The thing that the movie definitely DID NOT do was was show what the big beastie dogs were - in the book aren't they somehow genetically mutated versions of the dead tributes? They come out of nowhere in the movie and are just stupid. I loved the movie but the last few minutes of the actual games made very little sense.

I agree with this 100%

I don't understand how they came out of nowhere, java, any more than any other obstacle that the Gamesmaster had thrown against them, like fireballs or trees. Those were also manifested from nothing. Did that make no sense to you too?

Bon, or anyone else who hasn't read the books, did you find the muttations confusing in any way? At core they need to be scary monsters that come out of nowhere (like, that's part of the point) and present a savage threat to the Tributes, and I thought they pulled that off well, even if they didn't seem to be remade from falled Tributes.

Also, from the book, I thought it was unclear what they were, because Katniss is fevered when she first sees them, and she's unclear. But I could be remembering that entirely wrong.

ita, the book spends a lot of time telling you what exactly they were supposed to represent. So they are meaningful and the scenes with them are way more compelling and layered. In the movie, the technician just creates one in two seconds with no history and unleashes it.

Fireballs and the other need no history because those are common things in "every day life". If they just wanted something else common that needed no history, why not just send hyenas or some other scary predator after them? No, the creatures needed more background in the movie. The row around me in the movie felt the same way - I heard several of them bring it up right after the credits rolled.

(ETA: sorry, just getting used to working with spoiler font.)

But I don't think the story is bad because of that, just slightly different. It doesn't make the story confusing or nonsensical, does it? They just went into less detail on a point.

Yeah, I got that, ita, and obviously the movie leaves out the idea that they physically represent the other tributes. But I don't know how they could have visually represented that and kept it PG-13. I personally found everything pretty grim even without it.

I'm with ita. It's a quibble, but it's not a fight I'd pick, unlike the origin of the mockingjay pin, the dearth of scenes of people watching the Games (forced to or not), and the unclear nature of Katniss and Peeta's relationship.

Just to be clear, we are allowed to have our own opinions here, right?

Just to be clear, we are allowed to have our own opinions here, right?

I'm not, but that's because I left my Opinionator on high and ran down the batteries. You're good to go.

Nah, no thanks.