LASFS discussion

Anyone like this one? Any one looking forward to the movie (coming out next week)? I read this first installment of the trilogy in one day. It's a well paced and fun YA book. I'll read the next two, but I guess I'm not in any hurry (my to-read list is, of course, huge), unless someone suggests that it's imperative to finish the cycle immediately.

I haven't had any movies to go fan boy over for a while (the demise of the Dark Tower movie project left me with...mixed feelings). So I'm just gonna go ahead and be excited for the Hunger Games film--so far it has good reviews (as seen on metacritic.com).

I want to get more into some of the themes and intriguing elements of Hunger Games but I don't want to give away any spoilers. In any case, I think this book can translate pretty well to the screen. We'll see...

Haven't read, only heard about and read some reviews.
How similar is it to "The Long Walk" by Stephen King?

I'm a big King fan, but I haven't read The Long Walk (or any of the Bachman books for that matter). I read a few synopses of Walk; it looks like the main similarity with Hunger Games is that both novels are framed around a brutal spectator sport that is won by just the last standing individual of many participating young adults--but in Walk elimination is punished with death whereas in Games elimination comes at the result of death. It looks like the similarities end there. I have a feeling King's take is violent and graphic (but you would know better than I), and Collins "gets away" with rampant teenage murder by writing gracefully enough within the acceptable limits of current Young Adult fiction (not that the action isn't violent or even, to an extent, graphic as well).

There's a Japanese language film called Battle Royal that came out before Hunger Games that is very similar. In the film a class of middle school age children are dropped off on an island and only the last living student is permitted to graduate. I highly recommend the movie!