The Hunger Games

[acsc1312]

I actually liked the score (the little it was in). The District 11 scene gave me chills the whole time. I only disliked the shaky cam at the beginning (found it unnecessary), the actual games shaky cam was ok. More later.

[rockNrollaDIM]

I never mentioned it before, but I actually liked the score. There was one kind of whistling piece I had stuck in my head. Also thought the silence worked well in parts.

[iceroll]

I thought the battles were really well done. The shakiness was there to show how hectic everything was without being to violent for a PG-13 rating.

[ddddeeee]

I never mentioned it before, but I actually liked the score. There was one kind of whistling piece I had stuck in my head. Also thought the silence worked well in parts.

I liked the silence too, since I generally think movies are overscored. But I thought the action music was painfully generic and the guitar music failed to make any impact whatsoever.The music for the tribute parade was utterly fantastic though.

[American Eagle]

That's what I meant. When she holds out her fingers and they all do the same...

Everyone I've talked to, and myself too, adored this added-in scene. Also, when Prim tucked in her shirt... :(Oh, and the movie was fantastic. Glad I was the midnight showing.

[BiffMan]

I'll preface by saying I'm a big fan of the books and had read them 12+ months ago and re-read at least twice. Very solid and faithful adaptation of the book, but as happens (to me at least) with books made into movies, I can't help but see it as a somewhat hollow echo of the book. Harry Potter had the same effect on me: great movies, but make me want to go read the book again for the "moreness" of them.That said, very happy with it, and LG did themselves proud. Other than not being a fan of shaky-cam, everything else worked very well. Good choices of what to keep/lose/add from the book, excellent performances, and a good balance of action and story.It hasn't really given me that burning need to see it again immediately as other recent movies have and I'm good with it not being as rich as the book since I can always go re-read that. Doesn't take anything away from the film.

[JohnnY]

I wasn't expecting much, but I really liked the movie. I just felt that it was a bit rushed in some parts, like some of you guys said, they couldn't develop the relationship between Rue and Katniss very well. I didn't really care about her death, I barely knew her, if only they showed her a bit more.

[AniNate]

My thoughts are really scattered right now. First of all, I was surprised by just how brutal and grim this movie was. It really pushes the PG-13 rating and I felt they showed just enough of the end result for the violence to have a visceral impact.

I loved how the whole affair surrounding the games was portrayed: A mixture of reality-tv human interest stories, the Olympics/Macy's style of the District parade, and ESPN-ish commentary on the games themselves. Panem is really a fascinating dystopia, with everyone in the Capitol so bizarrely oblivious to the horror on display and wallowing in their excess, while the surrounding districts have kind of resigned themselves to submission.

The plot itself could've been better, though. Considering this is the "73rd annual" running of the Games I find the implication that Peeta was the first guy to ever use the romantic angle to curry favor from sponsors a little hard to believe, and I'd also think the Capitol would've had something in place to discourage double suicides at the end after so long a time. I was hoping for a far more inventive way for both Katniss and Peeta to survive.

As for the cast, they were all fine but none of them really stood out. Lawrence plays Katniss as downbeat and brooding, which I think fits. Her sorta-romance with Peeta was done well but again after 73 years I'd think this would've happened a few times before since they pick one boy and girl from every district.

The best compliment I can give is I'm looking forward to the sequel. The movie's ending might be considered closed under different circumstances but you just know shit is going to go down soon after here.

B+

Edited March 24, 2012 by tribefan695

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I thought Rue's death just didn't work, we don't get to know her at all. I remember joking that the cinema should flood at that scene but I didn't even hear a sniff.The scene after with District 11, however, was fantastic.

Agreed it felt like Rue was barely on screenAny ways I liked so far the best film of 2011. I would recommended people to see this7/10

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I thought Rue's death just didn't work, we don't get to know her at all. I remember joking that the cinema should flood at that scene but I didn't even hear a sniff.The scene after with District 11, however, was fantastic.

Agreed it felt like Rue was barely on screenAny ways I liked so far the best film of 2011. I would recommended people to see this7/10

[Noctis]

Best film of 2011 is a 7? Wannabe pretentious...

[Fanboy]

I wouldn't have thought much of Rue's death if it weren't for Jennifer Lawrence's acting. Amandla Stenberg was pretty good too which was a relief, but when Jennifer cries it breaks my heart.

[fishstick]

Jen`s Body: A+Camera work: Z-Movie overall: I guess it`s B but I could hardly see anything for camera jerking, spasms, seizures and finally uncontrolled drunken spinning.

[lab276]

So I watched it again and it's even better than before. It's amazing that it held up so well. The shaky cam only bothered me at the start though, for the start of the games, I thought it was absolutely perfect. In fact the countdown is probably my favourite part of the film.It's still an A.

[ddddeeee]

I normally hate shaky cam but I thought it was extremely effective here.

[tommycruise]

A-Altogether a pretty good film, I felt that it was loyal to the book and that the story was very good. The acting was fairly good and I liked Woody Harrelson a lot in this and wished they would have explained some more about Haymitch's time at the games, I mean all they said was that he was a former winner but it never gave us anything else about him.I did feel like there were a couple of parts that did drag mainly because its 140 minutes long and the shaky cam at times annoyed me but other than these it was a very good movie.

[fishstick]

Cast was great as far as individual performences go. However, I just didn`t feel that Katniss and Peeta have much chemistry with Haymich or with each other.I guess that works on the "they were forced to work together out of necessity but there`s nothing else to it than circumstances out of their control" level. Katniss and Cinna clicked right away, though.Real bond. Seen and felt.Also, I didn`t feel any clicking between Katniss and Prim but Katniss and Rue was,like, boom. That`s it. That`s a real bond. That is why I must be the only person who thought that the movie clicked from the moment Katniss and Rue met in the woods. It was very strange before that. Not bad, not even close to bad, but something was off.Finally, my biggest complaint aside shakey cam is that Ross was more interested in technical aspect of the games, such as how the Games center manipulates it, and the dynamics between Snow and Crane, rather than how families feel about what they see on the screen. That made it a much colder movie than I expected from the trailer. I was really hoping that he would take an opportunity to show families reactions to deaths,etc but all we got was D11 uprising (great) and Gale`s reaction shots to Katniss&Peeta kissing (good comic timing but c`mon!Is jealousy the most important emotion that one should feel while watching games?)

Edited March 24, 2012 by fishnets

[ddddeeee]

The District 11 uprising gave me goosebumps, more than made up for Rue's underwhelming death. Probably my favourite scene in the movie and proof of how films can really improve on the novels in many ways.

[AniNate]

I bought the Rue/Katniss relationship too. Katniss saw a lot of Prim in her (being obviously the youngest person involved) so that's why she bonded with her and went into hysterics when she was killed.I liked all the technical aspects of the games, but I do agree there should've been more focus on the reactions to the other kids' deaths.

Edited March 24, 2012 by tribefan695

[rockNrollaDIM]

The District 11 uprising gave me goosebumps, more than made up for Rue's underwhelming death. Probably my favourite scene in the movie and proof of how films can really improve on the novels in many ways.

Same for me. It's weird how that works. The uprising totally saved the scene and made up for the underwhelming death. Is it just me or was the little girl's acting pretty bad in the scene? I'll cut her some slack cause she's so young but it wasn't very strong IMO. That on top of underdevelopment and not a particularly brutal scene as it was in the book (wasn't she completely impaled?).