And may the odds be ever in your favor.
Yes ladies and gentlemen it is true. I finally got around to reading The Hunger Games, and though it took me FOREVER to get to reading them, I will have you know it only too me a couple days to devour them once I started because I could not put the damn things down. That trilogy was absolutely amazing, and though I am a little late to realize this, I wanted to share my thoughts on the series.
First I will admit that I saw the film first, which is a bit of a no no in the nerd world, but I had my reasons! Maybe if you are nice I will tell you them some time. Anyway, I saw the film on my birthday and I was absolutely blown away, so much that I was wrenched out of my no reading coma and picked up the first book just a few days later and obviously loved it.
I must say that The Hunger Games trilogy is probably the best young adult series I have read since Harry Potter (I know it's technically a youth series but I don't care). Hunger Games is a beautiful piece of science fiction. Like many classic pieces of the genre, such as 1984 or Brave New World, it presents an all too possible reality in which a crazed government has taken away the rights and freedoms of the everyman to feign an utopian society. But unlike those books, the story is not told by old men, its told by a 16 year girl. And that girl, Katniss, is kinda completely badass, which is always a plus.
I thought that these books were really clever, and each of the three is very different than the other two in the style, a trait that I loved because it really helps the story evolve and keeps the reader interested. In addition the characters were brilliant. Each of character was very rounded with both flaws and strengths and they were, and all very true to human nature. Despite the fact that it is set in the future and there are all kinds of crazy things that people do with technology, the characters are all still very real, and even though they are in fantastical situations, they still react like any human being would. And the characters are also very likable, even drunken Haymitch (who I thought Woody Harrelson played magnificently) is likable in his own way. Oh and then there are Peeta and Finnick. In the interest of not sounding like a 13 year old fan girl, I will not go on and on about how much I love these two, but I do love them. And as per usual I think like 6 of my top 10 characters ended up dead by the end of the series, which always happens to me. But even with the deaths I still loved this series, and when I got to the last page of the last book I badly wanted more. That is what good books do, make you want more of what the author will probably never give you. But that, my dear friends, is why Fanfiction was invented!
I would have to say that Catching Fire (2nd book) is my favorite, Mockingjay (3rd book) my least favorite just because it was so sad, but it was still a really good book. The story is brilliant, Suzanne Collins is brilliant, and since she also co-wrote the screenplay, it is not hard to see why the film was also brilliant. I thought that it kept very close to the book, and the things that they changed, deleted or added were completely justified in the translation to film, which is not something that I think can be said about a lot of films based on books. If they continue to let the author write the screenplays then I believe that they will continue to be good, especially since they have decided to pull this 2 part final movie thing that Harry Potter started. That and if they keep whatever casting people they are using because I thought that Jennifer Lawerence and Josh Hutcherson were both perfectly cast, and I have no complaints about anyone else in the cast either. Stanley Tucci was amazing as always and hilarious as Ceasar Flickerman and I thought that Lenny Kravits was great as Cinna (another one of my favorite characters). And as I mentioned before Harrelson was great. Now I just wanna see who they get as Finnick, cause if they mess him up I will be very unhappy. Did I mention that I love him?
So that is just a basic rundown of my feelings for the series in general, both the books and the film. I may (and probably will) write again on Hunger Games later, I already have many in depth character analyses going in my brain that I would love to share, but those are for a later time. If you haven't read the books go read them, same goes for the movie! I recommend both unless, like my boyfriend, you are just going for the kid on kid violence, in which case then you may be a bit disappointed. If that is not the case, drop whatever you are doing and GO!!!!!!!!!!!!
