The Hunger Games

[Gongsun Zan]

Would it be fair to compare it to Harry Potter then: written with a younger audience in mind but appealing to adults as well?

[HeartlineTwist]

I think it would be far more fair to compare it to Harry Potter. I think it is really easy to market it toward teens (and more specifically, teen girls), but the books catered to a much larger audience in a way that something like Twilight really didn't/doesn't.

[The DBZemon King]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "The Hunger Games" has filled fan appetites with a $155 million opening weekend that puts it near the top of the domestic record book.

Geez, and to think Jennifer Lawrence only got paid $500K for the first movie. Hopefully, she'll make a boat load more for the other two.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

For fuck's sake, this is just sick. (link contains spoilers)

[Summers]

Fucking idiots.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I particularly liked how some got upset with characters being black when they'd thought of them as white, despite being described in the book as having black skin.

[TKz]

Yeah, that's pretty horrible. I never realized that Rue was supposed to be black. Who gives a shit?

[IAceI]

I remember it sticking in my mind that Rue hard dark skin. I'd forgotten that Thresh was meant to be, and I pictured Cinna as white I'll be honest but almost identical in every other way to what I've seen Kravitz playing him as in terms of appearance and facial hair. I think I'll be going to see the film in a couple of days and honestly, even if I hadn't known either way going in, I would not have given a shit, nor would I have recoiled in horror.

Sad that there are so many morons in the world. Sad, but not surprisingly unfortunately.

Edited March 26, 2012 by IAceI

[TKz]

I'd like to take this chance to say that Kravitz was a wonderful Cinna. Captured the essence of the character perfectly, I loved him.

Book 2 & 3 Spoilers...

It just sucks he'll barely be in the other two films.

Unless they keep him alive and use him as the kidnapped stylist, which makes sense seeing as the Trio (I can never remember their names) were pretty much cut from this film. I'd actually kind of like that, but it probably wouldn't happen seeing as his death is kind of the first big "I own you" message that Snow sends Katniss.

[DMN in the House]

For fuck's sake, this is just sick. (link contains spoilers)

That's fucking sad, but unsurprising. There are more racists in the US than you'd think. Look at the Trayvon Martin situation. Hell, last night my father and I were driving, and some guy cut us off. My dad has a bit of a temper, so he returned the favor, and, at the light, the guy started talking...he opened with 'we're all white here', and when I started talking shit, said I was trying to 'be Mexican', then accused me of being Mexican. People are just idiots.

Nothing pisses me off more than racists.

[Noah]

'Hunger Games' forces rethink of Australian film

Plans for an upcoming Australian film are now being reconsidered because of its striking similarities to US blockbuster The Hunger Games.

Low-budget film producer Antony I Ginnane was planning to remake his 1982 dystopian action film Turkey Shoot, with plot changes to make it more appealing to a modern audience.

But Ginnane told ninemsn he will have to rethink his movie, tentatively titled Turkey Shoot 2014, because of how much it had in common with the sci-fi Hollywood movie, which opened in Australian cinemas last Thursday.

"I've been aware of Hunger Games for two years or so, but I wasn't that aware of the extent it was American Idol with a body count," he said. "The question for us is if we continue down the track we were working on, and it appears to be too similar to Hunger Games — a cut-price Antipodean version."

Like The Hunger Games, 1983's Turkey Shoot tells the story of youngsters hunted for sport as entertainment for the elite of an oppressive regime.

In the planned remake, the youths would be hunted as part of a reality TV show.

In the current box office smash, a group of children is selected by lottery to represent local districts surrounding a post-apocalyptic metropolis to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive.

Despite the plot similarities, Ginnane said he was happy to see success of The Hunger Games, which earned $200 million in its opening weekend at US box offices.

"I'm happy for Lionsgate — it's great to see an independent company do well," he said. "I don't see anything to get me upset."

Not that Ginnane can complain about having the idea taken from him. The Hunger Games is simply one of countless movies with such themes.

Original Turkey Shoot director Brian Trenchard-Smith named The Most Dangerous Game, The Naked Prey, The Running Man and Run of the Arrow as films based around the idea.

"Turkey Shoot follows in a long line of hunt-the-heroes-for-sport movies," Trenchard-Smith said. "It's a concept that audiences respond to, so it keeps getting remade."

While thematically similar, Turkey Shoot and The Hunger Games are very different films in terms of style.

"Turkey Shoot was conceived as a high-camp extreme action thriller with some wry politics buried in it, so in that respect they are very different movies," Trenchard-Smith said. "They've been very careful to make Hunger Games accessible to teen audiences, whereas I went for extreme effects."

The Hunger Games has also been compared to Japanese thriller Battle Royale, which features a class of teenagers forced to fight to the death.

[Colly]

He forgot The Condemned. Jerk.

[RPS]

Saw it last night. Bar in mind, I have never really heard about Hunger Games and wasn't overly excited to see the film. Given that, I don't see what all the fuss was about. The beginning was alright, the middle was very good but that ending was miserable and so predictable. I found some elements of the movie really problematic for me regarding gender and race.

[TGC]

Saw it last night. Bar in mind, I have never really heard about Hunger Games and wasn't overly excited to see the film. Given that, I don't see what all the fuss was about. The beginning was alright, the middle was very good but that ending was miserable and so predictable. I found some elements of the movie really problematic for me regarding gender and race.

Do explain the gender and race issues you had?

[Lint]

I've never read the books and have no desire to see the movie so I don't get the hype. A dystopian future werea totalitarian government keeps it's citizens in line through a televised bloodsport...it sound like The Running Man, Rollerball and countless other movies to me

[IAceI]

Went to see it last night with a friend who hasn't read the book and we both came away from the film pretty pleased with what we'd seen. Yes there are elements of the book that I wish had maybe been more evident than they were in the film such as really playing Katniss off as using the 'love' angle entirely as a means to an end. But like said before they don't seem to want this disinterested girl and a boy who gets really annoyed when it's revealed it was just a gimmick. That said due to time constraints they can't play up to just quite how much they forced the issue such as with Katniss bathing him when she found him camouflaged (which was hilarious for all the wrong reasons), how much time they spent in the cave together etc. they missed a lot out as they really had to speed it along.

Same with the animals they use, assuming they use the monkeys in the sequel I'd thought they would have explained the jabberjays, tracker jackers and muttations a little bit more than they did. Especially since the whole point of the muttations at the end was to have the dead tributes eyes and almost show they have been reprogrammed (since the careers obviously showed Cato no remorse when ripping him apart).

I was happy with how true to the book they managed to stay though, although I was surprised by how much development Seneca Crane got in the film - not that I'm complaining as he was one of the stand out characters in it (alongside Caesar Flickerman in my opinion).

I enjoyed it though and that's the main thing.

[Ruki]

I think they did a good job explaining the tracker jackers....or did you want more about how they were used in the war and such?

But I agree, Seneca Crane and Caesar were amazing.

[IAceI]

To a degree, in a way there was a lot of 'what they do' but not a lot of 'why they do what they do' - the tracker jackers were the most explained, with obvious reason as anyone who didn't know would assume they were just wasps - but I feel as a whole the genetically modified animals could have been expanded on a bit more since they play quite a large part.

Also I'm glad I looked at the age of the girl who played Clove before I spoke my mind.

[RPS]

Saw it last night. Bar in mind, I have never really heard about Hunger Games and wasn't overly excited to see the film. Given that, I don't see what all the fuss was about. The beginning was alright, the middle was very good but that ending was miserable and so predictable. I found some elements of the movie really problematic for me regarding gender and race.

Do explain the gender and race issues you had?

I just thought it was problematic to build up this strong female character the whole movie, have this guy betray her and in the end she takes him back out of love. I thought it was not only predictable and bad writing, but really made the female character lose any strength and independence she had.

Regarding race, that was just me posting a reply with a hangover. I just thought it was a bit strange to have the most visible, graphic and memorable violence in the whole movie saved for a black boy killing a white girl.

Edited March 30, 2012 by RockPaperScissors

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Saw it last night. Bar in mind, I have never really heard about Hunger Games and wasn't overly excited to see the film. Given that, I don't see what all the fuss was about. The beginning was alright, the middle was very good but that ending was miserable and so predictable. I found some elements of the movie really problematic for me regarding gender and race.

Do explain the gender and race issues you had?

I just thought it was problematic to build up this strong female character the whole movie, have this guy betray her and in the end she takes him back out of love. I thought it was not only predictable and bad writing, but really made the female character lose any strength and independence she had.

Regarding race, that was just me posting a reply with a hangover. I just thought it was a bit strange to have the most visible, graphic and memorable violence in the whole movie saved for a black boy killing a white girl.

I didn't read the books (yet), but I thought that when

Peeta joined the merry band of psychos, he was doing it so he could drive them away from Katniss? At least it was the impression I got, I mean, when they had her trapped he stopped them from chasing her or attacking her with a bow and arrow, thus buying her time. And, from what I've read, she didn't fall in love with him, it was just so they could get sympathy, therefore getting more sponsors and items to help them. Even in the movie, it was kind of obvious she didn't love Peeta, when Woody Harrelson (I forget his character's name) was telling her to play along with the lovers' angle, her face conveyed that she didn't like the idea, but ended up playing along with it.

I may be way off, but that's the way I saw it, though.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Johnny Latino Heat