The Hunger Games
Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”
I was impressed by the wild art design for the grotesque villains, and Jennifer Lawrence's acting in a difficult role. But beyond the premise, the story was utterly conventional. I became impatient waiting for every predictable moment to happen already.
− April 8, 2012 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply
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Samir Mehta: “It ruled.”
Fantastic. It took a YA novel with a narration problem and gave it urgency and accessibility.
− June 8, 2012 • more by Samir • log in or create an account to reply
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Lori Lancaster: “It was ok.”
It was nice enough on its own... If you are into movies that take their 'groundbreaking ideas' from other movies that were released a decade or so ago. Battle Royale did it better in storyline... It made you feel more for the characters than some heroine who did one great thing and then relied on others so that she didnt necissarily face any hardships. The special effects on Hunger Games were awesome, and the story was good, it just wasnt original or the end-all be-all of tragic youth stories.
Shakey-cam didn't help things much either.
I am sure things are much better explained in the books, but there seemed to be a lot of stuff missing...
− June 12, 2012 • more by Lori • log in or create an account to reply
Scott Hardie: Well, the idea of people hunting each other for entertainment has been around for a long time. The Most Dangerous Game did it a century ago, and The Lord of the Flies featured kids hunting each other. But yeah, The Hunger Games has very strong similarities to Battle Royale. The potential good that can come out of this controversy is HG fans being inspired to check out BR because they've now heard of it. It might even lead to an American remake of BR, although that could easily turn out to be a bad thing. Imagine the hysterical irony if a BR remake was made and clueless HG fans accused it of being a rip-off. :-)
Speaking of originality, I was bothered by how predictable the plot turns felt in HG, as I noted in my review above. And yet when I saw Prometheus, the standard horror-movie plot beats didn't trouble me at all; they were merely boring, not frustrating. I've been wondering why that is... I suspect it's because word of mouth prepped me for how utterly by-the-book some of the Prometheus scenes are, whereas I heard nothing but praise for how "original" Hunger Games was until I saw for myself, something that has obviously bothered you too, Lori. It would be to its benefit if HG was regarded more as a clever amalgam of many interesting ideas from our modern culture and less as "groundbreaking." − June 13, 2012 • more by Scott
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Erik Bates: “It ruled.”
There's arguments to be made, both for and against, about a movie too closely following the book on which it is based. In this case, following the book so closely turned out to be a good decision, mostly because I didn't want to spend all my time listening to the tweens complaining about how the movie sucked because it didn't include X, Y, or Z. If you've read the book -- you've seen the movie, and vice versa.
− December 17, 2012 • more by Erik • log in or create an account to reply
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Evie Totty: “It ruled.”
Wow really? I didn't put a review of this in when I saw it? Must have been before I met you guys :)
I loved it. I believe I saw it in the theater four times this year. For me to see a movie even twice is a big deal. To see it four times ... well you get the gist.
Of course, I've read the books. I even re-read them in the week following seeing this movie the first time. Having read the books, I was able to read further into the story and understand the characters better. In other words, Peeta was sorely misrepresented...
I am looking forward to the remainder of the series that's for sure.
− December 23, 2012 • more by Evie • log in or create an account to reply
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write your own review of The Hunger Games
Other Movies from 2012
Bernie
Scott Hardie and Samir Mehta say, "It ruled." Go »
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