The Hunger Games

[Sheepherder]

I'm more intrigued at the idea that they should just have done a film about the boat sinking.  There are other films that did that and they suck.

And then the captain was like "... to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." and then the movie was over.  I was pissed, what the fuck was that?  I barely even got to see the whale.

[Ironwood]

I would watch a film where Titanic was sunk by the White Whale.

[TheWalrus]

You saw the captain right? 

[Sir T]

I'm more intrigued at the idea that they should just have done a film about the boat sinking.  There are other films that did that and they suck.

And then the captain was like "... to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." and then the movie was over.  I was pissed, what the fuck was that?  I barely even got to see the whale.

"... but at least we got to see over an hour of emotional heartrending romantic scenes from the 2 Tweenies on the boat. Can't wait to read how the love scenes were in the novel"

I havent even bitched about Celine Dion yet...

[naum]

You saw the captain right? 

[Sheepherder]

I would watch a film where Titanic was sunk by the White Whale.

Captain Smith loses his shit and rams Moby Dick.  I think that story needs to be told.

[Furiously]

I would watch a film where Titanic was sunk by the White Whale.

Captain Smith loses his shit and rams Moby Dick.  I think that story needs to be told.

I think I saw that one... Star Trek II. It was AWESOME!

[murdoc]

I thought they did a decent job following the books, but as has been mentioned earlier, I thought the direction of the movie was terrible. The shakycam was brutal, especially at the beginning of the movie. The wife, who hasn't read the books, liked it a lot more than I did, which surprised me as I thought the 'kids killing kids' would be a dealbreaker for her.

[01101010]

I thought they did a decent job following the books, but as has been mentioned earlier, I thought the direction of the movie was terrible. The shakycam was brutal, especially at the beginning of the movie. The wife, who hasn't read the books, liked it a lot more than I did, which surprised me as I thought the 'kids killing kids' would be a dealbreaker for her.

Wait, kids killing kids?

Go on... I am listening.. 

This movie is still steaming along at the box office. I may have to throw some money at it when it hits the discount theaters.

[Mrbloodworth]

This movie was still crap.

[Samwise]

Shakycam was dumb (kept giving me a BSG vibe for some reason), but overall I liked the movie.  Really liked Harrelson and Sutherland in their roles.  Loved the City 17 aesthetic at the beginning of the movie.

One thing I thought they did a bad job with plot-wise was setting up the importance of the food supplies.  I understand they had to cut a lot of the survival skills stuff out to tighten things up, but given that food and water were by all appearances very plentiful, the whole risky sabotage operation didn't make as much sense or have as much dramatic impact as it did in the book.

[Draegan]

I enjoyed the movie.  The only complaint I had was they did a horrible job of giving you a good perspective of how society is set up.  I had to have my wife, who read the books, explain in better detail what the fuck was going on.

[Rendakor]

Just caught a late showing of this; wasn't really impressed. It just felt like a Battle Royale rip off for the Twilight generation. The shakycam shit was annoying, particularly after the wasp scene. I also didn't like the wanton conjuring of shit (fires, dogs, etc.) by the game masters; that ruined a lot of the immersion for me because it just seemed silly.

[Khaldun]

Right, not like most games we play--manipulative shit intended to produce certain patterns of gameplay never happens.

[Samwise]

It was more that the technology seemed "magic" and a bit out of whack with the rest of the world as presented.  Especially the were-dog-things, which it looked like they had just designed in a CAD program on the fly and then brought to life via some kind of Star Trek replicator.  The book had the dog things but it was implied that they'd been created in a lab and then airlifted (or something) into the arena, not materialized out of thin fucking air.

[Fordel]

The Capital has some pretty impressive cloaking tech, doesn't it?

[Mrbloodworth]

Has Giant Holodeck, not solved poverty. Still use coal.

[K9]

This movie was crap.

This movie was still crap.

[Teleku]

Heh.

Saw this a few weeks ago.  It was ok.  Plot moved along at a decent pace and nothing really angered me.  But Battle Royal was much better. 

Nerd mode: 

Kids in this, despite being trained, where just walking around the forest making all sorts of noise and not acting tactical at all.  Or even trying to hide.  She should have been able to bow and arrow half those fuckers sitting on the cornucopia from the woods before they could do anything.  Not nearly enough visceral killing and hunting, and the sponsor system wasn't fleshed out well at all.  I haven't read the books, but I'm assuming it was used more.  I could see it being neat, where every contestant had a constant stream of random useful objects parachuted into them as rich spectators cheered and laughed (But again this is ruined by having the cornucopia, which gives one group everything).  As the movie ran, it was only used at exact moments to Deus Ex the main characters out of hard spots.  And again, the fighting/hunting/survival in general was just too low.  Also, too much teenage love/drama/bullshit (but I was prepared for that anyways, and even battle royal had a lot of that).

But hey, I liked the world and the build up in general.  Just had its flaws.  So overall, it was just Meh for me, which was sort of a let down since I was really hoping for some good fun.

[SurfD]

I got the feeling that the training they got was not as super extensive as all that.  Remember, they only had about 3 weeks (?) of training, and it probably covered a huge range of topics.  Thats probably a lot for normal kids to absorb and apply in that short of a time. It is pretty obvious many of them did not really pick up on all the wilderness survival skills etc that they should have (or basic common sense things either, such as "dont light a giant ass fire in the middle of the night when 20 odd other people are out there waiting to kill you).

If anything, at least from what the movie tells us (havent read the books yet), they may have slightly underplayed the deadlyness of the "careers" from district 1 / 2 (was unclear how extensive their training pre-games was, but it was supposed to be years?), though to be fair the opening rush on the cornucopia did a fair job on that i think, as the D1 and 2 guys prob accounted for nearly all the fatalities generated there.

And sure, Kat could have probably gone all hawkeye on their asses once she got the bow, but they made it fairly obvious that she really wasnt mentally ready to start putting arrows into people at that point in the games.

[K9]

The implication in the books is that the tributes from Sectors 1 and 2 are often trained prior to entering the tournament.

[Mrbloodworth]

The implication in the books is that the tributes from Sectors 1 and 2 are often trained prior to entering the tournament.

That was sin the movie too. Because, like, apparently those Sectors do not have to haul coal in burlap sacks all day, or something.

[CmdrSlack]

District 1 and 2 tend to be treated better by the Capitol and are also producers of stuff that is more valuable (I forget what offhand). Their citizens tend to be better fed/trained than those in other districts. The series of books makes it pretty clear that this is done, in part, to minimize the chances of revolution -- most districts are too poor and underfed to do much of anything but haul coal in burlap sacks.

[MahrinSkel]

District One produced all the high-tech stuff, and District Two supplied the bulk of the military/police.

--Dave

[CmdrSlack]

I thought 3 had the high tech stuff. Wasn't the

[MahrinSkel]

I thought 3 had the high tech stuff. Wasn't the

Looking it up, you were right.  District One produced luxury goods and entertainment, District 3 was electronics.

--Dave

[Rendakor]

From the movies, I got the impression that the districts were ranked in order of wealth/success/freedom from 1 to 12.

[SurfD]

From the movie, with the way the Tributes from district 1 + 2 were described, I got the impression that they were intentionally trained from a fairly early age to be in the games and then intentionally "volunteered" for the games to represent their district, which was supposed to make them signifigantly more dangerous then the average tribute from the other districts.

Which also makes me wonder: if there is no rule saying that you can't volunteer, why wouldnt more districts do something similar?  I would think that intentionally prepping a small number of people and volunteering them for the games each year would be more productive then living with the constant dread of being randomly selected by lottery for 7 or so years of your life.

[Khaldun]

It has to do with how miserable life is in the poor Districts. Most people are on the edge of malnutrition in Katniss' District, for example. I don't think there's the surplus energy, resources or will to do that sort of thing. Not to mention that Districts 1 and 2 do it because that's the cost of Capitol's "favoring" of them--underneath it all, they don't like it any better, it's *their* kids. (Only one can live, so even if they win, they lose someone.)

[WayAbvPar]

RISE!

Finally got around to watching this on Netflix with the wife. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, despite its many flaws. I am glad the initial slaughter at the start was as short and fuzzy as it was...I was still horrified by it. Large children killing smaller children 

I am going to have to read the books now so I have a better grasp on the background stuff. Thought the cast did a very good job overall. At first Harrelson (who I normally can take or leave as an actor) and his wig really bothered me, but later on I realized he sort of grew into the hair and the role. I was impressed by Kravitz as well, which is very hard for me to admit (since I LOATHE him and his music career). Haven't seen all of Jennifer Lawrence's work yet, but she has been great in the stuff I have seen.

Re-read the thread found the link about all the semi-literate racist mouthbreathing fuckheads. When Rue's character was introduced I remembered the article about it and mentioned it to my wife, who was baffled (as any sane person who doesn't spend much time sifting through the filth on the Internet would be). Now I am angry all over again, since I now 'know' the character and the actress.

[lamaros]

Have I mentioned I didn't like this movie? Surprise, right?

I found it far too shallow. I really bugged my willing suspension of disbelief. Battle Royale is so so much better.

[jgsugden]

I don't get it.  Outside of a cute actress, this movie didn't have enough of anything to be worthy of a strong opinion one way or another.  I don't think it is even worth writing a full review about.  It is

[Brofellos]

I devoured the books in a week home with the parents and I was really excited about the movie, but I was also disappointed.  It seemed very rushed, even though it's not even that long of a book.  Also, if you wanna see J. Lawrence engaging in strenuous physical activity she looks hotter doing it in "Silver Linings Playbook" 

[naum]

I, for one, enjoyed the movie far more than the book. The writing style (yes, I realize the intended audience is young adult) way too sophomoric and riddled with numerous plot absurdities.

[Rasix]

I thought it was a fair adaption of the book.  Both were good, IMO, for what they are.  

I'm interested in how the next two movies turn out, because the books were fucking dreadful.  Book 3 was about as fun as colonoscopy prep.