I’m kind of like that. I mean what the heck does Harry Potter do with a diploma from Hogwarts?
From a bit of Googling, it seems the population of District 12 is specified in the book as 8,000 people.
Clearly the Capital is much much larger, but the population seems to be mostly foppish, hedonistic imbeciles.
They let Peeta in only because they though he’d lead them to Katniss; the other boy was allowed in because he figured out how to rewire the landmines so they could move them.
Yeah, but it still makes an interesting “Prisoner’s Dilema” style game theory problem.
If you know I can easily kill you, there is an incentive for us to work together as long as you have something to offer (that I can’t simply kill you and take). Of course, since there is only one winner allowed, it’s also in your interest to kill me as soon as my back is turned or I go to sleep (which I have to do sometime).
Saw it last night, and I had read the books. Like the first book reasonably well enough, thought there was only enough material for one additional book which got spread over the next two.
Not sure I’ll see the subsequent movies. Feels like they dropped the ball on a lot of stuff, but the movie was already overlong as it was.
Agree with this 100%. I saw it with my wife, who had not read the books, and all the other tributes were just a blur to her. Rue registered because she got some independent screen time, but the others were lost on her.
And Gale was just so horribly, horribly miscast. I know they are all playing below their age since it’s a teen story, but I kept thinking “what is that 30 year old man doing with all those little kids?”. Came across as more of an uncle than a romantic interest.
Liam Hemsworth is only 22 now. I’m not sure how long ago this was filmed, but he wasn’t more than 21 at the time.
Don’t know if this was addressed in the book (haven’t read it) but there was a part in the movie that was a little odd. Peeta did that amazing face paint that allowed him to hide very well, which earlier in the movie he attributed to knowledge of cake decorating at his family’s bakery. Do you find that there’s a lot of demand for elaborately decorated cakes in district 12, where they appear to be starving and eating cooked squirrel?
The cakes aren’t for the average people, but any higher ups that can afford it. In the book he even tells how there are many things that his family makes that they can’t even afford to eat.
Saw it over the weekend, and really enjoyed it. I wasn’t blown away, though. However, I think my familiarity with the story, as well as the special effects’ ability to just blend into the background didn’t really allow for any single “wow” moment. Everything seemed very natural, which is a testament to special effects these days.
One thing I did chuckle at was the Games’ control room, and how all the workers wore short sleeve dress shirts, like they were all pulled straight from a 1960s NASA mission control.
Saw it tonight. One thing that bugged me (I haven’t read the books - don’t know if that changes things) is how Haymitch mentions how important it is to find and keep water, and we are told something like 10% of players die from dehydration. So we finally see the arena, and there’s this huge river, with obviously potable water, running straight through the whole thing! Stevie Wonder could have kept hydrated in this game.
Saw it. Not read the books (on order). A few observations. 1) Jennifer Lawrence is not fat!. 2) Did Peeta really begin to buy into the “in love” thing? It reminds me a bit of school when you had a crush on a girl and she actually talked to you…well lets say young boys are not the best judges of intention 3) I repeat the water bit; although perhaps there is a new type of terrain every year and they lucked out that it was woodland this time and not a desert?
Yeah, each year the terrain changes.
In the book looking for water is a much bigger deal.
What RandMcnally said, but to expand, the arena is different each year. Also, in the book, she goes for almost two days (IIRC) without water, and it’s when she’s directly asked Haymitch for water (knowing that her every move is being broadcast live) and has gotten no response from him that she puts together that if he isn’t doing anything to help her, it means that there’s water close by. This is the start of his subtly communicating to her through what he sends or doesn’t send and the timing of it.
In the book, the mentors are only allowed to send things, not notes. I did understand why the movie showed Haymitch including brief notes with his parachutes; how else could they get across to the audience what he was trying to say to her?
One more thing: the water might have looked potable, but there is never a guarantee that things are as they appear in the arena. In Haymitch’s Games, everything about the environment was deadly, including the water and even the fragrance of the flowers if inhaled too deeply or too long. The Gamemakers’ interest in in staging exciting Games, not giving the tributes an even shake.
The arena is much larger in the book. She spends the first few days putting distance between her and the cornucopia.
I saw it yesterday. Good, not great movie, but I definitely enjoyed it. I really went in blind other than knowing “it’s a fight to the death.” I honestly thought the Games were months-long and the trilogy would cover the course of one whole game. I was pretty surprised when the got to training and the said “everyone is going to be dead in a week.”
I agree that the whole “water is important” part didn’t pan out. They made such a big deal about how the elements are just as dangerous as the competitors, but pretty much everyone was killed by someone else except for the girl who ate the berries.
Also, I thought they were going to reveal that the arena was in District 12 and they were going to escape. The arena was very similar to the woods in the opening of the story, and they showed that one guy looking at the big hill in the distance as the games were starting. I figured that’s were the arena was and the guy was going to break Katniss out.
From what I remember in the book, there was a lake near the cornucopia, but that’s where the Careers had made their camp, so she couldn’t look for water there and had to go in the opposite direction for water. Yes, it was difficult for HER to find water based on the circumstances, but not necessarily everyone
I saw the movie last week and I am enjoying the amount of people here who didn’t like the movie; although I’m in college so I’m surrounded by more fandom people.
My biggest gripe about the movie (having previously read the books) is the characterization. I thought they did a terrible job with Katniss. The book goes into great detail showing you that she is both strong-willed and overwhelmingly hurt by everything happening, yet in the movie I only know she’s strong because I had to have literally three characters tell me this. They screwed Gale up like none other too. He has practically no point in the movie.
I’m gonna be the first on this board to say I didn’t like the acting. I thought Jennifer Lawrence overacted way too much when she was supposed to (I volunteer!!!) and the rest of the time she was just a mannequin. Josh Hutchenson (Peeta) acted and talked just like his character, but the look was off, he was too attractive/built for what I thought Peeta would be.
The writing was pretty bad too. Whenever you adapt something like that you have to ask if you’re making the movie for the fans of the book or for people who didn’t read it, they tried both and failed. They did not show enough of the history of Peeta and Katniss (not enough throwing bread to hungry girl scenes), they didn’t show ANY history between her and Gale, nothing with her and her father, way way too little about her and her mother. I will again agree with the statement of the movie’s writers just having a checklist of things to talk about.
Did anyone who didn’t read the books first honestly care about Katniss? I feel the movie didn’t get the audience emotionally involved enough in her, unless we read the books first and knew we had to.
I really could probably think of more things to say, but honestly the number one issue I have is the movie’s writing and characterization.
It’s a combination of The Lottery, The Running Man, and Lord of the Flies. I’m having a hard time saying I enjoyed it, because the premise was diseased and sick. I can’t for the life of me figure out how blood sport with children could ever be something enjoyable.
Yet I liked the movie. I’ll have to think about that some more.
I read the book Wednesday afternoon & evening. I saw the movie Thursday afternoon. I read the other two books Friday and Saturday.
I think the biggest problem with the movie could have easily been resolved if it had been narrated by Katniss, like the books are.
The whole Peeta-throwing-bread thing could have actually been told to us, like it was in the book, and then we would have known how important an event it was to Katniss.
Her relationship with Gale could have been described by her as we saw shots/scenes of them hunting together, talking, and watched their relationship change from distrustful cooperation to mutual compatability, and we would know how important that was to Katniss.
The whole reason the book is able to make you invested in Katniss is because we are inside her head, hearing her doubts, her fears, her innermost thoughts as she wrestles with new and complex moral decisions. The film moved us to a 3rd person perspective at the cost of that intimate connection with the main characters.
It’s one reason I like the original theatrical release of Blade Runner so much: for me the movie is about Deckard, and the issues he deals with as he deals with the issue of the replicants. It’s not about the issue of the replicants at all, it’s about one man’s coming to grips with who and what he is, and making decisions about who and what he wants to be.
The Hunger Games is similar: it isn’t about the fight-to-the-death arena at all, it’s about a young woman coming to grips with who she is, what she wants, what she will and won’t do to achieve her goals, etc. That comes across in the books, but the movie lost that aspect by changing to a 3rd person narrative structure. It was a poor decision, and it really compromised the subject matter.
I’d give the movie 6/10 tho, because it was very well made and still told a fairly coherent story that was interesting. But it didn’t make me want to watch it again, and it certainly didn’t make me long for the next part of the story. This is a series that now exists for fans of the books who aren’t going to overly critical, simply because they just want to see the movies, not because they are the best movies that could have been made. It’s a shame, really, because this film could have been great instead of merely adequate.
Yeah, I liked Katniss a lot. Whether that’s because I already liked Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone, and Ree and Katniss have many many many things in common, I don’t know. But I liked her, had no trouble following the movie, and the movie made me want to read the books. Which I will, unless the book readers start getting TOO obnoxious, which hasn’t happened yet, but threatens to, starting with your post.
Any time book readers tell non-book readers that the movie they liked is shit because it doesn’t have exactly what the book readers’ think it should have, that’s obnoxious.
