Saw it this weekend…not bad. Not a classic, but a good enough flick.
One thing that keeps nagging at me, though – do the books go into any more detail about the sponsors? I mean, it seems to me that if people are able to pay to send “power-ups” into the game, then they would have to be prohibitively expensive – the equivalent of six-or-seven figure dollar amount – in order to send them in, wouldn’t they? Otherwise it would just be raining hamburgers and body armor.
The way Heymitch talked about getting things from sponsors being such an integral part of the game, I had assumed they were pretty common – something you could expect to see two or three times a day if you were a popular player. From what they showed, however, that really wasn’t the case. Any more info on that in the books?
And something else that just occurred to me – since they allow gambling, why not bet everything you have on Player X and then send them an AK-47?
Finally saw it last night with Pepper Mill. Her remark was that she was more forgiving of changes from the book than our daughter, MilliCal, is. I thought it was well done and the departures from the book necessary, given time constraints. I think the critics wo accused the film of looking “cheesy” and 1970s-like need their heads examined. The film has absolutely gorgeous matte work and CGI. The scenes in the districts look cheap because they’re supposed to. They not only emphasize the poverty of the districts, they’re supposed to contrast the humdrum “everyday” life in the districts with the hyped-up exciting stuff in the Capitol. Look at the way The Little Mermaid and The Corpse Bride have dull, drab colors and settings in the openings, compared to the undersea/underworld scenes. Same thing.
I could’ve done without Ross’ overdone “shakycam” shots – a little of that goes a long way. I also could’ve done with more of Haymitch’s conversion. as it is, he goes fromdissolute drunk to caring mentor way too easily and quickly. I also think the critics who objected to the obscuration of the killing scenes need to step back sand look at it. Implication is enough, and arguably better. These people probably would’ve wanted to see Arnold plunge the X-acto knife into his eyeball in that scene in the original Terminator.
You’ve pretty much nailed it. The books indicate that sponsor gifts are very expensive, and the prices increase dramatically as the game progresses. So you might be able to convince a wealthy sponsor to send some medical gel on day 3, but you’ll have to gather a whole group of sponsors to send some soup broth on day 15 after the tributes have been whittled down. In the book, a very big part of Haymitch’s job while the games are going on is schmoozing with folks from the capital and trying to get people to sponsor Katniss and Peeta. That’s why he wants her to play up the romance angle; it gives him a hook to make them attactive to sponsors.
Edit: I forgot to say about the AK-47 – it’s not address specifically, but presumably such heavy arms would cost a literal fortune. Also, although I don’t recall it being spelled out, I got the impression that sponsors could only send in gifts approved by the Gamekeepers.
I respectfully disagree. One thing I enjoyed about the books is that Collins is very clear that the Games are a highly damaging event and **everyone **that survives is a psychological and emotional mess…this is reflected in the way that Katniss includes Enobaria ( Quarter Quell Career from District 2 ) in the immunity she demands and the group decisions made by the survivors even though District 2 is considered Capitol friendly.
I basically see Katniss as a totally shell-shocked survivor doing what she has to do to survive day to day and I understand how that when the trauma is over she would kind of slip back into a quiet and damaged life with one of the only people that can truly understand her and I thought that Gale going away to live a normal life without leaving much of a blip on her radar sort of rang true and I thought the part that makes you ragey was a marvelous bit of understatement.
There are things that bug me about the series, though…I could never reconcile the premise that the Careers almost always win the games with the fact that out of 59 living winners they managed to scare up a make and female from each district. I also found inconsistencies with district 4 being a Career district …was Annie really a Career??? Was Finnick ??? I know he was an incredible player the first time around but would they really put him in as a Career at 14…why not hone his skills a few more years?
And my last comment is that I am sort of giggling whenever I catch people trying to relate the Districts vs Capitol to our current political climate because it’s obvious they didn’t read the last book
We finally saw this yesterday (we’ve read the books), and I have all sorts of thoughts. First:
For the life of me I don’t know how I didn’t connect Katniss Everdeen to Ree Dolly before walking into the theater, but about 30 seconds into the movie the big light bulb went off. I loved Winter’s Bone, and that character has stuck with me more than most movie characters ever will, so it felt like great casting. In fact, I think I’ll go rewatch Winter’s Bone (and it’s too bad it didn’t occur to Gary Ross to find a role for John Hawkes!).
Then:
I took my sons (13 and 11) with me, and was grateful for the early jump-cutting since that really obscured a lot of the violence. My sons got what was going on, but the images were mostly too brief to stick.
I was also glad they dropped the bio-engineering of the mutts. I think that would have been pretty disturbing as well.
Only 8,000 people to mine coal, right? But who says the Capital really needs coal in the first place?
Someone asked about alliances upthread. Remember that unlike reality TV, a lot of Tributes didn’t ask or want to be there. They may not have adjusted mentally to the idea of doing anything but surviving, and in fact may not even have the capacity to do more than that.
I thought Lenny Kravitz was great as Cinna, and Stanley Tucci was great as Cesar. And Elizabeth whats-her-name too. I was startled, however to see Percy Alleline sitting in as Cesar’s guest-host.
Overall, 75 out of 100. I’m looking forward to the second movie, and then Suzanne Collins using the 3rd movie to maybe fix some things.
Is there a thread on the books? Because I want to respond to the spoilers above regarding Book 3 (Mockingbird) which I just finished.
[spoiler]Being dragged away by Peacekeepers is not the last time Katniss sees Gale, remember. He comes to her during her recovery from the bombing, before Snow’s execution, and they both realize that she’ll never be able to get past the fact that he (and Beetee)created the bombs that killed her sister and all those capitol children and rebel medics. She knows it’s not fair, but the wedge between them is permanent.
I have to say the whole war in Mockingbird seemed very rushed. Collins really could have used another book to stretch it out.[/spoiler]
It’s completely fair! Gale created the bombs for the specific purpose of murdering first responders. That makes him a terrible person, just as bad as the Capital pilots that bombed the hospital earlier in the book. The only reason she thinks it’s not fair is because she’s a terrible person too, and has been from before she was even in the Hunger Games.[/SPOILER]
WOULD YOU GUYS PLEASE STOP??!! Spoiler boxes or not, you’re giving away MASSIVE spoilers to the 3rd book in the wrong thread. Jesus! I don’t give a shit that I might be Junior Modding at this point. Ban the fuck out of me, I don’t care. These spoilers are making me livid. I have read the books, a few days ago, but if I hadn’t I’d be shockingly spoiled. I get e-mails about responses to threads I’ve posted in/subscribed to. Spoiler boxes don’t work in the e-mails. What’s written is right there, fully readable.
This thread is for the FIRST MOVIE. The movie of the 3rd book won’t be out for at least a couple of years or so.
You’re all being very very rude, when there are other threads about the book trilogy. STOP!
If the spoiler tags do not work as intended in an edge case most people will never see, blame whoever coded the subscription system, not the people who thought they were doing the right thing by using the tags specifically created for that purpose.
I’m befuddled that this is your response to Equipoise. The polite thing to do would be to apologize and take second and third book spoilers into the appropriate thread(s), regardless of who’s at fault for spoilers being sent via email.
Equipoise, I’m not going to ban the anything out of you, but please take this as a gentle piece of advice that you might want to dial back the invective.
To everyone: these book-to-movie or -TV adaptations are causing a lot of heated feelings in Cafe Society these days (see also: Game of Thrones, Walking Dead). We as moderators must balance posters’ desires to talk about these works freely with fairness to all … and frequently we haven’t read each and every item under discussion so it is difficult to tell who is in the “wrong.”
If everyone could try to:
A. Post only what is relevant to the thread topic;
B. Spoiler things that you suspect might spoil others’ enjoyment of the material; and
C. Respond calmly and/or report any posts you suspect might be in violation of rules/etiquette
Also, after thinking about it a bit, it might be better for those using email notifications to turn them off if they’re involved in spoiler-potential threads. As Grumman points out, they are intended to shield excerpts from view when using a desktop computer, and if that doesn’t work with email notifications it’s probably best to forgo that option — since it is, after all, optional.
Equipose, I’m sorry for making you angry. I asked if there was a thread to discuss the books (knowing that would be a better place for the discussion) and I was very careful to use spoiler tags and indicate what I was spoiling. That seems pretty reasonable. It’s the first I’ve heard that people get email notifications that don’t respect spoiler tags.
Ditto for this - I thought the tags were all that was necessary.
Please consider that most posters here aren’t **trying **to spoil things, or to get on your last nerve - most of us probably made the assumption that placing things inside spoiler tags was resolving the problem.
