Hunger Games


Movies

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Well I can't be the only one who saw considering how much it made.

If you did see it, did you like it?


Yup. Saw it and really enjoyed it. For a book aimed at teens it had a lot to it!

Liberty's Edge

I read the books before the movie came out and then I went to see it at midnight on opening day. I thought it was good, but not great. I didn't care for some of the castings for the main characters (Peeta especially) but as time went by they grew on me.

All in all I think it is a solid movie and I plan to see it again.


Doing a pathfinder version playtest here on the boards, not too late to check it out!


ShadowcatX wrote:
I didn't care for some of the castings for the main characters (Peeta especially) but as time went by they grew on me.

have heard this from three different people now.


I was confused by the story. If there is an agricultural paradise just the other side of a non working electric fence, and the inhabitants of a destitute coal mining town have a choice of dying a slow agonizing death in the town, or dying while trying to escape into the agricultural paradise, how is it that anyone stays in the town? I mean is there something, in later books I suppose, to explain why human nature has changed so drastically? Sure the big bad Capital goons with their flying machines and other techno -superior stuff are going to try and find you and cut your tongue out, or even kill you, but how is that a powerful enough threat to keep people in a perpetual state of near starvation?

Oh, and by the way, nobody in that town, really looked hungry enough to sell me on the premise that things were as bad as Katnis (is that how you spell her name) was making it out to be. For a story called the Hunger Games, no one looked all that hungry, or am I missing some subtle play on words in the title that will be revealed later?


The book talked a lot about the food problem, but the movie failed to make it a real issue. And the fences surrounding the districts were electrified at one point, tho only powered sporadically. It's like training cattle to keep away then not bothering once they learned the lesson. The movie gave you an indication of how ruthless the Capitol could be. This is an intro movie. I believe later books (and movies) lead you into the festering revolution.

I enjoyed the book more, but the movie was decent.

Liberty's Edge

The book also talked more about how dangerous the wilderness is and how the majority of people have no knowledge of the wilderness nor weapons with which to hunt. And the capitol hunts anyone who attempts to run away from their district.

That aside, it is a bit of a plot hole through the series.


Saw it this afternoon before work. I wasn't expecting it to be great (I'm often weary of over-hyped movies as well as movies aimed at a somewhat younger audience), but was pleasantly surprised. Over all, not amazing, but pretty good, and definately an entertaining way to spend $5 movie Tuesday. The movie seemed a bit quickly paced, which is something I don't say often about a 2.5 hour affair; would've prefered the story go a bit more slowly and smoothly, perhaps over multiple films if need be. I wasn't even aware that it was based off a book when I originally saw the advertisements, and found out only recently.

Sovereign Court

The books were much much better, but having said that I didn't mind the movie. If you saw the movie and liked it I'd highly recommend the book. As adaptations go it wasn't bad, but some of the changes bothered me:

Spoiler:
First of all the pin wasn't given in Katniss by the mayor's daughter Madge. Also Peeta's father doesn't bring her cookies. These are minor quibbles but without that human contact in town it means that Katniss essentially in future movies, when something horrible happens in district 12 there's just not going to be any horrible loss or tragedy for Katniss as everyone she cares about gets out of the district.

Second we don't get Haymitch telling Peeta and Katniss to "stay alive". This was sort of an iconic line in the movie and it reflects very much on Haymitch's character, he's been staying alive for years, not living . . . just staying alive.

Thirdly no punch bowl! They're not exactly seeding this first film with characters that will appear in future films.

Fourth, I can understand why the gore would have been toned down, but Katniss doesn't seem to go deaf in one ear, and the wounds to Peeta were no where near as horrific as they should have been. I'd have been surprised if I'd only seen the movie and later found out that Peeta looses his leg.

and Lastly, Jennifer Lawrence wasn't bad as Katniss, no choice is going to be perfect honestly. When you read a book you're in charge of casting yourself and your vision is almost always going to be different from a movie casting director, but my biggest problem with Jennifer wasn't that she was too physically imposing (i.e. too big) it was the fact that she didn't seem able to sing. That was one of the defining and characteristics of Katniss for me. She wasn't beautiful but she had a beautiful voice but life had been so hard on her that she never had reason to sing. She was a caged song bird.

Those are my main beefs with the movie. If you haven't read the books I'd recommend the movie, but I'd prefer if you read the books first.


Terquem wrote:
If there is an agricultural paradise just the other side of a non working electric fence, and the inhabitants of a destitute coal mining town have a choice of dying a slow agonizing death in the town, or dying while trying to escape into the agricultural paradise, how is it that anyone stays in the town?

What do you do for a living and where do you live?

I think many people work some kind of job where they feel they slave away all day and probably don't live too far from agricultural paradise, but live in a city anyways.

Does not seem like a stretch to me.


A couple of things that I am confused on, and maybe I missed them when I saw the movie, but if someone who has read the books/seen the movie could clarify:

What exactly is the purpose of the event (again, I've not read the books)? When I saw the previews my roommate and I thought that it was some kind of competition for food, but then it didn't seem to clarify in the movie other than in a dystopic society people like to watch children bludgeon one another to death.

I thought that I heard during their propaganda film they were told the winner would be showered in riches and be famous, but at the end of the film they were on a train home? Were they sent home with no prize money, do they get it later, is it a lie? Why are they going home when if when Haymitch won before he got to stay in the much more advanced city?

Sovereign Court

Ringtail wrote:
A couple of things that I am confused on, and maybe I missed them when I saw the movie, but if someone who has read the books/seen the movie could clarify:

I'll try :)

Ringtail wrote:
What exactly is the purpose of the event (again, I've not read the books)? When I saw the previews my roommate and I thought that it was some kind of competition for food, but then it didn't seem to clarify in the movie other than in a dystopic society people like to watch children bludgeon one another to death.

The event is kind of two fold, one it acts as a reminder that the capital is all powerful and bad things happen to those who rebel against them, and two it's supposed to keep the districts divided as nobody is going to want to see children from their own districts slaughtered. The districts themselves also receive rewards when their champion succeeds and this is supposed to create resentment in other districts.

Ringtail wrote:
I thought that I heard during their propaganda film they were told the winner would be showered in riches and be famous, but at the end of the film they were on a train home? Were they sent home with no prize money, do they get it later, is it a lie? Why are they going home when if when Haymitch won before he got to stay in the much more advanced city?

They get to live in a specially built part of town that's reserved for champions and visiting dignitaries. Currently only Haymitch lives in that part of town. Even the mayor doesn' get to live in these swanky digs. They also receive an allowance and are essentially set for life.


Ah, okay. Thanks.


I don't think I would've had kids, man.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Saw it about 2 years ago in Japanese...

Spoiler:
I'm going to see the movie this weekend, apparently. I'd never heard of it til a week ago.

Sovereign Court

Tried to watch Battle Royal or whatever it's called but it didn't grab me. It's not the same story. The premiss is similar but it's not the same.

Sovereign Court

Spanky the Leprechaun wrote:
I don't think I would've had kids, man.

The main character Katniss quite often expresses that she doesn't want to have kids for exactly this reason.


Guy Humual wrote:
Spanky the Leprechaun wrote:
I don't think I would've had kids, man.
The main character Katniss quite often expresses that she doesn't want to have kids for exactly this reason.

Not til after the Revolution anyway. THEN I'd have lotsa kids.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Rune wrote:
When it was called Battle Royale?

I refer to this. I enjoyed it, and would even recommend it, but I'm not using it as a basis to say the Hunger Games sucks. I'm perfectly willing to be entertained.

Sovereign Court

Spanky the Leprechaun wrote:
Guy Humual wrote:
Spanky the Leprechaun wrote:
I don't think I would've had kids, man.
The main character Katniss quite often expresses that she doesn't want to have kids for exactly this reason.
Not til after the Revolution anyway. THEN I'd have lotsa kids.

Read the books :P It took me two days to go through all 3 of them.


I don't read too much nowadays. It always puts me to sleep.

The Exchange

I gotta say this, although I hate being "that guy".....
We live in a time where teens are doing disgusting horrible acts to each other. Anything from rape, violence, death, purposeful maiming, etc....
I fully expect to hear of some group of idiots doing some horror-story crap that emulates parts of this film, using it as an excuse for their behavior.
I recently read a news story about a 15 year old girl who beat, strangled and stabbed a 9-10 year old girl to death because she "wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone". There are many news stories about a group of teens beating a single younger kid to death for amusement.
Do we really need to make a fun lil' movie about teens killing teens? Even if it is supposed to be about the oppression of society and an intellectual study of parallels to our political state, the kids seeing this are gonna go "Whoa, cool!!! Did you see how X slaughtered Y?!?! That was so cool! He/she is the coolest!!!"
I weep for our callous society as we continue to degenerate into nothing more than beast ruled by instinctual violence and greed.


Sigh.

Sovereign Court

Fake Healer wrote:

I gotta say this, although I hate being "that guy".....

We live in a time where teens are doing disgusting horrible acts to each other. Anything from rape, violence, death, purposeful maiming, etc....
I fully expect to hear of some group of idiots doing some horror-story crap that emulates parts of this film, using it as an excuse for their behavior.
I recently read a news story about a 15 year old girl who beat, strangled and stabbed a 9-10 year old girl to death because she "wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone". There are many news stories about a group of teens beating a single younger kid to death for amusement.
Do we really need to make a fun lil' movie about teens killing teens? Even if it is supposed to be about the oppression of society and an intellectual study of parallels to our political state, the kids seeing this are gonna go "Whoa, cool!!! Did you see how X slaughtered Y?!?! That was so cool! He/she is the coolest!!!"
I weep for our callous society as we continue to degenerate into nothing more than beast ruled by instinctual violence and greed.

And this is exactly the opposite message the stories leave. Death and murder aren't glorified in the story, it's essentially the Trojan War of stories, there's no real glory to be had here, and the characters in the books are haunted by their actions throughout the books. Even the movie doesn't seem to glorify things any. The murder and death is tragic and sad for the most part.


Fake Healer wrote:

I gotta say this, although I hate being "that guy".....

We live in a time where teens are doing disgusting horrible acts to each other. Anything from rape, violence, death, purposeful maiming, etc....
I fully expect to hear of some group of idiots doing some horror-story crap that emulates parts of this film, using it as an excuse for their behavior.
I recently read a news story about a 15 year old girl who beat, strangled and stabbed a 9-10 year old girl to death because she "wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone". There are many news stories about a group of teens beating a single younger kid to death for amusement.
Do we really need to make a fun lil' movie about teens killing teens? Even if it is supposed to be about the oppression of society and an intellectual study of parallels to our political state, the kids seeing this are gonna go "Whoa, cool!!! Did you see how X slaughtered Y?!?! That was so cool! He/she is the coolest!!!"
I weep for our callous society as we continue to degenerate into nothing more than beast ruled by instinctual violence and greed.

Whelp, I haven't seen this, but I have seen Lord of the Flies.

It was really just messed up, and it was really a powerful cautionary tale.
Essentially, the message was "You. Have. This. Inhuman. Capacity. Within you. Don't be fooled into thinking you're better than that. Because if you're not really really careful, guess what.....you're WORSE than that too."
So, I mean, I can't comment on the movie because I haven't seen Hunger Games, but I think it's truly possible to HAVE disturbing crap in a movie without revelling in it.

The Exchange

I get that but that isn't what teens are gonna take away from it. Check out the lines of action figures, complete with weapons and the heroic poses with weapons that are floating around as advertising. Even if the story doesn't glorify the violence, our society does.

Sovereign Court

Of course having said that, teens aren't exactly fully mentally developed, and they don't see things on the same level as adults do. The subject matter of these books aren't exactly what I'd have aimed towards kids. The story is tragic, sad, poignant, and even a bit funny at times. I'm sure someone somewhere is going to kill someone and people will blame this movie and/or the books, but we here in the D&D community shouldn't be too surprised when this happens.

Sovereign Court

Fake Healer wrote:

I get that but that isn't what teens are gonna take away from it. Check out the lines of action figures, complete with weapons and the heroic poses with weapons that are floating around as advertising. Even if the story doesn't glorify the violence, our society does.

I can't see there being any action figures for the movie. There's a scene in the film where a little boy gets a fake sword from his father and then pretends to attack his sister. This scene is horrible to watch for several reasons, out of the context of the film it might seem innocent childish fun, but in the world where children are forced to kill children that scene is sickening. I'd say you'd really have to see the film or read the book to see the subject matter in context. Reading the premise would probably give you all sorts of false impressions.

The Exchange

Heres a couple of action figs in one pic I found doing a quick search. these aren't the only ones out there....

Sovereign Court

That's really weird. Probably one of the worst movie tie ins I could imagine. This isn't a movie that I could see video games or action figures being made of . . . but there you go. I guess someone said, well we're marketing this for teens, might as well have toys. I should note that those three characters that have been made into toys are part of a love triangle. So . . . ya, I don't know.


And John Carter has no action figures.

Why can't I have nice things?


Another quick question:

Do the books specify what happens if the districts don't tribute? It seems that after seven decades and change there would have been some movement to stop the tributing be it violent or non- if there wasn't sufficient motivation.


There is a problem inherent in making movies based on books written from a first-person perspective: in a movie we can't have access to knowledge the protagonist has. So a lot of these questions coming up such as "why did that fence keep so many people in while Katniss just walked out?" or "why are they called 'Hunger Games'?" are all answered in the books as part of Katniss' thought processes.

They were able to fix some of this problem in a way that I thought was effective. Explanations for things like why a nest of hornets would be called 'tracker jackers' instead were put into sports commentary-like asides from Ceasar Flickermann and Plutarch Heavensbee.

Also, note that there was A LOT of things cut from the movie and it was still two and a half hours long. I'm personally glad that most of the events in the cave were cut to reduce the inevitable deluge of Twilight-style fan-girl squealing that would have ruined the movie.

Suzanne Collins herself helped write the script and helped oversee revisions (such as writing Madge out and changing the origins of the Mockingjay pin). Some of these things, while great supporting details for establishing characters, just wouldn't help the movie at all - I would even say that whole sequence would further confuse an audience.

All in all, I was very impressed. I feel like the trimming that was done to keep the story contained in a single movie was done well without sacrificing too many details. But I have read the book. I do feel like it is a difficult thing to grasp if you only watch it once without having read the book because of first-person perspective problem.

Naturally, the books are always better.

Are these books going to ruin our youth...?(major spoilers):

Watching a 16 year old girl's soul slowly be crushed into nothing by both the government she's opposing and the revolution that's using her a figurehead is not something I worry about kids getting crazy about. If having everything you care about in life taken away from you, being beaten, burnt, and forced to watch innocent people die in your name for a war you never meant to start is what kids are into, then we're already way past the point of 'let's not let our kids read this.'

I'd sooner be afraid that my kids are going to get into dog/cockfighting because they're playing Pokemon.

Sovereign Court

Ringtail wrote:

Another quick question:

Do the books specify what happens if the districts don't tribute? It seems that after seven decades and change there would have been some movement to stop the tributing be it violent or non- if there wasn't sufficient motivation.

They can't opt out. In the movie you saw the military making a heavy presence. All kids between the ages of 12 and 18 have to show up, if you don't show bad things happen, like maybe they kill your family? The people of the district might also turn on you as their children likely had to attend, even the mayor in the books had his daughter in the lottery.


Ringtail wrote:

Another quick question:

Do the books specify what happens if the districts don't tribute? It seems that after seven decades and change there would have been some movement to stop the tributing be it violent or non- if there wasn't sufficient motivation.

There's no option. "Tribute" is an intentional misnomer. The government just takes them. The books are much more thorough.

EDIT: ninja'd.


Now that you use the word lottery that scene did feel awfully familiar.


Yeah; I was kinda thinking the same thing from the previews I saw on Youtube.

Sovereign Court

Ringtail wrote:
Now that you use the word lottery that scene did feel awfully familiar.

There are some nice echos of the short story called "The Lottery" in this story.

Sovereign Court

Foghammer wrote:

There is a problem inherent in making movies based on books written from a first-person perspective: in a movie we can't have access to knowledge the protagonist has. So a lot of these questions coming up such as "why did that fence keep so many people in while Katniss just walked out?" or "why are they called 'Hunger Games'?" are all answered in the books as part of Katniss' thought processes.

They were able to fix some of this problem in a way that I thought was effective. Explanations for things like why a nest of hornets would be called 'tracker jackers' instead were put into sports commentary-like asides from Ceasar Flickermann and Plutarch Heavensbee.

Also, note that there was A LOT of things cut from the movie and it was still two and a half hours long. I'm personally glad that most of the events in the cave were cut to reduce the inevitable deluge of Twilight-style fan-girl squealing that would have ruined the movie.

Suzanne Collins herself helped write the script and helped oversee revisions (such as writing Madge out and changing the origins of the Mockingjay pin). Some of these things, while great supporting details for establishing characters, just wouldn't help the movie at all - I would even say that whole sequence would further confuse an audience.

All in all, I was very impressed. I feel like the trimming that was done to keep the story contained in a single movie was done well without sacrificing too many details. But I have read the book. I do feel like it is a difficult thing to grasp if you only watch it once without having read the book because of first-person perspective problem.

Naturally, the books are always better.

As a stand alone movie I can understand some of the changes made, but apparently there's going to be 3 more movies, and some of the minor characters cut from the first movie are kind of important in the later books. Like changing the scene with Rue doesn't really change the story that much, why does it matter that she was trapped in the net at the time, but wouldn't it have been cool to have left the punch bowl scene in? In the next film when the new games keeper introduces himself wouldn't it have been cool to have given people unfamiliar with the books a way to remember who that character was?


IDK; I think I'd just be likely to whole on f$&@ shit up in general if I was in that society. I don't think I'd be too damn productive anyway.


Uninvited Ghost wrote:
Terquem wrote:
If there is an agricultural paradise just the other side of a non working electric fence, and the inhabitants of a destitute coal mining town have a choice of dying a slow agonizing death in the town, or dying while trying to escape into the agricultural paradise, how is it that anyone stays in the town?

What do you do for a living and where do you live?

I think many people work some kind of job where they feel they slave away all day and probably don't live too far from agricultural paradise, but live in a city anyways.

Does not seem like a stretch to me.

I am an engineer at a remote government site in the Idaho dessert. I live in a town of 50,00 that some would say is surrounded by an "agricultural paradise", however there is a significant difference between living in a town where there are grocery stores within walking distance of my house, and no one is supposedly starving to death, and the situation as described in the movie. No one here is starving to death, nor are they living in squaller.

Sovereign Court

One of the main things that we loose with Katniss' inner voice is just how messed up she is going into the games. She's a survivor and even at the very end, moments before she and Peeta make their desperate gambit, she pulls her bow at him because even after all they'd been through she can't allow herself to trust him completely. The movie needs to glaze over her father's tragic death, her mother's bought of depression, and Peeta's charitable donation of the burnt bread and how it sparks her survivalist instincts.

Katniss goes beyond the fence because she had to. Her sister was starving, her mother had shut down completely, but Katniss was lucky because her father had taken her beyond the wall before. He'd shown her how to hunt and what plants she could eat. She was terrified of what lurked beyond the walls but her family was starving. Katniss had the skills to survive out there though, almost no one else in town is as lucky, and these facts are sadly glazed over.

One of the things that's not explained in the movie is that pouching in the woods is punishable by death. There's talk about having your tongue ripped out, but that would be for just being caught outside the walls. If Katniss or Gale were ever caught pouching in the woods it would be a death sentience. Also their are packs of wild dogs and worse in the woods. The forest is a dangerous place to be if you don't know what to eat.

Liberty's Edge

Fake Healer wrote:

I gotta say this, although I hate being "that guy".....

We live in a time where teens are doing disgusting horrible acts to each other. Anything from rape, violence, death, purposeful maiming, etc....
I fully expect to hear of some group of idiots doing some horror-story crap that emulates parts of this film, using it as an excuse for their behavior.
I recently read a news story about a 15 year old girl who beat, strangled and stabbed a 9-10 year old girl to death because she "wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone". There are many news stories about a group of teens beating a single younger kid to death for amusement.
Do we really need to make a fun lil' movie about teens killing teens? Even if it is supposed to be about the oppression of society and an intellectual study of parallels to our political state, the kids seeing this are gonna go "Whoa, cool!!! Did you see how X slaughtered Y?!?! That was so cool! He/she is the coolest!!!"
I weep for our callous society as we continue to degenerate into nothing more than beast ruled by instinctual violence and greed.

Wow, really?

First, educate yourself, there is no provable cause and effect relationship between what people read / watch / play and them becoming serial killers. It takes something that makes much more of an impact that a tv show / book / movie to make a normal person into a murderer.

Secondly, people have been reading stories of violence, genocide, and all the rest for hundreds of years, and hearing such stories for thousands more. Leda & the Swan, Trojan War, the Bible, Macbeth, etc. Truth is, our time is a pretty wonderful time to be alive, we're advancing human rights slowly but surely, and yes, while there have been some set backs those of us in first world nations have it better than anyone else at any other point in history.

Third, there has always been a subsection of the population that are going to do horrible things. It may seem like there are more now, but that's more due to media coverage of that group than anything else. (Two hundred years ago, they'd have scarcely heard about a serial killer 100 miles away, much less one on the other side of the globe. We live in a much smaller world now.)

Fourth, as was pointed out, this is a cautionary tale, not one that delights in violence and death. I personally have never heard about anyone going out and burning down a house because they read Farenheight 451. Have you?


So...is Hunger Games supposed to take place on a future/alternate Earth, or is it supposed to be set in its own world/universe?

Anymore questions and I swear I'll just buy the darn books rather than asking here.

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