Are you a fan of The Matrix? I love The Matrix, it’s a near perfect film with it’s classic hero’s story. I loved the characters, I loved the story, and I loved the look of the film. Then the Wachowski Brothers were seduced by all the money that a successful movie gave them and they forgot the story and characters in favor of special effects. The next two films had so little in common with The Matrix that they might as well have been set in another universe.
I love The Hunger Games. It was original and amazing and gave us just enough information to accept the idea of some bizarre future world where the divide between the super rich and the super poor has reached a point where each group views the other as belonging to separate species. The people of the Capitol are not portrayed as evil, but as clueless as to what goes on outside the bounds of The City. The people in District 12 are portrayed as currant era poor people, they are doing the best they can with what they have and feel justified in blaming others for their lot in life.
You did too good a job in making me think the people of the Capitol are just people. Selfish, silly, and vain people-not intentionally evil people, with the exception of President Snow. And even President Snow is doing nothing more than protecting his government. At least President Snow has a job, along with everyone we see working in The Hunger Games. What does the average citizen of the Capitol do anyway?
Ok, I feel about Catching Fire and Mockingjay the way I feel about Matrix Revolutions and Matrix Reloaded-I just want to forget that they ever happened. So I have a solution.
Katniss wakes up to find her arms and legs strapped down. She feels a damp cloth on her forehead. She opens her eyes and sees Prim looking down at her with a concerned look on her face. Katniss sees that she is in her bedroom at the Victor’s Village in District 12. Prim runs out of the room to call Peeta, Gale, and Haymitch. Katniss’s mother comes in and tells her that things will be better now.
She is told that she was out hunting with Gale when they found a bee hive and decided to steal some of the honey. Katniss was stung by a bee and fell into venom relapse. For several days she has suffered from Tracker Jacker venom induced nightmares where everyone she loves is tortured and killed by her addled mind. In her nightmare she is even forced to compete in another Hunger Game and District 13 was not destroyed.
“Forget about all that.” Gale says. “It was just a bad dream.”
The story can then be picked up right after the 74th Hunger Games and the story can follow a slightly less scorched earth plot-line. You can still bring in the other Victors, still bring about the fall of the Capitol, still have that whole French Revolution thing where you kill all the rich people, if that really turns you on. But maybe you could make Katniss a bit smarter, Gale a bit less blood thirsty, Peeta a bit less destroyed, and twenty or so great characters a bit less dead.
I know, there will never be a sequel to The Matrix that makes sense and there will never be a squeal to the Hunger Games where you toss out two books of your trilogy. But hope springs eternal.
