Missed the book almost entirely

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2012)

If one had not read the book(s), I think he might find this to be an enjoyable, if not outstanding, movie. However, anyone who has read the trilogy knows that the movie did not even address the theme that made the trilogy so outstanding. The trilogy is primarily a character study of at least four of the trilogy's characters: Peeta, Gale, Haymitch and most importantly Katniss. Katniss is a girl who seems to stand for honorable ideas, but who finds insult and deceit in almost everything anyone tells her; especially Peeta. She finds comfort in his arms when she is fearful, but then refuses to admit to anyone, including herself, that she has any need for such care. Rather than being the hero, she is more the anti-hero of the story.
In the movie, she is brave and bold and smart. In the original she is bold, but not really so brave and certainly not smart. She operates entirely on emotion, saying and doing things without paying the slightest attention to logic. Time and again she is convinced that everything bad that has happened was caused by her. In this view she is only somewhat wrong. But after all of her agonizing and vows of repentance, she continues to do the same self-serving and illogical things that lead to more suffering of herself and others. In book 2, Haymitch tells Katniss, "See, this is why no one lets you make the plans." Later, she recalls Haymitch's statement and says,"That's true, no one in their right mind would let me make the plans. Because I can't tell a friend from an enemy." Here, she is exactly correct, but that does not prevent her from making that mistake time and again with her most loyal friend, Peeta.
Nonetheless, Katniss is a very appealing character, and that is what kept me going for three volumes. I got a feeling about Katniss very much like the feeling I had for Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind."
This, not her skill with the bow, is what makes "The Hunger Games" a great story.