"May the odds..."

Do I really need to finish that quotation?

Better late than never again, I saw “The Hunger Games” in theatres. The first book in the series was required reading for the past residency at Seton Hill—you know you want my grad school.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book a lot, and, surprisingly, I enjoyed the movie about as much. I say surprisingly because we’ve all had that experience where you read a book and then the movie comes out. You go to the movies, and you sit patiently through 2-3 hours of something that only vaguely resembles the book. More than that, it vaguely resembles the book in the worst way possible. It really pis…*snarl.* Anyway, it’s a dissatisfying experience. I didn’t get that with “Hunger Games.”

Back tracking—Katniss is an excellent heroin. She’s strong, tough, dependable, brave (even if she doesn’t think she is), and fun. Despite the horrific conditions under which she grew up, Catniss manages to have a pretty good outlook on life. I’m not sure I’d be able to duplicate the feat, but I digress.

Moving on—team selection time. No, this is not the beginnings of a fight to the death. Well…it could be, but…never mind. Anyway, Gale or Peeta? My response—I’m less concerned with that. I’m on team Katniss. Although, I have to admit that Peeta is a pretty good guy. So is Gale, but you don’t see a ton of him in book/movie 1, so this would be considered a spoiler, and I will stop now. Read the second two books. (“This message was brought to you by the letter H and the number 12.”)

Plot—my hat off to Suzanne Collins for presenting her readers and audience with a gripping, interesting story. Given some of the other…stuff…that’s been published lately, that’s refreshing. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The berries—just saying.

Impact—“Hunger Games” (while about a fictional, post-apocalyptic Earth), touches on a lot of current issues. The frivolous concerns of the people of the capital are reminiscent of the American Entertainment industry. Who married who should not be more important than feeding people, but there are people who would disagree with me. As much as I hate to say it, even the televised death-match has its place in our current lives. War Is often the topic of news broadcasts, and with modern technology, they can show the actual war.

That aside, I’d love to have some of the technology and animals in Collins’ post-apocalyptic world. Hovercrafts are just awesome. I think the showers would be fun to play with. I want a dress that lights on fire!!!! (Sorry, I’m back.) I even have to admit that the arena itself is pretty neat, though I wouldn’t want to go there. Can I have a pet Mockingjay? (Pardon my ADD moment.)

This brings me to my only two issues with “The Hunger Games.”  One, the baker’s son is named Peeta—like the bread. That wasn’t really an issue. It was more of a *smacks forehead and groans but in a fond way* moment. Two, Ms. Collins, why, in all that’s good, with all the modern advances in the world of “The Hunger Games” was there not a less painful way to remove hair from the human body?

See you out of the box,

Caboodle

P.S. Neat moment. I was spellchecking this, and “catnips” came up as a suggestion for “Katniss.”