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The Hunger Games (Dir. Gary Ross) |OT| May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

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Can you further explain without spoilering?

Amazon reviews for the 3rd book are disappointing.
Can I read the 2nd book and just ignore the 3rd? Or will the 2nd end with a huge spoiler?

You mean "end with a cliffhanger"? Yes, it obviously does.
 
Can you further explain without spoilering?

Amazon reviews for the 3rd book are disappointing.
Can I read the 2nd book and just ignore the 3rd? Or will the 2nd end with a huge spoiler?

I didn't mind the third book, it was certainly the worst of the bunch though. If you want more after the second and like closure then yes you should read it.

There's lots of additional violent scenes in the third book that are integral to the story itself, it will be hard to avoid showing them without making significant changes to the story itself.
 
Can you further explain without spoilering?

Amazon reviews for the 3rd book are disappointing.
Can I read the 2nd book and just ignore the 3rd? Or will the 2nd end with a huge spoiler?
The 2nd book ends with a cliffhanger.

The 3rd book is poorly narrated (Collins doesn't bother going into details for many things), and a lot of people didn't like the ending. I'm guessing audiences were expecting the standard YA resolution where everything goes as planned, but Mockingjay was actually quite bleak.

And there's a lot of gore.
 
Urg, the theater I work at is going to give the Hunger Games half of our screens for the weekend! HALF

I can't remember any other film we've given this many screens too. No even the Dark knight had this many.

I have a bad feeling this is going to bit us in the ass since while it'll be busy like Twilight I don't see it being busy enough to warrant so many screens.

It's odd since even big stuff like Transformers usually only gets two screens. 3 tops if it's a 3d movie and they want a 2d option.
 
The third book, like the previous two, has a lot of cool stuff and much to appreciate.

The problem lies with Collins' unbelievably lazy writing.
 
I'm so excited for this now. While I was hoping for a nice popcorn movie, I certainly didn't think it'd be this well-accepted by the critics.
 
Seeing an advanced screening tomorrow with the mrs. Been hearing good things and the books had some pretty interesting concepts; I'm looking forward to it.
 
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hunger-games-jennifer-lawrence-ticket-sales-lionsgate-302978

'Hunger Games' Mania: Massive $15 Mil-Plus in Advance Ticket Sales

Also on Wednesday, Hunger Games cracked Fandango's all-time top five of presellers, an elite roster made up of the final two Harry Potter films and the past three Twilight pics. Hunger Games rose to No. 4, overtaking The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, respectively.

By Thursday morning, Hunger Games is expected to leap ahead of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 in terms of advance ticket sales to claim the No. 3 spot.
I'm beginning to think $150m is a possibility this weekend. These numbers are unbelievable.
 
Saw it today. It starts out shaky, but 40 minute in it seems they finally figure out what a tripod is for. It also seems as though it's set in a universe where landscape picture orientation never existed.
 
Saw it today. It starts out shaky, but 40 minute in it seems they finally figure out what a tripod is for. It also seems as though it's set in a universe where landscape picture orientation never existed.

I agree. The cinematography is too jittery for my tastes.

Still, I enjoyed it.
 
Hot garbage. I don't know how many of my narrative complaints I can level at the film, since it might be entirely faithful to awful source material. Every character in this movie deserved to die for being so goddamn stupid. The sentimental beats are cloying and shallow to the point where you just wish they would find Dutch's encampment in the jungle so he could put them out of their misery. The production design was AWFUL. It looked like a high budget television show. I was expecting to see the LOST submarine show up at one point.

The fact that this is about to do gangbusters while John Carter dies with a whimper makes me a sad panda.

5/10
 
I'd love Collins to write a spin-off book telling the events of one of the remaining 72 Games we don't know about next. That'd be cool.

OH SHIT SON! Best young female actress confirmed? :P

She's undoubtedly the best one out of those listed by far.
 
I was surprised how the movie was getting through pretty much unscathed by critics and the public alike. Then Sculli ran out into the street, clutching a baseball bat.

That's a weird metaphor, but nothing better springs to mind.
 
I read the sample portion of this book on my Kindle last week and the writing is kind of bad. To be expected from young adult stuff, I guess, but I had high hopes after all I had heard. Oh well, it's movies only for me then.
 
Can you further explain without spoilering?

Amazon reviews for the 3rd book are disappointing.
Can I read the 2nd book and just ignore the 3rd? Or will the 2nd end with a huge spoiler?
Just due to the
level of gore
. I think it's possible to show most of the violence in the first book for PG-13 purposes.
Things get a bit more gruesome in Mockingjay
.

Book 3 also has the least amount of games & Capitol indulgence. Plus there is little in regards to other Districts for reasons I'll leave unspoiled
. It's a completely different book than the other two so I get the lower rating overall. However, I like it because of it's differences.

Hopefully I didn't spoil too much. I would not not stop after reading the second book. It's very much a middle of the trilogy Han Solo frozen in Carbonite, "Luke I am your father!" kind of book where you have to go to the next one and endure it if it's not your style.
 
I was surprised how the movie was getting through pretty much unscathed by critics and the public alike. Then Sculli ran out into the street, clutching a baseball bat.

That's a weird metaphor, but nothing better springs to mind.

Yeah but he likes Avatar.
 
I'm yet to see anything to convince me this isn't just tepidly filmed teen fiction with a premise that doesn't really deserve to be played as straight as it is.
 
The Lovely Bones is leagues ahead of The Hunger Games.

The Lovely Bones was absolute dogshit. I haven't read the book (the movie killed any interest I had in the book), but I sincerely doubt that The Hunger Games film is going to be worse than The Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Bones was a Lisa Frank masturbatory nightmare. Ugh. It was horrible.
 
The Lovely Bones was absolute dogshit. I haven't read the book (the movie killed any interest I had in the book), but I sincerely doubt that The Hunger Games film is going to be worse than The Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Bones was a Lisa Frank masturbatory nightmare. Ugh. It was horrible.

The Lovely Bones had a lot of flaws, yet I still dig what it does right.
 
Thank you GAF for reminding me I am not crazy for having a sense of skepticism.

My immediate reaction when first hearing about this was "Running Man, hello?" - which I'm sure most other people thought. Rotten tomatoes is giving it great reviews, but when I saw the tween cast, my bullshit detector went off.
 
Just got back. Really good. I would have like the violence to be a little bit more amped up - it was a PG13 movie about people killing people? If they had an unrated cut; it would have been perfect.

7.5/10

if it had more visceral violence

9/10

Hot garbage. I don't know how many of my narrative complaints I can level at the film, since it might be entirely faithful to awful source material. Every character in this movie deserved to die for being so goddamn stupid. The sentimental beats are cloying and shallow to the point where you just wish they would find Dutch's encampment in the jungle so he could put them out of their misery. The production design was AWFUL. It looked like a high budget television show. I was expecting to see the LOST submarine show up at one point.

The fact that this is about to do gangbusters while John Carter dies with a whimper makes me a sad panda.

5/10


completely disagree. It hooked me til they got into the games proper and the lack of violence diminished its impact a lot. but what can you do. The emotional current in it was great though.


and I didn't read the book so I couldn't anticipate how it ended - loved it
 
Every character in this movie deserved to die for being so goddamn stupid.

The fact that this is about to do gangbusters while John Carter dies with a whimper makes me a sad panda.

Really? That is the LAST thing I would give as a complaint to this movie. Their smarts are what surprised me most, at least for the main characters. Also, was surprised how much emotion was conveyed in the film. John Carter, on the other hand, was full of characters that were as dumb as rocks and the direction was tone-deaf to any sort of emotion. This movie wasn't amazing, but I don't even see how it comes close.
 
I saw both JC+HGs and the 2 central leads in this are better than everyone in the high fantasy JC. She was extremely effective in here role.
 
Hot garbage. I don't know how many of my narrative complaints I can level at the film, since it might be entirely faithful to awful source material. Every character in this movie deserved to die for being so goddamn stupid. The sentimental beats are cloying and shallow to the point where you just wish they would find Dutch's encampment in the jungle so he could put them out of their misery. The production design was AWFUL. It looked like a high budget television show. I was expecting to see the LOST submarine show up at one point.

The fact that this is about to do gangbusters while John Carter dies with a whimper makes me a sad panda.

5/10

Why did I have to get married and get forced into waiting in line for 4 hours with a bunch of teen fanatics to see this at midnight tonight
 
Really? That is the LAST thing I would give as a complaint to this movie. Their smarts are what surprised me most, at least for the main characters. Can you give any examples?

I would be happy to.

It is emphasized early into the game how careful you have to be about giving away your position. So whilst I understand that they wanted to milk the little girls death for all it was worth, Katniss was literally sitting at a trap sight, singing a song out loud while she dies where the others tracking her are likely to look. After that, she even goes to the trouble of performing a ritual funeral for the little girl.

Are you kidding me with this shit? Get the fuck out of there ASAP.

Then you have the really boneheaded shit. She notices that the kill squad have been hanging out around a goddamn mine field. If that in itself isn't stupid enough on their part, she doesn't take advantage of this by waiting for those dumbshits to come back and blowing them all sky high. Oh, but I got their food!

Hey, how about when your prey in these fight to the death games is sitting in the tree above you, you don't all decide to go to sleep? Ever heard of a lookout? Maybe when she knocks off to bed, maybe that might be a good time to take a shot at her with that bow and arrow she was previously dodging. Hell, she probably could have just climbed down and cut their throats or just left.

Her stupid boyfriend couldn't see that he was obviously going to be dog meat? Why not help Katnip (lulz) from the beginning?
 
Do you know what would happen if you put two teenage girls in a ring and told them to fight to the death or they'd both die? Absolutely nothing, that's what. They'd sit there and cry till someone came and killed them both, at which point the evil overlords would realise this game probably isn't going to work and they best think of something a bit more exciting.

I reckon this film is going to be terribly emotionally overwrought and utterly implausible. The only way you could do something like this would be as satire or as over the top ultra pulpy fiction. But playing it completely straight it will come off as what it is, poorly thought out science fiction aimed at angsty teenagers.
 
I've been holding off on reading the books because I got the impression it was the new twilight, something mediocre/bad that's geared towards teens and so on, but I've been hearing the books are good so should I get into them?

I was also a bit miffed that it seems to copy Battle Royale (which I loved, both the film and book), but I've heard it's different and isn't a copy. What's the consensus on this?
 
Do you know what would happen if you put two teenage girls in a ring and told them to fight to the death or they'd both die? Absolutely nothing, that's what. They'd sit there and cry till someone came and killed them both, at which point the evil overlords would realise this game probably isn't going to work and they best think of something a bit more exciting.

I reckon this film is going to be terribly emotionally overwrought and utterly implausible. The only way you could do something like this would be as satire or as over the top ultra pulpy fiction. But playing it completely straight it will come off as what it is, poorly thought out science fiction aimed at angsty teenagers.
That's a bingo. You can save your $15
 
saw it about 5 hours ago ... not bad.

i mean it's not the running man, or predator ... but the chick was hot ..


full theater, mostly teens, but they where pretty into it ... gasping at the odd neck snap etc..

i'd go see a sequel
 
For those that have already seen it how are the
Cornupia, tracker jacker and the muttations
scenes done? From what I remember from the books (read them a couple of months ago and it's pretty forgettable) those were the goriest scenes and I can't really imagine how they would depict them for a PG13 audience.
 
Hot garbage. I don't know how many of my narrative complaints I can level at the film, since it might be entirely faithful to awful source material. Every character in this movie deserved to die for being so goddamn stupid. The sentimental beats are cloying and shallow to the point where you just wish they would find Dutch's encampment in the jungle so he could put them out of their misery. The production design was AWFUL. It looked like a high budget television show. I was expecting to see the LOST submarine show up at one point.

The fact that this is about to do gangbusters while John Carter dies with a whimper makes me a sad panda.

5/10

I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. It definately felt like a tv shows special effects throughout. The emotion I just did not connect with at all and the fight scenes felt like they were filmed by a man having an epileptic fit. I lost connection with what was happening on screen while fight scenes occured.

Terrible!
 
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