The Hunger Games

[lab276]

It wasn't Rue's death per say, but the scene afterward that got me.

[Hiccup]

AJennifer Lawrence is amazing. The visuals and actions were great. Loved the pre-games and the games. I still have to see it a second time though because I wasn't blown away by the movie. The shaky camera was tolerable but still annoying. The tributes parade was underwhelming and they down played Katniss/Peeta romance quite a bit. Overall great movie!

[baumer]

AJennifer Lawrence is amazing. The visuals and actions were great. Loved the pre-games and the games. I still have to see it a second time though because I wasn't blown away by the movie. The shaky camera was tolerable but still annoying. The tributes parade was underwhelming and they down played Katniss/Peeta romance quite a bit. Overall great movie!

I'm reading a lot of posts like this. You guys say you weren't blown away by it but you give it an A and say it was a great movie. It's like you're afraid to admit it to yourself and to everyone else that the film kind of sucked.

[cozmeesah]

Or maybe that's actually the way they feel and don't think it kind of sucked. A person can think a movie is great without being blown away by it, ya know.You don't have a clue what would make any other person be "blown away" by anything. So it's not really fair to question their grades and opine that they just don't want to admit that it sucked.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Cozmees Everdeen

[Hiccup]

Blow away for me a A+. The Hunger Games gets a low A or a high A-

[rockNrollaDIM]

Coz, did you ever post a full review? I'd be interested to hear all your thoughts!Baumer, the film improved a lot for me on the second viewing. And many of my complaints were just nitpicking, as a fan of the novels. I do think that the relationship with Peeta-Katniss and Rue-Katniss were both a bit underdeveloped, and like I said before I wasn't crazy about shaky cam, but those critiques weren't big enough to negate all the things I loved about it. If I hadn't read the books, I wouldn't have even complained about Peeta/Katniss not having enough time.

[cozmeesah]

No, haven't had time. Been crazy busy at work and too tired to even try when I get home.

[Noctis]

I'm going to end up seeing this film around four times in theaters (as much as DH2 although I was way busier when that film came out), but the more I think of the film, the more I feel it's lacking in certain areas. Acting was universally amazing, particularly from Lawrence, Banks, and Tucci. I know some have criticized the music, but I generally enjoyed it, especially when Katniss salutes District 11. I do think the film did a pretty good job at developing the relationship between Peenis, although I would have liked to see some humorous moments between them as well as talking about their families. When Katniss and Rue went to sleep, why couldn't they have had some dialogue between them to strengthen their relationship? The emotion I felt was during the rebellion in District 11, not with Rue (although my friend cried during Rue's death and she's never read the books).Also, what was up with the mutts' design? In the books they were wolf-like that could walk and run on their hind-legs, which is a much more terrifying image than what we got. Also, wasted opportunity with the Avoxes (the scene between Katniss and the avox girl in the book was quite touching). The shaky-camera is still a huge nuisance and inundated a huge amount of tension and emotion they could have otherwise achieved.

[cozmeesah]

Also, what was up with the mutts' design? In the books they were wolf-like that could walk and run on their hind-legs, which is a much more terrifying image than what we got.

I think what was there was plenty terrifiying. Giant fast & vicious dog-like things. That's pretty friggin scary.

Also, wasted opportunity with the Avoxes (the scene between Katniss and the avox girl in the book was quite touching).

Why? That would have deviated from the main plot line and distracted the viewers from what and whom the filmmakers wanted you to care about the most. Sure, it would have been okay if they would have at least explained what Avoxes were to further demonstrate the cruelty of the Capitol. But that particular Avox girl is about as important to the plot of the movie as Madge would have been. Which is to say basically not at all.It just would have added another minor character that they couldn't spend very much time on making people care about therefore giving non-readers something else to complain about.

[BK007]

I thought Hutcherson was great. No one mentions him for whatever reason but he certainly holds his own ground.

[Noctis]

I thought Hutcherson was great. No one mentions him for whatever reason but he certainly holds his own ground.

I mentioned him. I've always been a fan of Hutcherson, and he was certainly great in this. I loved his portrayal of Peeta.

[Heretic]

I loved this.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss was absolutely fantastic. She ebodied her courage, fear and strength perfectly. The other characters were good too, however I wish they had more development. That was one thing that lacked majorly. The whole film felt very raw obviosuly emphasized by that shaky camera giving the effect you were running with the characters and were involved in the Hunger Games. To some extent, it was effective, but at times I must admit, it got annoying as I couldn't even make out what was going on. Visually, it was beautiful. The Capitol in all it's colorfulness and craziness worked really well on screen.

It was very choppy though. I didn't like how fast some of the scenes went by before they suddenly stopped and skipped to the next scene. In that sense it felt rushed...as if they crammed too much in...it didn't really flow very well.

The score wasn't really significant but I liked it for what it was. Rue's theme was the only one that was quite distinctive, so hopefully they'll build on that in the next film.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm eagerly anticipating Catching Fire.

A-

Edited March 28, 2012 by Heretic

[BiffMan]

Re-watched it today. Have to say one of the biggest surprises for me is Woody's performance. I groaned when I first heard he was going to play Haymitch, but he holds his own and then some. Upon re-watch, I caught quite a few nice subtleties in his performance and glad they got him in that role.

[FTF]

Saw this last night (thank you discount Tuesday) and while it was pretty good/ok, it wasn't great at all. Perhaps, like Baumer, this movie just wasn't for me and didn't really connect. I think it partly has to do with me having not read the book yet (I want to now though) and me being 29 and the movie clearly being aimed for a younger audience.I liked the concept, Jennifer lawerence was good, as was Harelson and Banks, but I didn't like the actor playing Peter at all (they had no chemistry, but I know that was partly on purpose) and found hardly any excitement or tension durning the games. Plus, as others have pointed out, I thought the games took weeks but in the movie in seems like only a few days and I didn't like how they "Truman showed" the results and manipulated the games with fire and weird mutant computer dogs. I also didn't feel much connection to the characters and therefore many of their deaths weren't a big deal to me (obviously those who read the book would feel different I'm sure).I also don't think the PG-13 rating, shakey cam and low budget helped things (but the PG-13 rating was always a given). Having seen, and liked, Battle Royal, and this feeling like a watered down kiddie version of that also didn't help things.Anyway, I can see how teens and college kids are eating this up, but it was just an ok/pretty good, but forgettable, movie to me.7/10 or C/C+

[75Live]

^ Pretty much sums up how I feel as well.

[Heretic]

I wish they'd had a bit more character development in the film. For me, that was by far the biggest problem. The only person I could connect with was Katniss...had it not been for her, the film would have fallen flat. Hopefully they can develop in the next film.

[BoxOfficeZ]

Finally saw the film yesterday.I'm a bit mixed on the film, the acting was great, sets solid, but my major problem with this movie is that it felt shallow. You didn't get a sense you're in this world set up by the author. The movie left out a lot of the stuff that made the books interesting to me. The CGI was a bit bad, but I guess I can let that slid. Another issue, is the camera work, whoever did it needs to be fired because it was terrible, the constant shaking. The character development left a lot to be desired.Essentially, the movie has been hollywoodized.I give it a C+/B-

Edited March 30, 2012 by BoxOfficeZ

[lab276]

http://threatquality.com/2012/03/29/things-the-cameraman-of-the-hunger-games-might-have-been-thinking/

[lab276]

The movie left out a lot of the stuff that made the books interesting to me.

Like... Edited March 30, 2012 by lab276

[friendofnarnia]

I'm pretty sure a majority of the movie was filmed by Haymitch.