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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 today - great movie. I would still recommend the books though, cause as someone who is new to the series, I would´ve found it hard to fully understand the actions and feelings of katniss.
On the other hand, my brother never read the books and enjoyed it nonetheless.

I hope the second and third movie will follow soon.
 
Saw this yesterday -- the first half was ok, but what the hell happened during the latter part of the film? Too abrupt and nonsensical post the
announcement that two from the same district can be crowned
. Glad I didn't read the books.

Yeah, the whole the-rules-are-arbitrary-and-can-be-changed-whenever-they-feel-like-it-herp-a-derp stuff was dumb. Like, in the movie, it was like 10 whole minutes between
"New rule! e have decided that there can be 2 winners if they come from the same district!"
and
"Remember that previous rule? We lied, lolz! Kill that motherdfucker!"
.

:lol

EDIT: really looking forward to seeing the studio estimates in another 5-6 hours. The box office thread gonna be fun!
 
Yeah, the whole the-rules-are-arbitrary-and-can-be-changed-whenever-they-feel-like-it-herp-a-derp stuff was dumb. Like, in the movie, it was like 10 whole minutes between
"New rule! e have decided that there can be 2 winners if they come from the same district!"
and
"Remember that previous rule? We lied, lolz! Kill that motherdfucker!"
.

:lol

EDIT: really looking forward to seeing the studio estimates in another 5-6 hours. The box office thread gonna be fun!

I felt it went along nicely with the psychology involved in blood sport. It gave 1.
Katniss a reason to seek Peeta out
and 2.
Showed how fixed the games were from the start and that it was all about the body count more than anything else
.
 
$155,000,000 estimated opening weekend. 3rd largest opening weekend of all-time and largest non sequel opening weekend.

In 3 days the film is already the highest grossing title that Lionsgate has ever distributed. It has been pretty clear that the Hunger Games was going to open north of 100M for a few weeks now, but $155M is crazy. Now lets see what type of legs the film has.
 
In 3 days the film is already the highest grossing title that Lionsgate has ever distributed. It has been pretty clear that the Hunger Games was going to open north of 100M for a few weeks now, but $155M is crazy. Now lets see what type of legs the film has.

I had it over $100M but thought more along the lines of $125M which still would have been great.
 
I felt it went along nicely with the psychology involved in blood sport. It gave 1.
Katniss a reason to seek Peeta out
and 2.
Showed how fixed the games were from the start and that it was all about the body count more than anything else
.

Agreed whole-heartedly.
 
I finished the book in time to watch the movie monday.

It's really kind of a downer, then the games start and it picks up, then meh then picks up a bit more then just....

I guess there was enough to keep me reading to the end, but there was a lot I just didn't care about. I guess overall I didn't like it?

I don't know, I'm not as hyped to see it now.
 
I finished the book in time to watch the movie monday.

It's really kind of a downer, then the games start and it picks up, then meh then picks up a bit more then just....

I guess there was enough to keep me reading to the end, but there was a lot I just didn't care about. I guess overall I didn't like it?

I don't know, I'm not as hyped to see it now.

I think the movie expedites a lot of the fluff leading up to the Hunger Games themselves, so you may like it more G-Fex. I thought the book was good(say 7 out of 10), and I thought the movie was good(7/10), but in some different ways.
 
I think the movie expedites a lot of the fluff leading up to the Hunger Games themselves, so you may like it more G-Fex. I thought the book was good(say 7 out of 10), and I thought the movie was good(7/10), but in some different ways.

You're probably right.

I hope the movie skips like 30 days of Katniss doing the same old wake up/re-arrange backpack/hunt/eat/sleep
 
You're probably right.

I hope the movie skips like 30 days of Katniss doing the same old wake up/re-arrange backpack/hunt/eat/sleep

It does.

While they do stress wilderness survival as important skills, once the games start, they completely gloss over it.
 
Damn, are the books that good? The trailer makes this movie look god awful.

Well when you take the built-in box office power of a Twilight (since pre-teen girls don't get much in the way of blockbusters, comparatively) and combine it with a movie that appeals to people outside of the preteen segment you get insane numbers.

I haven't actually paid attention to Twilight threads on GAF (if they've existed) but I'm guessing the split reaction in this thread is still far more favorable than the reaction to any of the Twilights. Dat crossover appeal, and all. It will be interesting to see if that helps its numbers hold up at all--if we get the non-teen-girl crowd seeing it out of curiosity after the initial wave of Team Peeta/Team Gale fans are finished.
 
Saw it last night and came away disappointed. While the casting and art direction was good, the content was incredibly sparse. I'd be curious to know just how many lines were spoken in the movie, because there didn't seem to be much dialogue. With what they had even a voiceover would have helped flesh out the story. They probably stuck a little too close to the sourse material and as a result no aspect of the film was afforded any kind of depth or development.
 
I wonder how much the last book plays into my enjoyment of the movie. I only say that because the third book left such a distatsteful impression for me that it even retroactively effected how I felt about the other books. I haven't read the first 2 in years so the movie surprised me how much better it was than I expected. Also I don't remember being emotionally moved by any part of the book but Rue and they nailed that and District 11s reaction.
 
Just watched this,

Somewhat reminded my of Steve Austin's The Condemned.

Just a quick question though,

What's the reasoning behind these Hunger Games ? I mean they just pick random people and make them fight to the death just for fun?
 
Just watched this,

Somewhat reminded my of Steve Austin's The Condemned.

Just a quick question though,

What's the reasoning behind these Hunger Games ? I mean they just pick random people and make them fight to the death just for fun?

It's a example and punishment for the districts rebelling against the evil Capitol from years ago, it's to remind them that they still own them and to discourage them
 
What's the reasoning behind these Hunger Games ? I mean they just pick random people and make them fight to the death just for fun?

Basically the Capitol being dicks to keep the common man down. Back in the day, the districts tried to overthrow the Capitol. They failed. The Capitol doubled-down on totalitarianism and invented the Hunger Games as an annual punishment/reminder of the failed rebellion. "You raised up against us, you failed, now we'll use your children for our own entertainment." It's flaunting their total control on the Capitol's part, and a basic warning that failed rebellions have far-reaching consequences.

For the people in the Capitol, it's basically Survivor. None of their kids ever have to play, just the inferior kids from the rural locations, so bloodsport yay.
 
I don't even know if this is worth a spoiler tag, but it concerns a particular event in the book that didn't make it to the film.

I'm surprised I haven't heard comments
regarding the Mockingjay pin rewrite. If Madge is not part of the film's storytelling then it seems they're basically removing Katniss' one connection to the upper class and her "Man the Capitol sucks but I guess not all of them are bad, maybe, I guess..." conflict. I'm still on the fence about how the film approached it.
 
I don't even know if this is worth a spoiler tag, but it concerns a particular event in the book that didn't make it to the film.

I'm surprised I haven't heard comments
regarding the Mockingjay pin rewrite. If Madge is not part of the film's storytelling then it seems they're basically removing Katniss' one connection to the upper class and her "Man the Capitol sucks but I guess not all of them are bad, maybe, I guess..." conflict. I'm still on the fence about how the film approached it.

The discussion over this started and ended during the first trailer reveal. BOOK 3 SPOILERS
Honestly, I think it was a good move. As I've stated before, putting Madge in the films would mean wasting precious minutes of character development with someone who dies off-screen in Mockingjay and isn't even properly acknowledged by the protagonist then.

And Ross won't show "secondary" Katniss's internal conflicts like that one. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that considering how the first adaptation went.
 
Very true. I will agree that the film did it as well as it needed to. I probably just had one of those "Oh man it's not like in the book!" reactionary moments.

Goddamn Catching Fire can't get here soon enough though.
 
The discussion over this started and ended during the first trailer reveal. BOOK 3 SPOILERS
Honestly, I think it was a good move. As I've stated before, putting Madge in the films would mean wasting precious minutes of character development with someone who dies off-screen in Mockingjay and isn't even properly acknowledged by the protagonist then.

And Ross won't show "secondary" Katniss's internal conflicts like that one. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that considering how the first adaptation went.
Yeah it was a smart decision.
 
Regarding District 11:
I haven't read the books in a while, but I was under the impression that they didn't show the uprising in 11 until the beginning of Catching Fire, right before Katniss' meeting with President Snow. I was actually pretty surprised that outright showed it right after Rue's death. I was also surprised that they portrayed the Capitol's riot suppression as hosing instead of carpet-bombing.
 
Regarding District 11:
I haven't read the books in a while, but I was under the impression that they didn't show the uprising in 11 until the beginning of Catching Fire, right before Katniss' meeting with President Snow. I was actually pretty surprised that outright showed it right after Rue's death. I was also surprised that they portrayed the Capitol's riot suppression as hosing instead of carpet-bombing.

I like that we were able to get glimpses outside the arena during the Games. I really think the books could have benefited from multiple points of view.
 
It opened in 69 markets. Im guessing the book has only attained fame in North America.

Not the case. It's just that the marketing was pretty lacking in countries like Brazil or France. Actually, here, the books were nearly impossible to find in book stores until two weeks ago. But there's definitely a pretty dedicated fanbase already.

It's going to be just like Twilight: people are going to start hearing about the success of the film in the US and it's going to get great legs internationally. And then Catching Fire's probably gonna be huge internationally right off the bat.
 
Is that a book 2 or 3 spoiler? If so please mark it :|

The
uprising
is shown in the film, but not in the first book. You only get to know about it in the second book.

Regarding District 11:
I haven't read the books in a while, but I was under the impression that they didn't show the uprising in 11 until the beginning of Catching Fire, right before Katniss' meeting with President Snow. I was actually pretty surprised that outright showed it right after Rue's death. I was also surprised that they portrayed the Capitol's riot suppression as hosing instead of carpet-bombing.

It was a pretty cool move. BOOK 2 SPOILERS
Since the book is in first person, you couldn't possibly have known what was happening outside the Arena during The Hunger Games. In the beginning of Catching Fire, though, Katniss catches a glimpse of an emergency transmission in the house of the District 12 mayor regarding the uprising in 11.

I was told November 13.

It's in pre-production, dude.

Edit: Oh, 2013. Ok.
 
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