Official Hunger Games Trailer Revealed

[vansau]

Official Hunger Games Trailer Revealed

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Here's your first (real) trailer for The Hunger Games, though it's pretty light on the "kids killing kids" parts.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112862-Hunger-Games-Movie-Trailer-Emerges>Back in September, Lionsgate gave movie audiences a glimpse of its upcoming film adaptation of <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023521/ref=tmm_pap_title_0>The Hunger Games. A glimpse was all that was, too, since September's video seemed like it was more of <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTszob4gTbw>a high-quality remake of the teaser trailer for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves than anything else. Now, though, the real trailer has been released, and now we know why Jennifer Lawrence is running through the trees and killing off her fellow tweens: She wants to be the next Kim Kardashian.

Whoops, no! Sorry! Got that wrong! It turns out that Lawrence is playing <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katniss_Everdeen>Katniss Everdeen, a young woman living in the distopian nation of Panem (what used to be North America), which is divided into twelve different districts. Katniss volunteers to be a "Tribute" in her sister's place for the Hunger Games. The Games are a combination of government intimidation tactics towards the districts and reality television; basically, the Tributes are forced to murder each other for the public entertainment of upper class society.

The trailer looks pretty impressive, especially the bits where the decadent future society of Panem is featured. The trailer is also entirely a prologue, with no actual footage of the Hunger Games themselves. That said, the scenario certainly looks like it's being set up nicely.

Of course, what will be interesting to see is how the film actually depicts the element of, you know, kids murdering kids. The books are pretty graphic, since people get mutilated, riddled with arrows, stabbed, gutted, and -oh, yes- blown up. Odds are that Hollywood isn't going to want to show much of this in any amount of detail.

The Hunger Games will hit theaters on March 23rd, 2012.







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[Smeagol150]

Not bad. I'll have to check these books out, I've been procrastinating on buying them for quite some time, but they have grabbed my attention.

 

[Micalas]

If it comes anywhere within spitting distance of Battle Royale's awesome, I'll be content.

 

[Peace Frog]

American version of Battle Royale?

 

[standokan]

I read the book, thanks to Santa, and it was awesome so this might be worth my while.

 

[Gladion]

I've never heard of the book nor the film, but watching this trailer seemed very familiar. I mean that in a bad way. Why are there people who specialize in movie trailers? This is why every single one of the big budgeted ones (not limited to Hollywood) looks as the next and, therefore, boring.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

That was interesting, and looks semi-promising. I'm just curious to know how the movie is gonna handle all the kid on kid violence, and I have a feeling it's gonna get played down, a lot.

 

[Dogstile]

They'll make every character under the age of 16 not die in a horrible way, methinks.

However, that means we should just hope that the adaptation of the book has lots of above 15 year olds to slaughter! Yeah! XD

 

[Kopikatsu]

That was interesting, and looks semi-promising. I'm just curious to know how the movie is gonna handle all the kid on kid violence, and I have a feeling it's gonna get played down, a lot.

They're all now arbitrarily 16 and/or 18 year old midgets.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

That was interesting, and looks semi-promising. I'm just curious to know how the movie is gonna handle all the kid on kid violence, and I have a feeling it's gonna get played down, a lot.

They're all now arbitrarily 16 and/or 18 year old midgets.

Well there is one character that isn't, in the first book anyways, and she dies pretty violently, so I'm just a little curious.

 

[Dirty Apple]

I've seen the book in the stores and was slightly intrigued when I read the description on the dust cover. That was until I saw the recommendation from Stephanie Meyer. I want to avoid hyperbole here, but let's just say that I put the book down and haven't thought of picking it up again. Maybe it's a magnificent book, but now it just feels tainted.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Over the last 2 years I was a librarian at a school, so rant is ahead.

Not a huge fan of the books. They're an OK kids series (read them over winter break last year), but pretty bland and uninspiring. Pages upon pages (I'm not kidding) are spent describing the main character's clothes and hair, and she has umpteen outfit changes in the books, and the author has to explain every one down to the color of her nail polish. That left me pretty frustrated.

The "love story" is laughable, and didn't even make me go "aww" like you do in stories when the kids have their first kiss. I found Katniss to be pretty cardboard, and Jennifer Lawrence is a great actress (really, X-Men and Winter's Bone), and even she looks cardboard in the trailer. As for Peeta and .... Chris Hemsworth's little brother... Gale? They don't even act like teenagers.

When characters die (and, obviously, a lot die), I felt nothing. Not satisfaction, sadness, fear... the 'antagonists' (aside from "the system/the government") weren't characterized to be seen as bad... we were just told to assume that. Some of the other contestants were supposed to be bad guys just because of where they came from. Or how they looked.

When I started reading the book, I was reminded of the dozens of other dystopian teen books out there and this did not stand out. If you want a good teen one (teen books are pretty flimsy on story no matter what), try Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. I actually quite enjoyed it.

However... I could not tell all my students to go find and watch Battle Royale as some of the kids were 10-14. The older kids, though, I told them just to go watch the movie... when parents were not around.

Just rent Battle Royale and watch it again. I read through all 3 books in a couple days, they're pretty easy reads.

... I will rent it when it comes to Video on Demand for $6 though.

OK, done.

 

[Liquid Paradox]

I've seen the book in the stores and was slightly intrigued when I read the description on the dust cover. That was until I saw the recommendation from Stephanie Meyer. I want to avoid hyperbole here, but let's just say that I put the book down and haven't thought of picking it up again. Maybe it's a magnificent book, but now it just feels tainted.

Not to seem like a jerk, but that's a really dumb reason not to try something new. So it's liked by someone you personally dislike. So what? Stephanie Meyer didn't write the book... she simply read it, liked it, commented on it, and weather or not she has any real writing ability, she has become a rather influential name, which is why they included her recommendation. But tainted? Really? So, if Justin Bieber decides that he likes Lord of the Flies, and his recommendation appears on the next big reprint of that book, will it become tainted?

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"The Games are a combination of government intimidation tactics towards the districts and reality television; basically, the Tributes are forced to murder each other for the public entertainment of upper class society."

Battle Royale rip off much???

 

[Scarim Coral]

Kind of remind me of a human version of G Gundam (as in they have a single well two beings to repersent that group to battle it out with the other representative of the other groups to claim victory) cross with Battle Royale (involving kids to kill each other). While the trailer look tame but just like the film Immortal I would assume the film itself will be violent.

 

[Westaway]

Ya know, that looks alright. I never really liked the books, but I think this movie will do them justice.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

The lack of gruesome murder in this trailer bothers me. I really, really don't want this to turn into some kind of Twilight-like movie with focus going on the romances, because the point of the books was always the grimness. If they don't have some horrifyingly trippy sequence when Katniss gets stung by the wasps then I will be severely disappointed.

 

[Veritasiness]

First off: The Hunger Games is shockingly good for a kids' book. Don't dismiss it because of its target demographic. Don't dismiss it because Stephanie Meyer liked it. Certainly don't dismiss it if you didn't like this trailer; I didn't either.

When I started reading the book, I was reminded of the dozens of other dystopian teen books out there and this did not stand out. If you want a good teen one (teen books are pretty flimsy on story no matter what), try Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. I actually quite enjoyed it.

I've read my fair share of "teen" books, and I have to disagree - I enjoyed the Hunger Games series far more than any other teen story I've read in recent memory. The books themselves are incredibly dark and very well-written; they have a breakneck writing style that makes them enjoyable, and gives you a great sense that the story is unfolding before you, rather than just being recounted. Yes, they're hampered by some cheesy romance stuff (though even that is well done because of the way it's played out in the characters' minds), and yes, there are some bits where you can tell it's really not an adult's book, but those parts fade into the background very quickly when you get caught up in the story itself.

In any case, back on the trailer, it didn't really gel with my mental picture of the world, and I think I prefer the one I came up with. I'd always envisioned things as being a bit brighter, a bit more saccharine-sweet (especially in the Capitol); to be honest, I'd imagined most of the characters as looking more fragile, more childish and less "teen," even the protagonists. In general, it seemed too dark - not in tone of content, but in the filmography and stylistic choices. This is a dark story, but the darkness is from the character interaction and events, not a drab color palette. I'm also worried, like a lot of people, that it'll become a generic teen romance flick that happens to have action in it - but we'll see.