The Hunger Games (film)

[Elisa Maza]

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.


The books are not among my favourites, because of Collins' writing. I cannot stand the dead 1st person she's writing in.

Still, the story is good, the characters decent and since the film will get rid of Collins' writing skills, I think we're in for a good time.

Directed by Gary Ross and screenplay by Billy Ray.

 

[Max Payne]

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.

Battle Royale?

 

[Hisako]

My immediate first thought.

Still, everyone's a plagiarist in this day and age.

 

[Elisa Maza]

Yeah, something like that. Not the most original of premises, I'd say. Still, the dystopia future has always been one of my favourite themes, so I'm in, even if it's not so original.

The difference lies that the whole society is like this. It deals with classicist behaviour a lot. I don't remember BR to be like that (then again, I never read BR until the very end and that was a loooooooong time ago...)

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yeah, I had that "Battle Royale" thought immediately as well.

Hm. Looking into this on Wikipedia, apparently the author came up with the idea without knowledge of the other title, but has gotten a lot of flack on the Internet due to the similarities.

Sounds like what happened to that Jonathan Mak guy with the Steve Jobs tribute. Crazy how that shit happens.

Anyway, the movie looks like it will be worth seeing. Thanks for posting.

 

[looneymoon]

Books are okay.

I mean, there is only so much quality you can find in teen fiction these days. I've only started the first one (can't wait to finish it when the semester ends), but from what I heard as the series progresses the love triangle starts fueling the plot more and more.

Yeah.... no thanks. Not really my cup o' tea when it comes to fantasy-adventure series.

The writing isn't very GOOD per se, but I think it will translate well into cinematic language. So yeah, I am pretty excited to see how this turns out.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

... but from what I heard as the series progresses the love triangle starts fueling the plot more and more.

That way, only darkness lies.

 

[Theozilla]

Hmmm, the trailer looks cool. I have read all three books, and I very much enjoyed them all and found them to very engaging. The first one IMO is the most fast paced and high tension of them all. But they are all good IMO. I personally like the LT in it, partially because Peeta is my favorite character in the series.

 

[Splintered]

Books are okay.

I mean, there is only so much quality you can find in teen fiction these days. I've only started the first one (can't wait to finish it when the semester ends), but from what I heard as the series progresses the love triangle starts fueling the plot more and more.

.

It does... but not so much in the first book. First book mostly deals with the Hunger Games and survival and it's got romance in it, but it really is mostly kids killing each other/trying to survive the land. Book two it gets clogged with unnecessary teen romance angst and other shit. Doesn't get fully engaging until the hunger games happen again, although the second hunger game is actually really interesting.

 

[Marle]

Say what you will but I first picked this book up because it sounded a bit like Battle Royale. I love the dystopian story and really, once you get into the books, it's similarities between it and the epicness that is Battle Royale become less and less evident.

I love Katniss, she's not a Bella Swan and I think that's such a good thing in teen fiction because about 98% of the leading female in these books are reincarnations of that twat.

And no, it isn't LT driven which is why I ADORE the books; it's only the stupid fucking fans who go on and bitch about the LT who make it seem like the book is nothing but a love story.

It isn't. I knew who Katniss was going to be with from the first book and Collins pretty much establishes it in every book. To say you really didn't know makes me wonder how much people have actually read.

Love is a concept in it, sure. But the driving force for Katniss is protecting her family and saving a world going to shit and standing up to a corrupt government with fucked up morals. The love story takes a backseat to that the whole time.

Also, I love Peeta. Collins made the guy so opposite Edward fucking Cullen and all his twins, I can't help but appreciate it. He's the messed up, quiet, shy kid and he reminds me a lot of Cloud (seriously, they have so many similarities!). Which is probably why I'm not crazy about this movie.

They picked Josh Hutcherson to play him and I'm still not really buying it. And don't even get me started on Liam looks over acting chops, obviously . Then again, the dude has a small part in the first movie so...

I think I'll only buy Josh as Peeta in the third movie because the role he's gotta take on in there will either prove him or break him.

YEAH I LIKE THIS SERIES SHUT THE FUCK UP COCKSUCKER. D<

 

[Theozilla]

Just got back from a screening. Very faithful adaptations, very good acting all around. I really liked some of the additions of the head gamer talking to the President and seeing the the game staff controlling the environment, it really helped build the world and setting of the film, which originally was not possible in the first-person-present narrative of the book. Jennifer Lawerence did an exceptional job as Katniss, especially with expressing emotion through facial expressions, really allowing the audience to get into the character's head like the reader literally do with the book. Also I really like how they did not overplay or pander the romance. This film really was begging for an R dating though, and while some of the shakey camera I thought were well done a lots of times I wish they could have been more graphic with the violence or use a different technique to "hide" the violence. At the same time I still have to give them credit for being able to achieve a PG-13 rating. Another small nitpick of mine was the bread-flashback scene; why did they not just hire some younger actors for that scene so it could match the book, was really too expensive to do that? But again minor nitpick.

 

[Ghost X]

I think its unfair to say its copying Battle Royale. It would be like saying all zombie films copied the first zombie film, or whatever. I would rather view it as a genre. An interesting one at that, which hasn't really taken off as of yet.

Never read the books, but its good that critics seem to be giving the film a huge thumbs up. I want to see it. People keep calling it the next twilight, but do not understand that twilight is shit; Shit that critics recognised was shit. There is no comparison besides that the books may be aimed at teens?

 

[Tennyo]

I went and saw the midnight showing of this. This movie was fabulously done. You won't have needed to read the books to know what is going on at all.

I would also highly suggest giving this series a try. The writing style takes a bit getting used to, but the story is pretty good.

but from what I heard as the series progresses the love triangle starts fueling the plot more and more.

No, it doesn't really, actually. There's way too much going on for that to be the driving force.

 

[Tetsujin]

I might just check it out. Haven't really been to the movies this year yet.

 

[Dawnbreaker]

I saw the movie and really enjoyed it. I went into the movie theatre knowing virtually nothing.

Why people said it was another version of Twilight or Harry Potter (yes, I read that somewhere) is beyond me--this movie has very very little in common with them (except underage kids involved in pretty fucked up issues). I think the actress playing Katniss was especially good, she was talented at the protrayal without being overly dramatic.

I like the idea of the story whether it was original or not (I honestly haven't heard of Battle Royale before this) because it was gritty and gruesome without very little to redeem it. Don't know if I will read the books (they sounds pretty atrocious) but I will probably see the movie sequel.

 

[stiles]

lol

i always look at movies as an added bonus when they're based on books, so i'm usually never disappointed when it isn't an exact interpretation because i know that it's sometimes hard to convert everything in the text visually. but in the hunger games case they came pretty close, despite leaving a few things out, but by and large it was a perfect visualization of the books, it was actually very similar to what i had imagined it to be.

9/10 can't wait for the next movie.

 

[Tennyo]

@Dawn: Yeah, I had never heard of Battle Royale before this, either.

The only gripes I've heard people say they have with the movies is that they aren't violent enough. Quite honestly I feel like if that is all you care about then you completely missed the point of the series.

 

[stiles]

i heard of battle royale before but only because people were so caught up in calling it a copycat and saying that made it not good.

 

[looneymoon]

I finished the book a couple of days ago and I'm excited to see the movie now.

With the way it was written, I think it would make a much better movie than it would a book. I'll post my book thoughts in the other thread

also I stole a Mockingjay pin from my work. It was a great steal totally worth it.

 

[Vivi]

Don't know if I will read the books (they sounds pretty atrocious).

IMO, the books aren't so bad. They weren't my favorite, and I thought that the second book was kinda pointless filler, but they can be a fun read if you have some spare time.

 

[Theozilla]

@Dawn: Yeah, I had never heard of Battle Royale before this, either.

The only gripes I've heard people say they have with the movies is that they aren't violent enough. Quite honestly I feel like if that is all you care about then you completely missed the point of the series.

I think the complaints were not that it was not violent enough per se, but that the techniques that were used to keep it PG-13 could been done better, e.g. less shaky camera effects. But really when most complaints have mostly only been aesthetic/technical that is a pretty good track record for a film.

 

[Tennyo]

Nah, people are literally saying "More violence don't hide it I like violence these books are about violence so why hide it at all?"

And I'm just like, really?

 

[looneymoon]

Just got back from this!

eeeh the movie could've used more violence to get the point across better but I don't think the lack of violence detracted from anything.

Over all I really like it a lot! My main complaints were: the pacing was a bit awkward (the first hour seemed to drag and could've benefited from a solid 15-20 minute cut imo); and Peeniss had... really awful chemistry. Conversely, Katniss/Gale had really good chemistry, something that you really don't get from the books. I have a feeling this maybe because Peeta was miscast - Josh Hutcherson just isn't as strong and actor as the other two imo. I just didn't feel any sort of vibe from them and I felt like that whole aspect could have been handled better. Maybe they're just trying to play up the whole love-triangle subplot for more cinematic appeal? I dunno but it kind of took away from a pretty major aspect of the story.

All in all though I really liked it and I think it really made some really great additions to the source material. The few scenes that shift away from Katniss' point of view was something the book sorely needed. It led to much better world building and all around a better mood of how the society is like, something the book just didn't follow through on that well imo. The parts that came across as overdramatic in the novel worked much better as a screenplay, which is what I expected since cinema needs that sort of melodrama to get a story across visually.

Jennifer Lawrence is a superb actress and captured Katniss perfectly. They made a good choice in picking her - it was her casting that would make or break the film and she carried it.

Last thing I want to mention: the soundtrack is absolutely perfect but why weren't the songs used in the actual body of the movie not that I'm complaining because the score was really good too, but why license such an amazing soundtrack if you aren't gonna use it??? ;_;

 

[Tennyo]

@

Spoiler: chemistry between Katniss and Peeta

I think it worked to not have it too prominent in the first movie because remember, Katniss is faking it for the sake of getting sponsors. I think it makes sense from that perspective.

@

Spoiler: Soundtrack

Actually songs sell better than scores, I think you can also get just the score, but just having songs with the Hunger Games name on them will make a lot of money.

 

[looneymoon]

Spoiler

I can see how it makes sense from that angle but jeez they could've had a scene where she seems at least slightly warm to him. We don't have the same sort of insight into Katniss' thoughts and as it was she had much more genuine affection for the dude she's supposed to be not interested in. In the book you get the impression that she is interested in Peeta, she's just too proud/concerned with survival/bad with feelings to fully admit it.