as he saved her from all those nightmares on the train and elsewhere.

Spoiler for Just finished book 3:

I agree on the 76th hunger games and thought the ending was very good. I liked book 3, but it took a while. I got sick of the lack of action at the beginning and felt the commentary went way too long at the beginning. It was kind of like The Deathly Hallows, but even then I thought the drawn out portion of HP7 was done intentionally and for good reason.

Just a couple thoughts/questions:

- I was guessing all along that Katniss and either Gale or Peeta would end up hanging themselves together to end the book. When Katniss found out about Coin I really thought it was going to happen, which probably would have pushed the brutality of the books over the edge.

- I had a semi-hard time following the adventure through the capitol at the end. It'll be interesting to see on screen because going from pods to buildings to tunnels, my mind just can't follow that stuff as well in print. I'm looking forward to the other movies (and the first one which I'll see on Friday).

- I'm trying to figure out why people hated the ending of the story so much. Were they rooting for Gale? I wasn't surprised that Coin was evil as I figured something was up just from the way District 13 was ran, with the strict schedule and diet and all. It seemed like the rest of the characters weren't really developed enough to really cause consternation when they died...well except maybe Finnick. But even Prim wasn't developed very much to the point where I was upset when she died.

[MarkGrace]

So this was pretty dumb.

[creekster]

Saw this tonight. Liked it. Lenny Kravitz was very good. Better than I expected. Plus, the people behind us were acting like monkeys throughout and I complained and the manager gave me three free passes for the next time. So that was a score, too.

[Green Monstah]

I don't get all the Lenny Kravitz love on here. His acting is below average for a feature film. That being said, I thought it was cool he was in the movie.

The rest of the cast was brilliant. It took a while to warm up to Peeta, but in the end, I liked it a lot.

Oh, and after seeing it, my 9-year old wont be seeing it for a few years.

[creekster]

I don't get all the Lenny Kravitz love on here. His acting is below average for a feature film. That being said, I thought it was cool he was in the movie.

The rest of the cast was brilliant. It took a while to warm up to Peeta, but in the end, I liked it a lot.

Oh, and after seeing it, my 9-year old wont be seeing it for a few years.

You thought Lawrence was 'brilliant' and Kravitz was 'below average'? I think they were about the same and neither brilliant nor below average. I thought Kravitz was better than I expected.