Hunger Games:

I find Enos is right, though I'm not sure if "money grubbing" is the motive, though decent sales definitely seems to be. Where the first book lacked any definite character development, the second book made up for that in spades. Of course, that is bound to happen when you try to cram three novels into one. The story was so rushed that I found it hard to truly appreciate some specific events that were obviously meant to be traumatic or at least be memorable to the reader. I'd post examples, but I don't want to spoil anything. There are a few decent plot twists, but nothing really took me by total surprise. Instead of getting taken aback by some event, or moved by Katniss's (or some other character's) plight, I found myself going, "Huh. Well, that happened," simply because the pacing was too fast. In my mind, there were three separate story lines, not arcs, that transpired in the second book. While I do not actually believe they would have been better off as individual novels, they definitely deserve to be hashed out more. Hunger Games itself was one decent, and linear, story line that paced itself very well, whereas Catching Fire had too much going on.

Of course, the flip side of the coin is the target audience. I'm concerned that if the book replaced action for story, Collins would have lost a good portion of her audience. I'd like to be noble and say a good story should take precedent over sales, but I know that is not necessarily the case. It worked for J.K. Rowling, but I honestly do not think that Collins is on Rowling's level as an author. No disrespect meant, it's just the way it be. As a result of that, the Hunger Games trilogy simply could not be as dynamic as something like Harry Potter. The characters, world and story just do not allow for that, and given the target audience, i.e. young folk who tend to not care much about books, I think Collins did the best she could with what she created. Taking into account the success of the movie, she did something right.

Which brings me to the films. Simply put, they need to be "R" rated. In order to be any form of decent, there needs to be more leeway given. The books are not pretty, and frankly, the PG-13 rating is holding far too much story back. But once again, that would kill off a HUGE portion of the target audience...

All that said, I really don't know what it is, but I find myself in love with it all. Rushed and reserved though it may be. I really found myself pulled into the world of the Hunger Games, and I really want to see what happens next.