The Hunger Games

We had heard a lot about The Hunger Games over the last few months. And we finally got to see it for ourselves. It's not a bad story - 1984 meets Gladiator meets Big Brother (the TV show!).

It's better than a lot of trash for teenagers nowadays. It's got a strong female lead, issues of right and wrong, a serious subject matter, what's more serious than life and death after all? It didn't entirely convince me, though. It lacked depth or something. Maybe the views of the mega-city were bad CGI. Maybe the way the city people were dressed was ridiculous. Or maybe there were too many characters and not enough time to develop them. We barely got to know Rue (was that really her name?) and then she got killed. And then there were riots. But why was there no riots in any of the other districts? After all, their young people were sent to take part against their will too, all knowing that only one of 24 would survive.

The Hunger Games themselves were wrapped up far too quickly for my liking. It's like they only lasted 3 days, or even less, as the producers could bring night quicker if they wanted to. So why was food so important? If I knew I would either be dead or back in a fancy hotel in three days, would I be so concerned about food? And I think I would have found it more interesting if what we were shown was the reality-TV version of the games, i.e. what the public in the districts and the city were seeing on their screens.

But still, it wasn't bad. The main girl - I never caught her name - was likeable, tough, vulnerable, beautiful, genuine, all the qualities of a reality tv contestant! I can imagine that the book is a real page-turner. Maybe I should have read the book instead? I might pick up the next two installments on my Kindle. It's a trilogy after all (PS: I've just downloaded a sample of Book 2 & 3 - I love downloading samples to my Kindle - if I see a book I might be interested in, I just download the sample. No need to hold on to magazine clippings or to keep a list any more. If I don't like the sample, there is no cost attached. And if I like it, the full version is only a click or two away. At that stage, I don't even look at the price tag. The guys at Amazon definitely did their homework on that one. It's a bit like buying apps from Apple - no connection whatsoever with the real money, just type in your password and the app is yours. And when you get the credit card bill, you've only got a vague memory of what it was you bought!).