The Hunger Games, Am I missing something?

[Psychobabble]

No you aren't missing anything. Much like other tween sensations it's just a series of ideas distilled down to their most basic elements giving you a plot a down syndrome chimpanzee could follow. It's easy for people to identify with the protagonists because they are so simplistic they could be anybody.

Spoiler

 

[BNguyen]

I think they're so popular because Katniss is IMO a really great character. She goes against the typical Hollywood female and instead strong, independent and a fighter. The love story is also what Twilight tried and failed to be which makes it even more interesting.

How is a young, sexy, intelligent woman with a bow any different than all the other young, sexy, intelligent women with bows in every other movie?

Intelligent? When a little girl knows about survival better than she does and saves her ass with a hornet's nest?
Katniss was completely lifeless in the movie, every character around her was practically saying "emote in such a way that it serves as a reaction to what I'm saying or doing and not how you might actually feel given the situation" kind of way. I'm sorry but the only time she seemed to make a decision for herself was when she decided to take the place of her sister in the games, after that, practically nothing at all.

And once again, uses the bow like 3 times in the whole movie, not exactly a selling point for her when she doesn't use it to kill even one person, not directly anyways.

 

[shootthebandit]

I think they're so popular because Katniss is IMO a really great character. She goes against the typical Hollywood female and instead strong, independent and a fighter. The love story is also what Twilight tried and failed to be which makes it even more interesting.

How is a young, sexy, intelligent woman with a bow any different than all the other young, sexy, intelligent women with bows in every other movie?

Intelligent? When a little girl knows about survival better than she does and saves her ass with a hornet's nest?
Katniss was completely lifeless in the movie, every character around her was practically saying "emote in such a way that it serves as a reaction to what I'm saying or doing and not how you might actually feel given the situation" kind of way. I'm sorry but the only time she seemed to make a decision for herself was when she decided to take the place of her sister in the games, after that, practically nothing at all.

And once again, uses the bow like 3 times in the whole movie, not exactly a selling point for her when she doesn't use it to kill even one person, not directly anyways.

I agree. Intelligence, skill and strength etc have nothing to do with winning the games. The victor is already decided and the games masters change the rules to in order to determine the winner. The whole thing is orchestrated and some people here are trying to say its anti-conformist and makes fun of celeb culture. Well it doesnt really, catniss conforms with the games. More proof for her conformity is the fact that (as pretty much everyone stated) the love triangle is forced in order for her to conform and become a "celebrity" which granted she is relucant to do but she soon embraces it once she gets sponsors and inevitably succeeds at the games. Ideally she shouldve said "fuck your games", "fuck your sponsors" and "fuck your facist orwellian system" and refuse to compete. Your probably going to die in the arena anyway who gives a fuck if the government kill you at least then youve died exposing their game rather than dying inside the game which is exactly what they want you to do. Granted my way wouldnt make a good movie but letting the protagonist take part in the games and basically bow down to societies demands (apart from the scene where she volunteered over her sister) is hardly anti'
-conformist. Catniss is hardly innocent her actions in the games have killed people, granted the ones she killed were portrayed as pretty damn nasty but was that just out of a need to survive or the fact that they dont know any better (considering some of them have been raised to compete)

 

[Silvanus]

It's a relatively simple plot, and relatively simply written, because it's written for teenagers/ young adults. It's straightforward, but it never really pretended to be anything else, and I ended up enjoying the books.


I could've done with a little less happening off-screen in the movie, though.

 

[00slash00]

The only thing your missing is the fact that not everyone loves the same things. Threads like these, whether they're about tv, book, movies, or games are always constructed in an, "I am super understanding and simply want to appreciate this thing better." But that's not the purpose behind the post. People don't eat something they don't like and then think, "Well maybe I just don't know enough about this food. I better ask fans of it so I can better appreciate my meal." These threads exist either because the op feels the need to announce to everyone that he or she is different, or because something they don't like is popular and they want to yell at everyone who likes it. Just stop it. Different stroke for different folks. You aren't missing anything, you aren't the only one who dislikes it, your opinion just differs from the mainstream opinion

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Yeah, you aren't missing much. A lot of people have an issue with much of Collin's books. Most people complain about the characters and their relationships constantly taking the spotlight, and yeah, that's my problem with it too, it's not that good either.

The second movie was much better than the first though. I still love the zany, colorful fashion sense of the richer Districts. Too bad it's pushed out of focus for more running around in forests and teenage romance.

 

[Dansen]

I think they're so popular because Katniss is IMO a really great character. She goes against the typical Hollywood female and instead strong, independent and a fighter. The love story is also what Twilight tried and failed to be which makes it even more interesting.

How is a young, sexy, intelligent woman with a bow any different than all the other young, sexy, intelligent women with bows in every other movie?

She different from all the millions of women who use their body to get what they want and play the damsel in distress like 90% of Hollywood's women.

Um, what are you talking about? Have you seen the movies or read the books. She uses her feminimity constantly to play up the fake romance that she has with Peta.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, what you're missing is that it's Battle Royale, and...that's about it.

 

[Astoria]

I think they're so popular because Katniss is IMO a really great character. She goes against the typical Hollywood female and instead strong, independent and a fighter. The love story is also what Twilight tried and failed to be which makes it even more interesting.

How is a young, sexy, intelligent woman with a bow any different than all the other young, sexy, intelligent women with bows in every other movie?

She different from all the millions of women who use their body to get what they want and play the damsel in distress like 90% of Hollywood's women.

Um, what are you talking about? Have you seen the movies or read the books. She uses her feminimity constantly to play up the fake romance that she has with Peta.

I've done both. She only plays up the romance because it means the difference between life and death and she constantly mentions how guilty she feels about it.

 

[BNguyen]

Yeah, you aren't missing much. A lot of people have an issue with much of Collin's books. Most people complain about the characters and their relationships constantly taking the spotlight, and yeah, that's my problem with it too, it's not that good either.

The second movie was much better than the first though. I still love the zany, colorful fashion sense of the richer Districts. Too bad it's pushed out of focus for more running around in forests and teenage romance.

based on what I saw from MovieBob's review (at least the clips) it looked like essentially the same movie as the first. Still feels cheap, as in, yeah we got back a bigger chunk of change than what we spent to make the first but we're going to use essentially the same props and sets, and point for point story as the first and give it a new name and people will be suckered into seeing it and later buying it.