What did you think of the Hunger Games movie (SPOILERS)

[Sean Hollyman]

What did you think of it?

I watched it last night, and I didn't really enjoy it much. I found the characters really boring, and I didn't care at all when that Rue kid died.

I haven't read the book so I don't know much, but the other contestants just felt really bland.

 

[Zhukov]

Actually not as bad as I was expecting.

Still decidedly below average though. Maybe it would be more enjoyable for someone who had read the books, but I was entirely unimpressed.

Characters were uninteresting. Writing was mostly bad with a few decent moments. Acting was... ok, I guess (not a good judge). Visually it looked very cheap, like it had been made on a TV budget.

 

[JoJo]

Having read the book before watching the film, the book is definitely a step above the film and a large part of that is because there simply isn't time in the already two and a half hour long film to develop the characters in the same way as the book. What I love about the book is the sense that you're just scraping the surface of a much deeper world, which you get hints about from the little stories the characters tell. The book is also written in first person from Katrin's POV meaning there's far more depth about her relationship with Peeta and other characters. The death of Rue is a lot more meaningful when you've got to know her character better.

 

[Lionsfan]

I was kinda surprised at the opening scene when they entered the arena, it seemed pretty brutal to me for a PG-13 movie.

On the whole, I was meh about it all. The thing that bothered me was with that Blonde kid, the final "boss" if you will. They're trying to paint him as a villain, and I was like "Hold on, they're all trying to kill each other. If he doesn't kill the others, then doesn't his district suffer? How is he the bad guy here? He's just trying to survive, same as Katniss."

 

[IndomitableSam]

It's a mediocre book series and the movie was a passable big-budget popcorn flick. Fun while you read/watch, but you don't hold them to any standard or really think about them afterward.

The movie was better than I'd expected it to be, so we'll see how the next two play out.

Honestly, though, I'd probably have enjoyed the movies much more if I hadn't read the books beforehand.

All my students kept requesting the books a couple years ago, so I ordered them, read them over Christmas break, and then let the kids fight over them, basically. It passed a few hours, but I've read much better dystopian teen novels. Too mad the media hype is all kids see and they wouldn't listen to my recommendations.

Which reminds me, must find the second book to Caragh M O'Brian's Birthmarked series... (And I actually remember the author's name and the book series and it's been a couple years. Was a good book.)

 

[Marter]

As someone enjoyed the book, I also found myself <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.355486-Marter-to-the-Movies-The-Hunger-Games>enjoying the movie quite a lot.

Saw it twice in theaters, actually.

 

[Images]

A film with fantastic production design but poor pacing, clunky dialogue, manipulative characterization, diluted action and a total disregard for non-readers of the book series as to the importance of major plot cues.

In a word, MEH.

 

[Terminate421]

It was a good movie, but the things I really liked at all was Tresh and Woody Harelson. The former because he butts someone with a scyth and the latter because he was fun to watch

The cinematography sucked ass though so I guess I'd put it as a decent movie

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The only real complaint I have about it was the random shaky cam moments at the start that were completely unwarranted. It looks like the cameraman filmed it while out zorbing.

Other than that I thought the characters were good, and the story was well explained. It had many flaws, like the digital nature of the arena never really being shown until about halfway through the competition, the pacing really starting to suffer when you realised you'd been watching for about an hour and the games hadn't even begun, and the weird shift of the final guy being displayed as some sort of tragic villain as the emotional toll of being set aside by his community to spend his life training to kill other children finally got to him when Katniss and Egbert (ok, I've totally forgotten the name of the other guy. Egbert will do.) became more popular and the competition was changed mid game to suit them, and then being abruptly shot off the side of the building while crying like a baby made the situation unintentionally funny.

But those are small nitpicks, and overall it was a well told solid story and immersive experience, I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Drew Kennedy]

The books where surprisingly fantastic. having read the then seen the movie though, the movie is actually worse now.

 

[Kae]

I didn't like it, I felt like they didn't go into the interesting parts of the issue, they decided to go good and evil when they should have gone ambiguous, doesn't help that they used shaky cam, yeah I think it was pretty crap, and a complete waste of potential.

 

[Sougo]

It was boring. Really really boring.
I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, and nothing ever did.
I don't think the acting was bad, its just that the script was bland.

 

[sage42]

I thought it was decidedly average. It wasn't bad per say, but it wasn't great either. I had fun in those few hours, and that's all that matters.

 

[Ascarus]

i thought it was a decent adaption of the book. it lacked emotional impact but then again the book didn't carry much weight in that department anyway.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

They cut a lot out of the book, so the whole thing feels kind of "bare bones"
They really didn't go into detail with any of the side characters like Cina or the tributes from other districts.

That being said, I'm happy they didn't just say "Forget the book"
and completely change major plot elements and characters.
[sub][sub]I'm looking at you Percy Jackson.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Shaved Apple]

It was okay but not nearly as good as what I heard from a lot of people.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I watched it for the first time today and it's a very unimaginative movie and i couldn't go 5 minutes without screaming cat piss, katpiss in my head the entire time.


the only thing that grabbed my attention was the fashion, the poor were very uniform but the upper ends had so much going on style wise that no observable pattern, style or theme appeared nothing seemed to match what anyone else was wearing despite in our reality the rich tend to have very uniform notions to denote class i.e the black tie event/evening wear kind of thing, not to mention that clothes are often mass produced (causing repetition or at least variations on a set template) which clearly can't be the case in this world.

I think the goal of that was to represent their personal freedom.


What didn't make any sense was the idea of groups of the 12 district citizen to be enforced watching in mass groups standing up, as opposed to TV sets in their homes, I mean the hunger games must be a 24 hour show that could last days, wouldn't this harm the productivity of the poor the rich relied upon, are they required to stand up all day for days on end possibly as it could takes days for the last few survivors to run into each other.

 

[sinsfire]

Movie Bob did a pretty solid review touching on the cinematography issues, also the naming issues discussed above.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/5516-The-Hunger-Games

The books are interesting. There is a solid story arc and an intent. I think overall the intended commentary falls flat around the middle of the third book and while predictable there are some unnecessary plot twists that seem to cement the overall feelings of hopelessness inherent in the world created.

Captcha: Bath Towel - I air dry.

 

[Varun Garuda Maharaj]

All i saw was a futuristic roman empire, with people who dress strangely and the only thing i really liked was the mocking jay birdcall

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I thought it gave me motion sickness.

And I was watching it on a plane. Which was "encountering some turbulence".

The person using the bathroom after me was in for a bit of a shock.