Katniss hits the bullseye (and apple)

Did I love it? Yes.

Was it perfect? No.

Did I go see it more than once this weekend? Yes.

Am I eager for the second film? Yes.

I was an early fan of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, inhaling each of the books and then dying to read the next, only to have to wait and wait. So it stands to reason that I had a lot of expectations and trepidation when I went to see the film adaptation.

This post will include spoilers, so stop reading if that's an issue. I'm going to keep this simple and just list my impressions, positive and negative, however they emerge.

Jennifer Lawrence nailed Katniss Everdeen. She was tough and courageous, yet vulnerable and scared. She was confused but still opinionated and outspoken. Even though she could appear hard, deep down she fiercely loved the people she cared about. All of these emotions flowed naturally from Jennifer, making her mesmerizing on screen.

Stanley Tucci was delightfully disturbing as Caesar Flickerman, the reality show host of the televised Hunger Games. He could plaster on a toothy smile of dazzling dimension while talking up the kids being sent to fight to the death in the games.

The scenes of the Reaping and of Rue's death carried considerable emotion and were not melodramatic in any way. Again, Jennifer did a smashing job.

Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson brought wonderful layers to the eccentric characters of Effie and Haymitch. Amandla Stenberg was a charmer as Rue, while Lenny Kravitz fit Cinna as if made for the part. In fact, the casting was good all around.

However, that said, I think the story line would have been enhanced by more character development between Katniss and Rue, Katniss and Cinna and in what Katniss really thought/felt about Peeta. Some of this felt rushed, and I realize that a film has a finite number of minutes it can run, but, perhaps something like the flashback of the mine disaster could've been cut to allow a few lines more to develop these relationships. In particular, the cave scene came across as shallow, not at all what was happening inside Katniss in the book, so that it seemed we lost the manipulative aspect of the games.

And that brings me to my major concern. The book is about tyranny used to control people through starvation and fear. Somehow, the film lost sight of that during the games, never really showing how hard it was for Katniss to find water and food. Here is one place I think the medium of film could be used to advantage by having a short cut to Caesar on television commenting with his false sincerity that Katniss has been without water for two days, will she find it or is this the end of the Girl on Fire? Or something like that, which wouldn't take much film time at all.

Anyway, it's easy to sit in the audience and crit something that took such enormous skill, energy and planning. Despite my complaints, the movie meets most of my expectations and is wonderful, gorgeous, breath-taking and quite satisfying. Hence, the going to see it more than once and still wanting to see it again.

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Have you seen it? Agree or disagree?

Catching that fire

I'm in love. That can't-get-you-out-of-my-head, when-will-I-see-you-again kind of love.

I've had these affairs before, of course. Stay up all night devouring you kind of affairs; so ensorcelled, no attention can be spared for anything else.

What I'm crazy about is a stupendous, riveting tale of a post-apocalyptic future where the stakes are so high you think your heart will shatter but you can't look away. You must throw your lot in with these scrappy characters--Katniss, Gale and Peeta.

Nothing is how it seems in this world where an all-powerful central government demands a tribute of children to fight gladiator-style games. Everyone has a secret or two, a survival game of their own to play. Author Suzanne Collins upends our notions about what's to come and jerks us pell-mell in heart-wrenching, gut-twisting new directions. You gasp, you ache but never can you be indifferent.

This is not a review. There are a ton of them out there already. This is more of a rave. I read book one, THE HUNGER GAMES, in a breathless couple of days earlier this year. Now, I've just inhaled the newly-released book two, CATCHING FIRE. But I don't know when the third book in the series will be written and edited and printed and on the bookshelves. When you are in love, this is agony.

Are you on fire, too? Or are you wondering whether to throw a bucket of water my direction?

Got game?

Warning: Here There Be Spoilers. (sorry, Melissa)

This is not a review, just a discussion about what makes The Hunger Games work. So come play, your life won't be forfeit. I want to pick up the thread of previous posts about the longevity of myths and the soaring popularity of young adult fiction.

In case you somehow missed it, this book is both a hot seller and a critics' delight. Wouldn't we all love to have our book be a Kirkus starred review and get kudos from the New York Times and Publishers Weekly? There are a few voices who say it's been done before; the Japanese novel, Battle Royale, has a similiar premise. And it's not hard to see elements of Thunderdome and Lord of the Flies. No really new ideas, right? Just original voice.

Author Suzanne Collins said in a Scholastic interview that the idea came to her while channel surfing and finding lines blurred between reality shows and war coverage. And she was fascinated by the Greek myth of Theseus who volunteered to go to the Minotaur's Labyrinth when Athens was forced to pay Crete with the lives of its children.

In The Hunger Games, sixteen-year-old Katniss volunteers to replace her younger sister, whose name is drawn by lottery. In this futuristic world, a dominant central government forces twelve districts to pay tribute by each sending a boy and a girl to participate in a game only one may survive. The games are the ultimate reality show with secret cameras following the kids as they struggle to kill opponents and survive a hostile environment.

So let's dissect the novel:

*Written in first person present tense. I didn't even notice for some time because I was immediately caught up in the tension. It fits the fast pace of this book.

*Grabber opening with it being the day of "reaping," a word which was chilling even before I knew what it was, but I wanted to find out. By page nine, Katniss tells her best friend she never wants kids, and you know something is so bad she doesn't want to bring anyone into this world.

*Scene setting. Goes from almost medieval hard-scrabble existence, in which Katniss hunts illegally to feed her mother and sister, to a garish, hedonistic Capitol, where Katniss is transformed into a media darling. I bought into it, given the history of humankind.

*Characters. Drawn individually with organic quirks. Easy to keep track of a multitude of characters because of this.

*Moral dilemma. Katniss is a survivor and a hunter, so she approaches the game using her physical and mental skills, but she is thrown off by her compassion for others. She tries to see that as weakness but never truly succeeds.

*Deception. Katniss tries to second-guess when she is being "played." Sometimes she gets it wrong.

*Build-up. It is half-way through the book before Katniss steps foot on the playing field. But the tension increases steadily to that point and then becomes breathless.

*Romance. Well, not Twilight stuff. Katniss has a soul mate in her best friend, who is left behind to see if she survives the games, but on the playing field she is maneuvered into a pretend romance with her fellow tribute player. At least, she thinks it's pretend. It she is mistaken, all the rules are out the window.

*Ending. Several unexpected but believable twists. Katniss does something sure to infuriate the powers-that-be, so the tension and path to Book Two beckon.

For me, all the above worked. (hence my squeeing in the last post about a contest for the second book).

But I want to hear what you think. Did this book capture you? Why? Did you find flaws? What? Any insights you have that we can all benefit from in our own writing? Thanks for any comments on this.