The Breeders: The Hunger Games Isn't the Best Date for New Parents

I'm not going to lie, the minute The Hunger Games had a release date I told Grandma she needed to free up one day that weekend to babysit. 

I was introduced to the series by a friend who loaned me the first installment on a Sunday afternoon and warned, "You need to start reading this when you don't have anything else to do for the next four hours - including going to bed."

She was right. I read late into the night, finished it on the bus the next day, picked up Catching Fire at . on my way home, crossed the street, and started reading it at while I waited for Adam to get home. By Wednesday, both of us had finished all three books. 

Obviously, this was before The Kid arrived when we could spend all evening reading...

As excited as I was to see the movie, I was just as ready to be disappointed. I was an English major, so I am a pro at close readings and that makes me a tough critic, but to the shock of many who know me I actually really liked it - I really liked it. 

I was already aware that some of the ways I envisioned the characters (or the way they were described by Collins) and settings wouldn't be the same, but in many ways I was pleasantly surprised and I applaud the effort to convey the important themes and set us up for the rest of the trilogy. Adam agreed and so did the rest of the folks we went with.

Oh, right I forgot to mention it was a group date. We're friends with book lovers and so we all bought our tickets ahead of time and showed up to the a half hour early to make sure we got good seats. All of us also had a hard time keeping it together when a certain secondary character came on screen.

Since this is a movie about forcing kids to fight to the death for their communities' survival and the enjoyment of the elite, its not really a spoiler to say we knew her story arc did not end well. Adam and I wiped away tears with our friends and the rest of the theater even before her final scene. But, we weren't surprised by that. The books made us cry, too. What we were surprised by was that we were grabbing each others hands, wiping tears away, and checking our phones for calls from Grandma before the Games even began. 

Another one of the things when you become a parent is the biological response you have to signs of children in distress ... any child in distress, even one that's acting on screen. 

So, while I walked in ready to roll my eyes at ill-advised casting, I instead found myself wanting to cuddle The Kid in my arms from the minute Prim's name was called in the Reaping. Each one of her cries for her big sister was like a punch in the gut, so you can imagine how shallow my breath was watching the Games.

Now I know why when I recommended the trilogy to my bibliophile mom and told her the premise she declined. Luckily, I wasn't too happy with the end of the trilogy so I can probably wait to see the rest of the movies on DVD when I know The Kid is safe and sound and will wake up wanting to be cuddled.