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

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Saw it last night it was pretty good. It's a fun time and to it's credit it doesn't feel like it's three hours long. I can understand why alot of people are disappointed in this thread, it's not an action movie on the level of Schwarzenegger or anything, it's a simple story of survival. It might be better to think of this as Castaway with violence and explosions. If you go in to it with that mindset I think you'll have a good time.

Also I didn't mind the shaky came thing. I think a lot of people are blowing this aspect out of proportions there's a couple scenes that use the camera shaking to emphasize points but more or less the majority of film uses standard camera techniques.
 
Saw it last night it was pretty good. It's a fun time and to it's credit it doesn't feel like it's three hours long. I can understand why alot of people are disappointed in this thread, it's not an action movie on the level of Schwarzenegger or anything, it's a simple story of survival. It might be better to think of this as Castaway with violence and explosions. If you go in to it with that mindset I think you'll have a good time.

I wasn't going in expecting The Expendables 2, nor was I expecting Battle Royal. I was going in expecting - as many critics had promised - a teen drama that doesn't pander or compromise. On that basis, I was disappointed. It's very much a by-the-numbers teen movie, complete with dull and convoluted characters. Interesting questions could have been asked, but weren't.

As for it not feeling like it's "three hours long", I'll echo what others have said in this thread and say that it draaagged. I'll applaud it for wrapping it up as quickly as it did though - I was expecting some serious Return of the King syndrome. They'll save that for the third film, I suppose.

Also I didn't mind the shaky came thing. I think a lot of people are blowing this aspect out of proportions there's a couple scenes that use the camera shaking to emphasize points but more or less the majority of film uses standard camera techniques.

Well, no. Only a doofus really uses shaky cam outside of action, which this movie doesn't have much of. Unfortunately, its use in the action scenes was gratuitous to say the least.
 
The books aren't that great and would probably hold up better as a movie. Just go see the movie. Maybe come back to the books after you've seen them all and you want to know how truly empty all the characters are on the inside, especially Katniss.
 
Well, no. Only a doofus really uses shaky cam outside of action, which this movie doesn't have much of. Unfortunately, its use in the action scenes was gratuitous to say the least.

I guess you're right, but still the way some people are talking about you'd think the second coming of the Blair Witch Project. I will say that this movie does suffer from "Transformer syndrome" where during some points you can not distinguish between who is who .
 
I guess you're right, but still the way some people are talking about you'd think the second coming of the Blair Witch Project. I will say that this movie does suffer from "Transformer syndrome" where during some points you can not distinguish between who is who .

The
beginning of the games
and the
final fight
are particularly bad with this, to the point that I was wondering if it was being done on purpose, and, if so, why.
 
Going to see this tomorrow evening. Haven't read the books, but from what little I know, I think I'll enjoy it. In the least, it'll probably be a fun film.
 
Regarding the camera work (spoilers for the entire movie):

I think it makes a lot of sense at the beginning. It's 24 kids trying to kill each other, one would think that the beginning (all starting at the same point, trying to grab a bag) would be confusing and the shots really deliver that feeling of chaos. It works even better since up to that point the movie seemed rather tame (in its shots/camera work), so I'd say it's a deliberate break. Fun time's over, time to die.

Not sure why they had the final fight look like that though.

Not nearly as annoying as with Batman Begins though.

I thought it worked more often than not I also agree that in that instance the camerawork was effective. My favorites instances of it though were the
Fire
scene and the
Tracker Jacker
scene. Speaking of the latter, the scene where
The kid is engulfed in Tracker Jackers
is pure nightmare fuel.
 
I quite liked the movie but the lasting taste it left me with was that of a movie that could have and probably should have been so much more. I felt that the concept was so ripe with potential but unfortunately it kept things mostly superficial and never really delved too much into social commentary aside from in some very basic ways. But I think my biggest problem was that the emotional core of the film really didn't work. The beats were all laid out, but they didn't have the gut punch effect on me they were intended to, so I felt a bit detached from it. Throw in the awful use of shakey cam and those are the three pillars of my disappointment.

However, I did still like the movie. After Winter's Bone and now The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence is without a doubt completely legit and at the very top of the class of her generation of actors. In fact, I think the movie wouldn't have worked have as well had a lesser actress played Katniss. Lawrence really brought a lot more to the role than I bet was on paper. For a two and a half hour film, I thought it was nicely paced and felt pretty brisk, and I really liked a lot of the secondary characters. I enjoyed James Newton Howard's work too.

In the end, this is more frustrating experience for me than a total stinker is, because I got a 6/10 type movie that I liked when I know there is a 9/10 movie I would love buried deep in there.
 
I think the best way I can describe the story is cowardly. It is too scared to explore the harder or more complex themes that are right there, ripe for the picking and instead puts all of its focus on the superficial, immature elements of the story. Clunky character chemistry and dialogue all around, with borderline retarded decisions made by these characters at every turn. It was quite frustrating to watch.
 
Oh, and as if we didn't know already, this movie is going to be HUGE. My 10 screen multiplex is showing it on HALF the screens, all 8-10 of tonight's showings are sold out, and I left work early and caught a 2:10pm MATINEE and that ended up being sold out, even with kids at school and most people at work.

$160M doesn't sound so crazy.
 
So this does not live up to the book? Never read any of the books but I figure I could polish it off fairly quickly if it's any good.
 
I will say that the best scene in the movie, and the one that did truly get to me on an emotional level, was
Rue's death/Katniss' song/riot in District 11
. It was a powerful scene that I wish the rest of the movie lived up to.
 
I will say that the best scene in the movie, and the one that did truly get to me on an emotional level, was
Rue's death/Katniss' song/riot in District 11
. It was a powerful scene that I wish the rest of the movie lived up to.

Yeah I wasn't expecting that at all, Considering how the rest of the movie was.
 
Can someone give me a non-spoilery general outline of what the second book/movie will be about?

Spoilers for the first movie/book:
The first half is Katniss coping with the fallout from the first Games--the President is NOT happy about the berry trick--and going on a 'victory tour' style thing through the districts with Peeta, witnessing the impact her defiance in the first movie had. The second half deals with the 75th Hunger Games.

I seriously believe it stands a good chance of being the best movie in the trilogy if they do it right.
 
Oh, and as if we didn't know already, this movie is going to be HUGE. My 10 screen multiplex is showing it on HALF the screens, all 8-10 of tonight's showings are sold out, and I left work early and caught a 2:10pm MATINEE and that ended up being sold out, even with kids at school and most people at work.

$160M doesn't sound so crazy.
lol

Pandya in backpedal mode now, "may break 130M".
 
I will say that the best scene in the movie, and the one that did truly get to me on an emotional level, was
Rue's death/Katniss' song/riot in District 11
. It was a powerful scene that I wish the rest of the movie lived up to.
This is the only part of the movie that truly resonated with me. I felt pretty detached from the rest of it.

Oh well. Decent enough movie, but it doesn't make me want to read the books or make me look forward to the movie sequels.

I wish The Raid was playing near me.
 
This movie has an 87% on RT but mostly meh/bad impressions from gaf. Not sure what to believe. I usually go the gaf/regular person route as it tends to be the most honest and unbiased.
 
I was afraid of this. Seems kinda rehash-y.

:/

It's so much worse if you actually know who's involved
in the new games and why, lol. So ridiculously contrived.
I asked my wife, who has read all three books to tell me the remaining plot of book 2 and 3 after we'd watched the movie.
 
Hunger Games has three good things in it: Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks.

I even found myself disappointed with Newton-Howard's score.
 
I just watched the movie and i found it great. Just some minor grips.
It was never explained why the girl from district 11 saved Katmis´s life, or why the dude who loves Katmis was with the enemy
. Anyone who compares the Hunger Games to Twilight needs to be slapped as far as the first movie´s concern.
I can see the love triangle happening in the second movie
. All in all i was very surprised of how good the movie is.
 
It's so much worse if you actually know who's involved
in the new games and why, lol. So ridiculously contrived.
I asked my wife, who has read all three books to tell me the remaining plot of book 2 and 3 after we'd watched the movie.

I don't know if it's that ridiculous given that the implication is that (specific book 2 spoilers)
Katniss is basically in there as a government hit to quell the revolution she started, in a very public manner that all districts could witness.

Also (general book 2 spoiler)
the new arena
is like twenty times better, which should give it a much different feel.
 
I just watched the movie and i found it great. Just some minor grips.
It was never explained why the girl from district 11 saved Katmis´s life, or why the dude who loves Katmis was with the enemy
. Anyone who compares the Hunger Games to Twilight needs to be slapped as far as the first movie´s concern.
I can see the love triangle happening in the second movie
. All in all i was very surprised of how good the movie is.

Peeta felt that his only chance of surviving was teaming up with the careers and then double crossing them when the time came
 
This movie has an 87% on RT but mostly meh/bad impressions from gaf. Not sure what to believe. I usually go the gaf/regular person route as it tends to be the most honest and unbiased.
You know, the 87% isn't a rating, it's the percentage of reviewers that thought it was at least decent.
 
One thing that wasn't really clear, or maybe it was, but I want to believe I missed something and that there was more to it than in the film:

Where do the dogs come from? Do they seriously just materilize these things in an instant? Or were there some secret holding points for these things Gladiator-style that I never saw? I suppose what I'm asking is whether I'm watching a fantasy film or not.
 
I just watched the movie and i found it great. Just some minor grips.
It was never explained why the girl from district 11 saved Katmis´s life, or why the dude who loves Katmis was with the enemy
. Anyone who compares the Hunger Games to Twilight needs to be slapped as far as the first movie´s concern.
I can see the love triangle happening in the second movie
. All in all i was very surprised of how good the movie is.

The dude from District 11 saved Katmis' life because the girl who was attacking Katmis admitted to killing Rue, the little girl from District 11.
 
One thing that wasn't really clear, or maybe it was, but I want to believe I missed something and that there was more to it than in the film:

Where do the dogs come from? Do they seriously just materilize these things in an instant? Or were there some secret holding points for these things Gladiator-style that I never saw? I suppose what I'm asking is whether I'm watching a fantasy film or not.

They looked like CG from a game as well.
 
One thing that wasn't really clear, or maybe it was, but I want to believe I missed something and that there was more to it than in the film:

Where do the dogs come from? Do they seriously just materilize these things in an instant? Or were there some secret holding points for these things Gladiator-style that I never saw? I suppose what I'm asking is whether I'm watching a fantasy film or not.

MAGIC!
 
One thing that wasn't really clear, or maybe it was, but I want to believe I missed something and that there was more to it than in the film:

Where do the dogs come from? Do they seriously just materilize these things in an instant? Or were there some secret holding points for these things Gladiator-style that I never saw? I suppose what I'm asking is whether I'm watching a fantasy film or not.

Lol in the book:
They were all the already dead tributes crossed with evil wolves. They had their human faces and stood on their back dog legs. It sounded retarded then. Glad to hear they sort of changed it now, but with little context. Oh well. Evil dogs. Same as the fire, just a "gamemaker" thing they did.
 
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