Hunger Games

[Dave (imported)]

>>Gee!

>>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/2 ... 78173.html

Sorry, Bella. When it comes to box-office odds, Katniss Everdeen had everything in her favor. "The Hunger Games" scored $155 million in North American ticket sales this weekend, the third highest opening weekend of all time, according to estimates from Lionsgate.

Only "The Dark Knight" ($158.4 million) and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" ($169.1 million) have had stronger opening weekend showings, giving "The Hunger Games" the highest non-sequel weekend premiere ever. The $155 million bounty also outranked every entry in the "Twilight" series, including the franchise's biggest opener, "New Moon," which started with $142.8 million when it bowed in November of 2009.

[Slammr (imported)]

The movie was true to the book. I only hope the second and third movies aren't true to the books, because the more I think about how this author screwed up what could have been a good story, the more pissed I get. If you read the book, stop after reading the first one, or like me, you might find yourself rooting for President Snow. At least, he doesn't whine and feel sorry for himself throughout the book.

[justjustin (imported)]

A horrible idea that kids have to kill each other for a feed, but as always, violence, no matter how extreme, seems to be accepted. Was there nudity or even sex??

[Slammr (imported)]

A horrible idea that kids have to kill each other for a feed, but as always, violence, no matter how extreme, seems to be accepted. Was there nudity or even sex??

The Hunger Games are more like gladiator games. 24 kids are put into an arena, one that covers several square miles, but it is surrounded by a force field that comes into play in book two. Only one kid is supposed to come out alive. Each kid has a tracker device implanted beneath the skin of the forearm, and cameras are strewn throughout the arena so the populace can follow the action on TV. The winner becomes rich and famous. The others are just dead. Nudity is mentioned often in the book, but there is none in the movie. A kiss or two is all the sex there is.

In books for kids, it's OK to kill other kids, but any fucking is out of the question.

[Dave (imported)]

A horrible idea that kids have to kill each other for a feed, but as always, violence, no matter how extreme, seems to be accepted. Was there nudity or even sex??

The movie kept a PG-13 rating. That implies no blood and very vanilla sex.

I came back to add that this bit of backstory...

-- the story is that these 12 districts rebelled years and years before and their punishment was to send a "tribute" in the form of a 12 to 18 year old to fight in the games. The winning district got more supplies during the next year. The losing districts gave up food and supplies during the next year.

[Slammr (imported)]

Apparently some fans of the book were upset to see Rue and Thresh portrayed as Black kids in the movie.

https://wonderwall.msn.com/movies/hunge ... 3504.story

[Slammr (imported)]

Some minor spoilers:

There is some talk about sex in Book 3. Finnick Odair, the male tribute from District 4 in the Games in the second book, talks in the third book about how he was forced by President Snow to have sex with people from the Capitol. That he has many lovers is mentioned in Book 2, but we don't learn until Book 3 that Snow was forcing him to service those people. So far, however, if anyone is having the sex during the story, we haven't been told.

[Cainanite (imported)]

Watched the movie, and truly enjoyed it. It was very true to the first book. It was exciting, and daring, and dealt with its political message very deftly.

As Slammr has already pointed out, if they do a second and third movie (as they most surely will), I hope they diverge from the source material, and keep Katniss as the strong character she is in the first book. It is very hard for me to imagine the brave and daring woman they portrayed in this movie doing the things she does in the second and third book.

Actually, I noticed something. At the end of the first book, Katniss is knocked out for several weeks while the Capitol heals her wounds and decides what to do with her. THAT part was omitted from the movie. Could it be they'll skip those same kind of parts in the sequel? In the third book she literally spends most of her time either strapped to a bed and medicated, or hiding in closets, and under bed-sheets. I'm not exaggerating that point. Perhaps when it comes time to make the sequel movies, they'll realize how pointless that is to the story, and just skip to the action.

I much prefer Katniss as a strong and capable character. I don't like what she becomes by the end of the third book. I can imagine a much better movie by simply omitting those parts. They are slow anyway, and wouldn't play out well on the big screen.

[cheetaking243 (imported)]

I can see, if one want to be a successful author, one needs to write books that appeal to teenage girls.

The basic way to do that is to write in a romance plot or subplot, and make the main character someone they can relate to. Bonus points if it involves teenage angst or defying some authority figure, which teenagers lap up. Having elements of fantasy, something that can stimulate the imagination, helps too. Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Hunger Games all involve this in varying degrees. Twilight especially... it's basically nothing but a whiny teenager carrying on about how much everything sucks for 500 pages, and thus teenage girls "get it" while the rest of us just feel like Bella is an annoying twat.

"Twilight" destroyed my faith in the teenage-girl demographic, "The Hunger Games" restored it. Katniss is actually a very strong main character with drive and passion and some legitimate character flaws that actually make her like a real person. Plus the world of the book is very well-thought-out, and it has some great underlying sci-fi themes. It's an excellent read, and I loved the movie.

[Twinsenboy (imported)]

Just thinking of this as kid's entertainmentality makes me feel vomit in my throat.. I'd recommend a movie like Funny Games, if you wanna use your brains (and heart) watching something with statements about violence, rather than another slick, desensitized, consequence-less for PG-13teen satanic ritual Hollywood portrayal of child on child mass murdering and blood sacrifice. Satire? It is horror with no cause. And, ironically, nothing could be worse.

Different people different opinions I guess.