I read the book this movie is based on back when it first came out, so I was immediately excited to watch the movie when it came out this year…and I spent a few months looking forward to it, right from the first trailer I saw of the movie.

From almost the very first scene of this movie, I was drawn into this movie. The original Hunger Games trilogy (books and movies) cemented President Snow as one of the main villainous characters, but in this movie, Coriolanus comes across as a bit more of a sympathetic character. One of the most interesting parts of this movie was the friendship between Coriolanus and Sejanus. While it could have been a case of Coriolanus using Sejanus to get to his family’s wealth, I never really got that impression…and their closeness was one of the good parts of this movie, at least for me.

Obviously, the movie was violent, given that the whole concept of the Hunger Games was that children from each of the twelve districts were sent into an arena to kill each other. Dr. Gaul was a suitably disturbing character, given that she was the designer of the arenas. I think someone has to be disturbed to send children into those arenas to die. Dean Highbottom was much more interesting than I was expecting him to be, as he was very clearly affected by the games and had obviously turned to morphling to dull the emotions brought about by being one of those responsible for implementing the idea of the Hunger Games…although as revealed by the end of the movie, he had never expected his idea to be taken up and it had in fact been Coriolanus’ father who had officially put forward the proposal for the Hunger Games.

In the original trilogy, the Capitol seems to just be this luxurious, fun, fancy place…and I thought it was really good that this movie showed that there were much darker parts to that place, even outside of the Hunger Games. After all, the Snow family had no money at all…were facing eviction and hunger. And Coriolanus kept faking that they still had plenty in both money and food, putting on a front for his fellow classmates. As Lucy Gray put it, “I thought everyone in the Capitol had plenty to eat.” Or words to that effect, since I don’t recall the exact quote.

Speaking of Lucy Gray…she didn’t seem to come across quite as manipulative and strong as she did in the book. In the book, I was never quite sure if she had real feelings for Coriolanus, or if she was just using him. In the movie, the romance seemed to feel more ‘real’, almost.

There was a lot that went on in this movie…a lot that happened both in the Hunger Games and outside of them. I would definitely recommend this movie as one to watch, as I found it really good and entertaining. Even though I knew how things would end, it didn’t stop me from caring about the characters and the storyline as if I didn’t know how things were going to end. If you enjoyed the original trilogy, books or movies, I think you’ll probably enjoy this movie.