The Hunger Games (2012)

Watched this last week and thought it was decent. I can see why people are comparing it to battle Royale because it is in many ways a blatant rip off of that book and movie. But at the end of the day, it is its own thing and there are some really interesting parts to the story. I thought it was shot well, the action played out nicely and there were quite a few really intense scenes. Overall I'd give it a straight B or whatever the equivalent is in thumbs up and down (I don't have the time to do the maths).

I love the book series, but I watched the movie for the first time last night and was really underwhelmed. I paid $1.29 for that?! I could have had a week's worth of Ramen dinners instead. The actors that were chosen for the roles were generally well-picked, but the way that the story was told was just... meh.

I liked it enough, but I haven't read the books.

But, dude, watch Battle Royal. It's like a balls to the wall version of the same kind of setup. But not necessarily set in the future (well, not one that's too different to today). It's a Japanese movie, so just study 2 hours a day for the next 6 months and you're set. It's easier than working out how to turn on subtitles.

My brother goes apeshit for Battle Royale. He's been telling me for years that I need to watch it. I have no doubt that it's awesome, I just need to remember to rent it.

I honestly don't get how the rest of the stories in the Hunger Games series are going to work. I read the second book is like them doing a special edition of the Hunger Games with previous winners. But I guess the final book is something all together different. Is that right?

Yeah, in the second book the Games are a Quarter Quell. Every 25 years of the Hunger Games, there is some gruesome twist. On year 25, the people from the districts had to choose their own tributes; on year 50, there were double the number of tributes (that's the year that Haymitch, the mentor for district 12, won); and for this year 75, the tributes have to be drawn from previous winners in each district. For district 12, since there is only one female victor still alive, Katniss has no choice but to go back to the arena.

The third book is totally different, and I don't think that it's as good.

SPOILER ALERT

















At the end of the second book, Katniss destroys the force field that keeps the tributes in the arena. A rebel hovercraft from the apparently-not-destroyed-after-all district 13 rescues Katniss and some of the other tributes, and the Capital grabs the others. The third book is about Katniss accepting the role of rebel leader/spokesperson and helping overthrow the Capital. My favorite character dies in that book, so I'm not as big a fan. Plus the feel of the whole book is different. Katniss gets a nasty head wound at the end of the second book, and through the first half of the third book things are foggy for her. Since everything in the book is from her perspective, it's just not as good.

That does sound like the third book could be dull. So it's like district 13 is a rebel district that broke off from the rest of the ... umm... whatever they call it. Federation or whatever? I figured that if it was a series the whole thing would be based around the idea that Kat (the other Kat) would be partly responsible for bringing down the current government. But there really isn't enough room for them to explain how things are better afterwards, or even indicate properly who the real enemies are in the government. I mean, at least there's nothing in the movie. I'm sure the book has much more detail.

It sounds like a crappy way to finish the series off. But then the whole premise of the series is kind of running thin after 2 books.

The third book also stumbles over the romance aspects from the first two books. Except for Finnick and Annie, who were a nice addition. In the third book, Katniss and Gale spend lots of time together to please the Gale fans, but it's not a comfortable interaction most of the time because Gale is happily getting into using his hunting/trapping skills to hunt/trap people, and Katniss doesn't like that. In the very end of the book, one of Gale's human-killing traps ends up killing Katniss's little sister, so Gale leaves to live in a different district and is never seen again. The relationship with Peeta takes a hit because he was taken by the Capital at the end of the second book, and he gets tortured and his mind gets messed with, and by the time that he finally gets rescued halfway through book three, he is a bit crazy and tries to kill Katniss. He heroicly fights back his brainwashing to remember that he loves her, and they end up together after the war ends, but that doesn't make sense to me. I get moody toward people that I love after I have a dream in which they were jerks to me. If my memories were tampered with to the point where I tried to kill the person that I'd once loved, well, even if I regained my senses I don't think that there would ever be enough love and trust left in the relationship to make it work. But that's why it's fiction!

There is an epilogue which quickly describes life after the Capital has been defeated and the new president. It's just Katniss talking about her life with Peeta in district 12, and it seems to me like life doesn't really change except that there are no more Hunger Games, that people can move between the districts, and they are allowed to go outside the fence. Everyone is still dirt poor.

So nothing really changes except 40 people (out of a hundred or so million) who would otherwise die get to live every year. Brilliant.

Sucks about Katniss' sister. I'd be mildly upset if that were me.

The love stories in these new fangled books piss me off. Twilight is the worst. I think I saw some of the third movie (may have been the fourth) and whatserface walks off with wolfboy and totally makes out with him while vampire is sitting around the corner waiting for her. And I'm just thinking NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE! He knows what's going on and he's just like nah, I trust you. Dude, she just kissed him. Passionately. And she liked it. Her hand was totally caressing him down there. You know it was, dude.

The first Hunger Games movie was fine in that regards. They got close but it wasn't full on lovey dovey stuff. It could even have been a strategy to survive, if you want to believe that.

I thought that the romance in the first two books was fine, and I actually LOVED the first two books as a whole (I'm still unimpressed by the first movie and don't expect much from the second), but that's because in those books, Katniss pretty much said to both these guys that she likes them well enough, but her family and her own survival are more important than kissing some cute guy. Way to go, Katniss.

Wait, so in the Twilight movie, whichever one it was, the vampire guy was totally cool with his girlfriend making out with a werewolf? Even if I could believe that he totally trusted her, it was a werewolf, and aren't vampires supposed to hate those furry folks just on principal? If it was a better series, the vampires and werewolves wouldn't just give each other threatening glares over Bella, they'd violently kill each other and claim her as a victory prize. Done in one book.

I don't think the vampire was 100% cool with it, but he did marry this chick. I just don't get it.

I may try the Hunger Games books eventually. It sucks knowing that the series went downhill with the last book, but I think that's common. Sometimes writers just don't know where they're going with it until they get there, and the well has basically run dry by that point.

Or they just think whatever they write is going to be brilliant.