Escape to the Movies: The Hunger Games

jobu59749

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Aug 3, 2009
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I haven't seen the movie and will be willing to give it a netflix addy, I don't see it as something I would waste half the price of a dvd on in the theatre. I also haven't read the books. That said, I've noticed that a lot of comments that like the movie were also people that read the books. No offense, you have a biased opinion because of it. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. It's great if the movie lived up to the hype for you because you can mentally fill in the blanks.

Now, I understand that not everyone will look at a movie with the same critical eye as Bob. There are certain aspects that most of us look for in a movie that we know is based on a book, even though I haven't read it. The question I have, does the movie move me to want to read the book? A great example of this, I know it's not a movie, is The Game of Thrones television series. I've never read the books, watched the first season, I have bought all of the existing books because i'm compelled by the great story telling they did.

If a book to movie adaption has crappy filmography in places, the story is hard to understand if you haven't read the books, there are plot holes due to not reading the books....I don't want to read the books and I surely don't want to watch the movie in most cases. Harry Potter did a pretty good job, I still haven't read the books, but my wife did. For each movie we watched, there were some small holes here and there, but not enough to make me dislike watching the movies. My wife confirmed that quite a bit of the source material is there in the movies and doesn't disappoint.

So, I'll give this a rental and see if it lives up to the hype, but with the last few teenage book to movie adaptations...I'm a little wary to the quality. So far nothing has been promising.
 

pwnzerstick

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Mar 25, 2009
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I was hoping he was gonna review the raid or at least put something in as a stinger text, but oh well.
 

Gilhelmi

The One Who Protects
Oct 22, 2009
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animehermit said:
Gilhelmi said:
I like Gorge Orwell, he was brilliant. But the Hunger Games is the best book too come out, for this genre, in many many years.

Science Fiction? Are you fucking kidding me?
I admit, I do not have as much time as I would like to read, so I might have missed one. If you can name some good books I will look into them.
 

BehattedWanderer

Fell off the Alligator.
Jun 24, 2009
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Well, if it's catering to the teen girl demographic, is it the Twilight killer it was supposed to be? I know that's a particularly low bar, there, but one is inclined to learn these things. After all, if we have a new "what's worse, watching _____, or having your eyes eaten by tiny badgers?" type setup, the internet needs to know this stuff.

canadamus_prime said:
Oh boy, it's going to be Eragorn all over again.
That movie. Urgh. One of the greatest series around, and it got a movie that was the equivalent of a hurricane on a small tourist island's economy. Shame, really. A permanent skidmark on the series, unfortunately.
 

Amarsir

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Jul 7, 2009
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I have no opinion on the movie at this time (other than that the plot framework always seemed kind of stupid to me). But I enjoyed this review more than any other you've done, Bob. The snark was reminiscent of RedLetterMedia's but in a much tighter package, and that's a very good thing.
 

chipman007

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Oct 13, 2010
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I tend to disagree with Bob here...but thats because i read the entire series and understand why they did what they did in the movie. I went into the movie with the LOWEST expectations, like I was thinking this movie was going to like the train wreck, "Eragon". I went to a pre-screening of it before the midnight release with my girlfriend, who had recently read all of the books. I thought the books were very entertaining and very well written. I enjoyed the 2nd one the most though...ANYWAYS back to the movie. I agree, the graphics not so great, it seemed like they just created a video game world, instead of making it look more realistic, plus the creatures in the movie SOOO 2005. The shaky camera I believe was supposed to instil action and confusing, I thought in some parts it was appropriate, being it has the PG-13 sticker on it, you can only show so much, but in other parts it gave me kinda a headache. They left out some key parts and the only reason I knew what was going on was because I had read the books. I did compliment them though, they threw in some parts that I didn't expect them to. As this movie follows very close to the book, I thought they did a good job of trying to stay true to the books. Lionsgate needs to put A LOT more money towards the next movie, and I can see why they didn't this time around, but Catching Fire, better be better. As for this being the next "Twilight"......Bella Swan has a personality like a brick and she's a whiny wimp. Katniss on the other hand actually (well in the BOOK she did, Jennifer Lawrence did an alright job portraying Katniss in my opinion) has some cajones. All in all I thought this was a good movie for just starting out, way better than I thought it would be, but definitely not as good as it could've been!
 

rickthetrick

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Jun 19, 2009
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Thank you Bob! Your review was immensely more entertaining than the material which inspired it.

Also super awesome to see a Phil Ken Sebben Reference. Kudos good sir.
 

sergnb

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Mar 12, 2011
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you guys realize Battle Royale wasn't the first book to introduce this kind of story, right...?
 

LobsterFeng

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Frank_Sinatra_ said:
Roger Ebert tends to give everything 3 stars, it's why I don't normally trust him.

I've been trying to read the book for sometime now but every time I go to the library all copies are always checked out, I might have to wait until all the hype has gone away. And I'll agree with you Bob, the trailers don't do a really good job at telling me (someone who hasn't read the books yet) why I should care about this movie.
 

wooty

Vi Britannia
Aug 1, 2009
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Hitchmeister said:
wooty said:
Im off to see this in about....an hour.

Maybe I shouldnt of watched this review, I'll be going into it with an expectation of crapiness now :(
Sometimes pessimism can be a good thing. If you go in expecting crappiness and enjoy it, it'll seem that much better. If you go in expecting brilliance and it doesn't live up to it, you're bound to be disappointed.
I went in with a neutral outlook and........it was very boring. Just a really really slow film.
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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Additional: Been to see it and...........GOOD GOD! This is one of the slowest and most boring.things ive ever seen. Im actually quite pissed off that I spent good money on this shit.

Dont believe the hype
 

AgDr_ODST

Cortana's guardian
Oct 22, 2009
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Crimsanon said:
I'm gonna be completely honest: I saw this movie at midnight, and I'm probably going to go see it again with friends tonight.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Bob's review has given me a good dose of perspective.
It doesn't change my opinion, but it will encourage me to look at the film from a more objective angle.
I'm largely in the same boat as you Crimsanon, so I'll try to avoid repeating back what you've already said. I enjoyed it too, but I had a few personal issues with certain aspects but taking them into consideration I'd still give it a rating between a 4&5 on the 5 star scale. Unfortunately though I couldn't get the same perspective from his review as you since I stopped watching early on once his overall negative opinion became obvious and he started to blatantly mock it. Ultimately though I'm like you though and his not liking it doesn't change that I loved it.
 

Willowleaf

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Jun 27, 2011
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Aw, they didn't do reaction shots of the people watching from home? Seriously? This makes me sad. It was one of the possibilities I was most excited over when I heard this was getting a movie. They could have played up the "reality TV show" thing to an extent that it couldn't have been in the book because the book was in first person. Also, this being film, it kind of lends itself to that atmosphere way more than a book does. (...Shaky cam. Make it go away.)
 

person427

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May 28, 2009
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Damn, I just agreed to go tomorrow. Kind of upsetting, my friend told me "It takes place in a dystopian world like Brave New World or 1984" so I got pretty excited.
 

razer17

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IT doesn't seem terrible, and certainly I wouldn't be dissapointed in my little sister watching this like I am with Twilight, but I am not going to rush out to watch it myself either.

I still love Battle Royale, and the hype for this film has made me want to go see that again, though.

Also, I am being a pedant here, but it's American English. English should be capitalised as it is derived from a proper noun, otherwise why would American be capitalised and English not? I could read some form of American arrogance from that, but I think it's more of a grammatical oversight.
 

David Sundell

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Oct 17, 2011
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when I heard it was coming out i had hoped they would have been more creative in the marketing campaign considering the premise, instead we just got a lot of posters and trailers with no content. i was hoping for faux-interviews with the contestants and trailers more like;

[overhead shot of the arena, showing the forest and it's limits]
Elizabeth banks voice as Effie Trinket:
"welcome to the 74th hunger games. once again celebrating Panem's victory over the 13 districts"

[cut to shots of what the arena is capable of i.e. fireballs, windstorms, mudslides etc.]
"this year our tributes will face off in a brand new arena designed to promote confrontation, while ensuring that it doesn't end too quickly" *giggle* "Keep watching for some exciting game changers near the end" (this would inform the viewer that there is a group of people that control events in the games and it is expected by the audience, something that katniss explains in the book)

[cut to shots of the different districts and contestants starting with district 1]
"The hunger games occur each year as a reminder of the gruesome ordeal we faced from the 13th district all those years ago, and as a way for one lucky tribute, to bless their district with extra supplies for the next year."
"don't forget to support your favorite tribute if you want them to stick around."
[ending on a shot of Katniss firing her bow] (more exposition on the premise that we only learn in the book from the musings of Katniss)

[closing shot with movie info on it]
"May the odds be ever in your favor"

This way it acts as an advertisement of the hunger games in the book while providing exposition for things that the reader is expected to know, that the non-reader wouldn't.

i feel there were a lot of missed opportunities for the marketing that were fairly obvious considering they were supposed to be televised games, like a mini web series of last years games would have been an entertaining way to provide info on the set-up for non-readers that doesn't give anything away and might get them to read the book.
 

Blind Sight

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Gilhelmi said:
I like Gorge Orwell, he was brilliant. But the Hunger Games is the best book too come out, for this genre, in many many years.
What, dystopian fiction? In my opinion, Jennifer Government and the Book of Dave have way better developed commentaries on society structured far more effectively. Hell, I'll even throw Margaret Atwood a bone (and I hate doing that) and say Oryx and Crake is more coherent and developed then the Hunger Games.
 

notimeforlulz

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Mar 18, 2011
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Oh my god! This film is awesome! It's going to push sales of battle royal like you wouldn't believe, and that movie didn't get enough of an audience, god bless the hunger games.