The Hunger Games

[Jamiko]

The books are better than I expected, now I'm looking forward to the movie(s) too.

The Hunger Games Theatrical Trailer (HQ)

[K9]

Looks pretty decent, I wonder how much they'll have to play down the battle-royale elements to make it fly with the raters though.

edit: Jennifer Lawrence who plays the lead was also Mystique in X-Men First Class, which she acted well I thought, so another promising touch.

[Thrawn]

Only finished the first book, thought it was ok.

This trailer looks better than I expected, may actually go see this with the wife.

[Teleku]

Looks pretty decent, I wonder how much they'll have to play down the battle-royale elements to make it fly with the raters though.

edit: Jennifer Lawrence who plays the lead was also Mystique in X-Men First Class, which she acted well I thought, so another promising touch.

What is there left to play down?  It looks pretty much exactly like Battle Royal.

[K9]

Well, the bits where kids as young as 11 get violently killed. If you want to get a PG13 certificate, stuff like that will have to be cut.

[Sand]

Sacrificing the virgin to the dragon/witch/warlock/angry god I understand.
Why exactly is a modern looking (from the clip) society forcing its young people to fight to the death exactly? If for no other reason than simple brutal pleasure and entertainment?

[Der Helm]

Sacrificing the virgin to the dragon/witch/warlock/angry god I understand.
Why exactly is a modern looking (from the clip) society forcing its young people to fight to the death exactly? If for no other reason than simple brutal pleasure and entertainment?

If memory serves me right, it is some kind of punishment for the provinces the people come from ?

[JWIV]

Sacrificing the virgin to the dragon/witch/warlock/angry god I understand.
Why exactly is a modern looking (from the clip) society forcing its young people to fight to the death exactly? If for no other reason than simple brutal pleasure and entertainment?

If memory serves me right, it is some kind of punishment for the provinces the people come from ?

Pretty much.   The districts tried to revolt against the capital and were defeated.  Basically, as a giant fuck off we now own you, the terms of surrender mandated they were to send two 'tributes' to play in the games. 

[UnSub]

It was a problem with "Battle Royale" as well. If I was a high school student in that universe, I wouldn't be going on any field trips, ever, just in case.

[JWIV]

Well, the bits where kids as young as 11 get violently killed. If you want to get a PG13 certificate, stuff like that will have to be cut.

It's going to be interesting to see how they deal with this.  They can't flat out not have people die.  It'd be impossible to reconcile with the books.  

And, from the looks of it, they haven't particularly aged the actors.

[Numtini]

I just read the books a couple of weeks ago and honestly, I was blown away. I get the impression they're actually going to film them and I'm really looking forward to the films.

[Sand]

Sacrificing the virgin to the dragon/witch/warlock/angry god I understand.
Why exactly is a modern looking (from the clip) society forcing its young people to fight to the death exactly? If for no other reason than simple brutal pleasure and entertainment?

If memory serves me right, it is some kind of punishment for the provinces the people come from ?

Pretty much.   The districts tried to revolt against the capital and were defeated.  Basically, as a giant fuck off we now own you, the terms of surrender mandated they were to send two 'tributes' to play in the games. 

Maybe the story translates better in the books.
Because nothing says dont revolt again like ritualistically killing someone's kids once a year or so. Amirite?

So basically I was right though. The winners are doing it for entertainment.
I would automatically assume its going to fail horribly but it seems all of you liked the book. Guess I will have to wait and see.

[Numtini]

I was reading some literary criticism of the books and it noted that young adult novels tend to have distopias and the distopias then to not make any sense. Their reading was that the details don't make as much difference. The distopia is an extended metaphor for adolescence.

I suspect it's going to be the huge franchise in the line of Potter and Twilight. Big improvement over Twilight, which is just Mormon abstinence porn. That's been it's vector in terms of the books. In terms of filming what is an extremely violent plot, I think it's another example that our long national nightmare of it taking a village to save the children is finally coming to an end.

[Teleku]

As I recall, in Battle Royal, the idea behind the governments motives was to make it so that deep down, nobody in their society could ever trust one another.  Hammering in the fact that at any point, even your most trusted friend is capable of turning on you and killing you to save their own neck, will keep society more cowed and fearful.

Not sure how this one will potray it, but I liked that expination in terms of dystopian storytelling.

[Chimpy]

As I recall, in Battle Royal, the idea behind the governments motives was to make it so that deep down, nobody in their society could ever trust one another.  Hammering in the fact that at any point, even your most trusted friend is capable of turning on you and killing you to save their own neck, will keep society more cowed and fearful.

Not sure how this one will potray it, but I liked that expination in terms of dystopian storytelling.

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength?

[Ginaz]

So, is this going to be another Twilight series?  I've seen a similar amount of hype and interest coming from the teenage girl/sexually repressed adult woman demographic that Twilight has, which, having not read the books, makes me think I'll be skipping this even though the premise sounds interesting.

[Azuredream]

I don't know if it will reach that level, but I wouldn't be dismayed if it did. It's a big improvement over Twilight. I've only read the first one though, the second and third I haven't because everything I've seen says the series peaks with the first.

[Tarami]

What I know from Hunger Games, which I'll admit is not a lot, is "Mary-Sue has to choose between angelic beauty boy and impossible standards boy". The rest is, uhm, largely fancy framing, beyond the first book.

[Azuredream]

 

Doesn't sound very accurate. I can't even tell who you're referring to in your description.

[Tarami]

Well, consulting Google tells me it's not entirely out there, although I probably got the cynical synopsis of a jaded boyfriend. There's a love triangle that apparently takes up a lot of room and Katniss is... quite something.

Whatever the case is, it can't be as bad as Twilight.

[Rishathra]

Just finished reading these, and no, it's not even remotely Twilight.  I enjoyed all three books.  The weird banality of Twilight is pretty much non-existent.  Yeah, you have a teenaged girl torn between two guys, but for the most part it is handled decently, with minimal schlock, and it is actually woven in to the main narrative well.  Does she hem and haw a little too much at times?  Well, sure, but she IS a teenaged girl.  I've heard it happens to them from time to time.  Also, it's not eewww creepy the way Twilight is.

Katniss is definitely something, but considering her upbringing, and the setting, and the shit she goes through, and a


her behaviour becomes understandable.

I would ignore the criticisms of the second and third books.  Yeah, it does peak at the first book, but the series far from falls off a cliff afterwards.  The main flaw of the second book is that large parts of it are just re-hashes of the first, however it is still quite enjoyable.  As to the third, frankly, I don't get the criticism.  I was riveted the whole way through.

tl;dr - Seriously, NOT Twilight.  You can see why the Twilight demographic loves it, but it is actually, you know, good.

[Numtini]

 

[Tarami]

Alright, cool, I like what I'm seeing in the trailer looks but trailers can be extremely deceiving. Virtually any schlock that be made appealing through clever editing.

[Thrawn]

Alright, cool, I like what I'm seeing in the trailer looks but trailers can be extremely deceiving. Virtually any schlock that be made appealing through clever editing.

From what I understand the author of the book was largely involved in writing the script, I'm hoping that's a good sign.

[Numtini]

They are claiming it will be very faithful to the book. Now that may mean different things to different people. I think LOTR and Harry Potter were largely faithful to the books, but there are frothing fanboys and fangirls who would tear me limb from limb for saying that.

[Sir T]

Harry Potter and the first lotr film sure. The other 2 were dreck.

ENGAGE THREADJACK!

[Ratman_tf]

Heh. I only learned about this movie when I saw some toys in the local store based on the movie characters.
But the books sound neat. I'll put them on my to-read list.

[K9]

The first two are grand reads, the third is pretty 

[Thrawn]

The first two are grand reads, the third is pretty 

I just finished the third and the end of it was terrible.  I don't know if she had a deadline to meet or what but it just degrades into a complete mess imo.

[Samprimary]

The prerelease screening consensus from critics is 100% fresh at rottentomatoes, presently. And they managed to weasel it in to PG-13 by abusing how ridiculous the MPAA rules are. Good job.

[Mrbloodworth]

How violent/Gorey is this?

[Teleku]

From what I read, they cut out any graphic gore so it could get the pg13 rating, but still have all the teens murdering each other (so I imagine last second cut away's).

[SurfD]

From what I read, they cut out any graphic gore so it could get the pg13 rating, but still have all the teens murdering each other (so I imagine last second cut away's).

[01101010]

  So much for seeing this ever...

[Furiously]

From what I read, they cut out any graphic gore so it could get the pg13 rating, but still have all the teens murdering each other (so I imagine last second cut away's).