The Hunger Games

I read the Hunger Games.

I thought it was pretty good. Very well written. I think what I liked most about it was the honesty of the characters, especially Katniss. She wasn't afraid to ask herself vital questions and admit when she was confused about her feelings. I also liked the book just because I liked the main character so much. She was feeble with her rations and very smart when it came to people and the motives behind their actions.

As far as story plot goes, the writer was very smart. It was very evenly paced throughout the whole book. She placed climaxes where they belonged and kept the readers attention at all points. There was never a dull moment. She also included that element of love which I think is so crucial in almost any book. It takes a back burner in this book, though, because Katniss's first and most important thoughts and feelings are about the will to survive.

Finally, I thought the plot was well constructed. There are a lot of underlying themes about how comptemporary mass media works and how it is focused, the abuse of power, and how totalitarian government regime and unequal distribution of wealth plays in. For a large part of the book I actually felt as if she was taking many subtle stabs at capitalism.

I liked the book but I wouldn't say it is next to appear on my top 5. It was engage but not a book I could never put down. I am in no way obsessed with it, I kind of just gave in to the conformity and read it. I never read Twilight or Harry Potter so I figured I should at least try one of these books that has a huge fan base. Maybe I over-hyped myself because so many people love it. I'm not sure. I mean it was a good book and there are a lot of good things to say about it, but i've read some better, more enticing and emotion-provoking books. Maybe the 2nd and 3rd will be a bit different.

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I saw the Hunger Games movie.

Overall I thought the movie was okay. It was almost as good as the book but not as good because movies never are.

I thought the movie conveyed the book nicely but I ended up kind of hating that in the end it had to be pg 13. By having it be pg 13, so much of the physicality of the fighting scenes was brief, not well filmed, and did not fully convey what was said in the book.

While reading the book I really did get a sense that Katniss was suffering, hurting, and on the brink of serious dehydration and starvation. In the movie, it seemed like she wasn't even having to fight that hard. It seemed that everything came to her too easily and (unfortunately) at all the right times. I didn't like this about the movie. I noticed this about the book, too, but I think the book emphasized her struggles way more than the movie did. To put it lightly it seemed that the movie was a mere obstacle course or similar type of color war game instead of a fight-to-death competition. The main characters struggle was not prominent enough for it to really FULLY capture the viewer.

Although the movie wasn't terrible, I really do not regard it as something amazing. The plot is simple. After awhile I got bored of the plot. We got the point, people are going to die, and we knew how. I kept wishing for something to excite me but it never happened. Also, I sort of felt like the characters were trying a little bit too hard. Although they are good actors, throughout the whole movie I felt like they were being a bit too forceful to fit into their roles in the movie. It just didn't seem like true authentic acting.

I'd give the movie a 6.5 out of 10. The book received a 7-8 in my eyes. like I said about the book review, maybe the other books/movies will be better.