I agree about the pin! It was so random. It was a symbol because it was a symbol. But I did like the bit with Snow at the end. I don't remember if that was from the book, but it went a long way toward giving the pin its significance.

Plei, I also agree about Peeta. Especially during the pre-Games interview! So charming!

That's, what, three of us, so clearly we are CORRECT

I like this system. Let us apply it more broadly.

Plei, I agree on Peeta. I was underwhelmed with Gale, though. He was more fresh-faced than I think he should have been.

Suzi, I was just thinking this morning that, apart from a few people directly involved in the Games, we don't have any particular complicated political reality. Capital: Powerful and bad (or clueless) Districts: Good, and subjugated (except 1 and 2)

I was merely whelmed by Gale, but I have Gale issues, so I was expecting that, no matter who played him. It would have taken a very talented actor to make me sympathetic to Gale.

I do agree that we didn't see the complexity of the politics yet, but I LOVED the District 11 uprising, how it was done. Jesus. And Kato's last scene was also good.

Maybe if in the book the mayor's daughter had ended up having any significance I would agree about the pin, but she (and the pin) always stuck out as completely random to me, so I'm glad they changed it to Katniss being attracted to it and then giving it to Prim instead of introducing another character.

But she and it are significant in the trilogy, when the pin's origins are revealed.

I'm not reading the whitefont. TCG just decided to read the first book. So now I have to wait for him to finish reading it before we can go see the movie.

Plei, it was so great to see the District 11 uprising!! I do wish we had seen more of the other districts, though. In contrast to megan, I actually wanted MORE of the reality TV aspect. There should have been more scenes of people watching the Games and enjoying them.

I don't think she's significant at all. The origin story doesn't really need to be attached to her specifically.

Quoted from Plei: And Kato's last scene was also good.

Was that in the book? I didn't remember the monologue, which made it all the more resonant.

Re Plei's second point: It really is the moments of grace that make the whole thing work, and Rue's flowers were my one crypoint for the film, because of the profound "This is not okay, at all." So the only sane response, really, IS to go to a revolutionary "burn the fucker down" place. The peacekeepers coming in looked like Star Wars Stormtroopers dropped into a 1930s period film.

Throughout, there were moments when I wanted to ask the kids sitting around me, "Do you people get that that's us? In the real world, Katniss is not the analogue for basically any of us in this room."

There is a part of me that would love to see the 3-fingers gesture adopted, as that's not something that we really have a good way to convey.

Megan, I almost agree, except that the Mockingjay is (in the book, and, I hope, the movies) a politically-loaded symbol before Katniss volunteers, which strains credulity in a randomly-chosen pin. (no, not any more than my headcanon fix, but I'm more willing to accept interpersonal coincidence than political coincidence.)

Megan, I think that the pin being given by someone, anyone, with purpose holds more meaning than it being a random find in the Hob.

The more I think about the movie there are things I wish they had included. But that is cause I want everything. I think they laid groundwork to explain some things that didn't really get called out, such as the Avvoxs .

I loved the movie and I'm glad it is drawing such popularity. I just feel for anyone who hasn't read the books or even a summary and walks in cold, just knowing it is a popular flick. They are in for a world of hurt.