Hunger Games

wilsynet · « **on:** 27 Mar 2012, 02:35 pm »

Terrific movie. I was blown away with how much I liked it.

ratso · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 04:41 pm »

i didn't want to see this as i was pretty sure they were going to "pretty it up" for the teen audience. glad to see they kept it faithful to the book. suprising how many parents are letting 10, 11 year olds read these books with NO IDEA what the kids are reading. hint - there is mass murder of children in them.

ptmconsulting · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 04:53 pm »

Death, destruction, mass murder, blood and guts, explosions, guns = no probelm!

Sex, love, nudity = hell no, we won't go!

Funny how our priorities seem a bit screwed up these days.

n0mDePlume · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 08:05 pm »

(New poster, just saw Hunger Games and I admit I'm jumping in here before audio stuff)

I saw it with a large group and reactions were mixed. Everyone who had read the books LOVED it. A friend and I who had not had a hard time getting into it because we found it hard to suspend disbelief.

I thought that the main character was a realistic person, but the other people were mostly contrived so as to put the protagonist into a crazy situation. I kept wondering why people acted as they did.

Biggest example is the Hunger Games themselves. The whole "deathmatch" idea has been done before (Running Man, Mean Guys, Battle Royale, etc.) but it is always portrayed as punishment. The viewing audience doesn't sympathize with the people in the deathmatch, so they have the detachment to watch them being killed. The Hunger Games does the exact opposite, randomly selecting twelve year old blonde girls (Katniss' sister) to be brutally murdered by older, trained killers. The regime even went to great lengths to make people sympathetic to the victims, interviewing them on TV with the girls in pretty dresses. I'm sorry but no brutal regime in their right mind would portray their victims sympathetically, and if they did people would be horrified and they would learn their mistake fast.

I was also disappointed by how the other kids didn't behave like kids in their situation. None of them just broke down and refused to do anything. None of them tried to form alliances before the games, which would have made incredible sense. After all, the district 1/2 types usually win. It is not in the self interest of the other kids to go after anyone but the volunteers, because killing a non-volunteer just means the volunteers will target you faster. After 74 years, there should be extremely well known strategies for who to ally with. And the volunteers shouldn't have allied with each other, because that's literally sleeping with your back to your only real competitors.

None of this stuff bothered the people who'd read the books at all. I've definitely watched unrealistic movies in my time, I think my issue was that Hunger Games is so deeply serious that it kept me thinking about everyone's motivations rather than just munching popcorn. Also noteworthy is that the people who didn't like it had both seen similar movies that deal more extensively with alliances and with people freaking out/tuning out, whereas the others hadn't.

jqp · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 02:59 am »

I have checked out the book from amazon on my Kindle Fire. I saw that I could borrow it for free and wanted read the book before I saw the movie.

The first few chapters are flying by. The premise is that the government holds the hunger games every year to remind the people that they are utterly powerless since all the past revolutions have been crushed, and that these Hunger games are the ongoing punishment for all the people. I would like a little more explanation in the book for how this all came about and could be maintained by force.

If you want a brutal yet believable tale (except for the occaisional dragons and magic), read the A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones). A little Summer wine with your entrails? Better have a little Milk of the Poppy...

sts9fan · « **Reply #5 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 01:50 pm »

The chapters fly by because they are written for children.

geezer · « **Reply #6 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 02:35 pm »

I saw the ads on TV, and was repelled, as I always am with action movies aimed at kids. (Most are more repellent than this one.) I know that I'm way out on the extreme wing of the population distribution on this issue. That correlates with the fact that I'm also out on the extreme wing of the age population distribution.

kbuzz3 · « **Reply #7 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 05:21 pm »

Quote from: jqp on 28 Mar 2012, 02:59 am

A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones). A little Summer wine with your entrails? Better have a little Milk of the Poppy...

Are these as good as their reputation. I recently watched the last few hbo episodes during commutes and was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the later episodes

sts9fan · « **Reply #8 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 06:05 pm »

If you like fantasy then they are must read.

kip_ · « **Reply #9 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 09:34 pm »

Quote from: kbuzz3 on 28 Mar 2012, 05:21 pm

Are these as good as their reputation. I recently watched the last few hbo episodes during commutes and was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the later episodes

The ASOIAF books are very good, but they are not for the faint of heart. They are dark and filled with realistic amounts of sex and violence. The world of Westeros is not a happy place and neither are the books. All of the characters are deep and nuanced, and few if any are wholly good or wholly evil. Everything has shades of gray.

The plots, descriptions, and characters are phenomenal, however.

If you read this series, do not get attached to any character. No one is safe.

kip_ · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 09:38 pm »

Back on topic for this thread. I liked the Hunger Games movie. It was long, but well acted and a fun ride. Great action and special effects. I do wish they had explained what was going on a bit more but then again that would have made it a 3 hour movie instead of a 2.5 hour one. I haven't read the books and since they are for young readers I will probably skip them.

Also, if there are any Lenny Kravitz fans in the house (I'm not one of them) he played Cinna.

JoshK · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 10:22 pm »

I really liked the movie. Yeah, it was partly unbelievable. I couldn't get why the volunteers would volunteer when they know only one of them comes out alive. They aren't the easy prey.

I liked the political undercurrent. I am reading 1984 right now and there are similarities. Just finish Atlas Shrugged, there is even a bit of commonality here too.

orthobiz · « **Reply #12 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 10:50 pm »

I didn't read the books. I just didn't like the movie much at all.

Paul

goldlizsts · « **Reply #13 on:** 29 Mar 2012, 08:40 pm »

Quote from: orthobiz on 28 Mar 2012, 10:50 pm

I didn't read the books. I just didn't like the movie much at all.

Paul

+1. Walking out of the movie, I just thought - "Another $6" kind of wasted. There was pretty much nothing I felt as deserving my $6 (WOW!). Well... I went because I really liked Jennifer Lawrence ever since I saw her Winter's Bone debut, a pretty face with acting assets. But... the story was just hype. Why the record-breaking box office takes? I didn't read the books, so perhaps I am missing the inner wisdom of the books which the screen flick has missed.

sts9fan · « **Reply #14 on:** 29 Mar 2012, 10:38 pm »

It did so well because the 16 year olds that love the books went to see it.

ratso · « **Reply #15 on:** 30 Mar 2012, 12:42 am »

still not seeing as how this series of books (and later the movie) got marketed as such. it is in my mind, the polar opposite of some stupid thing like "twilight" which was basically a teeny love story with some supernatural overtones. this book is basically at it's core a war story. yes there is a triangle love interest and you can even make the point that it is overplayed a little (although after the first book it is toned down a lot) but there are many adult books in the world that have a love triangle in them. have you read the books sts9fan? i don't see how you can possible say that they were written for "children", maybe young adults. i don't see many children's books that have groups of children rounded up and a bomb dropped on them?

Audiovista · « **Reply #16 on:** 30 Mar 2012, 01:37 am »

Quote from: ratso on 27 Mar 2012, 04:41 pm

i didn't want to see this as i was pretty sure they were going to "pretty it up" for the teen audience. glad to see they kept it faithful to the book. suprising how many parents are letting 10, 11 year olds read these books with NO IDEA what the kids are reading. hint - there is mass murder of children in them.

FWIW - the book was a mandatory reading in my daughter's ELA class - 7th grade!

kip_ · « **Reply #17 on:** 30 Mar 2012, 01:52 am »

Quote from: ratso on 30 Mar 2012, 12:42 am

still not seeing as how this series of books (and later the movie) got marketed as such. it is in my mind, the polar opposite of some stupid thing like "twilight" which was basically a teeny love story with some supernatural overtones. this book is basically at it's core a war story. yes there is a triangle love interest and you can even make the point that it is overplayed a little (although after the first book it is toned down a lot) but there are many adult books in the world that have a love triangle in them. have you read the books sts9fan? i don't see how you can possible say that they were written for "children", maybe young adults. i don't see many children's books that have groups of children rounded up and a bomb dropped on them?

Who is the 3rd leg of the love triangle besides Katniss and Peeta? I didn't pick up on this from the movie. I haven't read the book so forgive my ignorance...

jqp · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Mar 2012, 03:08 am »

Quote from: kbuzz3 on 28 Mar 2012, 05:21 pm

Are these as good as their reputation. I recently watched the last few hbo episodes during commutes and was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the later episodes

Quote from: kbuzz3 on 28 Mar 2012, 05:21 pm

Are these as good as their reputation. I recently watched the last few hbo episodes during commutes and was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the later episodes

Yes the "Game of Thrones" books are a good read if you like Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, etc and also JRR Tolkein. In order to not go off topic, here is a new topic for Game of Thrones

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=104992.0

orthobiz · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Mar 2012, 04:02 am »

Quote from: kip_ on 30 Mar 2012, 01:52 am

Who is the 3rd leg of the love triangle besides Katniss and Peeta? I didn't pick up on this from the movie. I haven't read the book so forgive my ignorance...

j

There was a guy she spent time with at home before she went away to the Games.

Paul