The Hunger Games

[leave_nothing]

Just saw the movie yesterday and got the vibe that if Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale had a bastard kid it would be Hunger Games. The most deliberately frustrating aspect of the movie was Katniss, an entirely self-absorbed bitch and a painful attempt to create a strong female protagonist. To the peeps who have have both seen the movie/ read the book, is this completely on the author or is the director, screenwriter, actress at fault?

On a more positive note, the actual cynical shots that the movie takes on aristocracies attempt to control the republic and the human race's bloodlust was amusing.

[Jedidude]

Just saw the movie yesterday and got the vibe that if Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale had a bastard kid it would be Hunger Games. The most deliberately frustrating aspect of the movie was Katniss, an entirely self-absorbed bitch and a painful attempt to create a strong female protagonist. To the peeps who have have both seen the movie/ read the book, is this completely on the author or is the director, screenwriter, actress at fault?

On a more positive note, the actual cynical shots that the movie takes on aristocracies attempt to control the republic and the human race's bloodlust was amusing.

I have no idea where you get this self-absorbed observation from. Please clarify.

[Linkabel]

Thanks for not being one those people who are like OMG Hungers Gaimz is ripping off Battle Royale!!!111

As for your question the dystopian society where kids are fighting to death is basically the only similarity between the two. While Battle Royale focuses more on the brutal fighting, Hunger Games delves more into the media influence and mental repercussions of the actual games. Hunger Games does have intense brutal scenes, however the violence is toned down a bit to appeal to younger audiences.

I hope that answers your question, and I highly suggest reading the book before seeing the movie.

Oooh okay sounds interesting with the whole repercussions and media influence, hopefully I can read some parts of the book before I go see the movie next weekend, thanks

[leave_nothing]

I have no idea where you get this self-absorbed observation from. Please clarify.

Don't get me wrong, the character can be nurturing. It's the fact that she went off on multiple occasions about how she doesn't have the capacity in her personality to make new friends or make people like her. Or the impression given off that her reactions seem exacerbated given the fact that she has an audience.

The more I think about it, I really just didn't care at all for the actress' performance.

[Match]

Just finished Mockingjay. What a great book series. I loved every single chapter, and I don't read very much tbh.

Catching Fire is definitely my favorite, though. Can't wait for that movie. Also, I heard that one of the books is being split into two movies. That's probably Mockingjay. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' movie seemed to start a strange fad with book-to-movie adaptations. Hell, I don't mind, more Hunger Games for me.

I personally loved Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss, but that's just me. Josh Hutcherson was a good fit for Peeta. And I have a soft spot for Woody Harrelson.

[Mick]

I watched it, it was a bit strange. It had nice cheerful ending and stuff... yeah it was alright. I'm probably not gonna watch it again. It's not one of those movies I would watch over and over. I most likely won't see the sequels (if they make 'em). I gave this movie a 7/10 on IMDb. I'm probably gonna give it a four when I get to it.

[PSI Wind]

I watched it, it was a bit strange. It had nice cheerful ending and stuff

Heh........Heh.........

You're funny if you think it has a cheerful ending.

[Jedidude]

Yeah if you're looking for a hardcore bloody death match then you'll probably be disappointed if you see this movie. However if you're looking for psychological and social themes dealing children in a adult run dystopian future then you'll probably enjoy it.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Jedidude

[Kevin]

One of my favorites movies is Battle Royale, and my question is for those who have seen battle royale (or read the novel) how is this series different? I'm not trying to cause conflict or put one series down, really just curious.

Having seen both movies, The Hunger Games is a toned down version of Battle Royale although it's still fairly brutal. It reminds me a bit of Lord of the Flies although slightly less so due to their differences in plots, but the basic premises of the two stories are two given how it involves kids surviving on their own.

[lounge]

I saw it tonight, I really liked it. The only problem was the beginning of the movies handling of the horrible, horrible shaky cam. Ugh! Also, the beginning's editing was really annoying, cut to here, cut to there, cut to here. Very disorienting for the first half hour or so. It was as if they fired the camera operator and got a new one for the rest of the film.

But when things got down, I was actually scared for all of them. If that were me, my legs would be trembling. I'd throw up. I don't think I'd be able to take it in real life.

Edited April 7, 2012 by lounge

[Octarine]

I saw the movie a couple of days ago. It was definitely one of the better movies I've seen in a while.

There were plenty of little things I could nitpick about (The Capital looking really piddly and boring in all of the outside shots, Peeta's cake skills somehow giving him X-Men powers, a lot of issues with the Games themselves), but the core of the movie was solid. I actually cared about the characters and the dilemmas they were faced with; the scene where the tributes were chosen was surprisingly moving, and at the end of the movie I really wanted Katniss and Peeta to poison themselves and teach The Capital a goddamn lesson. I mean, I didn't burst into tears or anything, but I've seen way too many movies recently that I've walked out of feeling totally apathetic to what I'd just seen. The Hunger Games had, like, stakes. And tension. I cared.

If I was going to make a major complaint, albeit still a pretty unreasonable one, it'd be about the action scenes. I'm no gorehound, but I really do feel like this movie would've benefited from an R rating. The kind of violence they had to portray just didn't mesh with the rating they were going for, so most of the action scenes ended up feeling very choppy as they tried to shoot around things. It didn't ruin the film or anything, but it definitely got a little disorienting sometimes.

...but seriously, why isn't Lenny Kravitz in more movies? Dude stole all the show that Woody hadn't already stolen.

[lounge]

No, I'm glad they didn't do R. It doesn't seem like the kind of movie that'd benefit from it. It was hard enough watching them cut eachother the moment they ran for the arrows. They'd lose a lot of the audience including me. I just can't watch people's body parts getting cut off. It makes me feel sick. In video games it's different. But in movies, it looks so real that it would be stuck in my vision for a long time.

[Mollfie]

It couldn't, and shouldn't, have been an R rated film. That would cut out pretty much it's entire fanbase. I wasn't bothered about the lack of violence/gore because I didn't expect it to be there, the books are for teenagers and so pre-teens through to adults would be watching it.

I thought that they did a good job adapting the book and I can't imagine that it was easy, especially when the book is all from Katniss' point of view. I liked the cut backs between the games, the people back home and the people in the Capitol. I imagine that if they do go on to adapt the next book (and why wouldn't they?) that the Captiol etc will be much flashier, especially as they've made so much money off this film. My main issue was that you didn't get a very good sense of time, for example Katniss and Peeta were in the cave for days in the book but in the film it felt like a few hours/a day.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Mollfie

[Octarine]

Obviously; that's why I called it an unreasonable criticism. All I'm saying is that there were a few cases where fight sequences were disjointed because they couldn't show hits connecting or could only show them from awkward angles, and if the movie existed in a vacuum I think the freedom of an R rating might have resulted in a technically superior film in that respect.

...is the second book any good? I haven't read any of them yet myself, but one of my friends explained Catching Fire's premise to me and it sounded pretty goofy, so I'm curious. At least as far as the movie's concerned, it felt like they were leading up to the sequel being much more about politics and maybe even an open rebellion, not just another (albeit bigger) tournament.

[Match]

Obviously; that's why I called it an unreasonable criticism. All I'm saying is that there were a few cases where fight sequences were disjointed because they couldn't show hits connecting or could only show them from awkward angles, and if the movie existed in a vacuum I think the freedom of an R rating might have resulted in a technically superior film in that respect.

...is the second book any good? I haven't read any of them yet myself, but one of my friends explained Catching Fire's premise to me and it sounded pretty goofy, so I'm curious. At least as far as the movie's concerned, it felt like they were leading up to the sequel being much more about politics and maybe even an open rebellion, not just another (albeit bigger) tournament.

Catching Fire is easily the best in the series. The movie is probably going to be great.