Sci-Fi The Hunger Games Trilogy

Mauricem

Scout
Does anyone on here know much about the novels for The Hunger Games? The movie is coming out this week and I'd like to get a readers viewpoint. Yes, I could Google it. But, I'd like to get a real world perspective.
You can also answer on my blog at http://www.thegeektwins.com

Your help would be appreciated by myself and anyone else who knows nothing about this movie besides the trailers.
 
I haven't read the books so I can't really comment about the movies.

From what I have seen of the trailers, though, it isn't catching my attention enough to head out to see it.
 
My wife devoured the Hunger Games books in a matter of a week! She told me they were some of the best books she had ever read. A very high compliment coming from her since she reads all the time. I have not read the books yet, so I can't give you a first hand reader account of the story yet. I'll get more details from my wife and see if I can assist you, Mauricem. I plan to take her to see The Hunger Games within the next few weeks...... shhhhhh...... kind of a surprise!
 
I saw the film last week. It was fairly good actually. The inspiration for it came from an older Japanese film called Battle Royale which was adapted from a 1999 novel by Koushun Takami. Both films are worth seeing, although the Japanese original is darker.
 
My mom bought a movie of this but then we don't continue due to it has no sub-title and the language is very different. We wanted to understand it, if it has sub-title and not only because we can see their actions. I haven't read the book yet because I wanted to watch the movie first.
 
The trailer for the next movie in the trilogy, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, has been released. The movie is scheduled to open November 22nd of this year.

 
Just watched Catching Fire tonight... it was a little annoying that they stopped the movie mid-stream in order to lead into the third movie, Mockingjay, otherwise it kept my attention to see where people's alliances were. Even more annoying is that the Mockingjay will be split into two movies, one released in 2014 and the second part in 2015. At that rate it'd be easier for somebody to just pick up the books and read them several times over instead of waiting.
 
I liked this film although I preferred the first one. I didn't think Catching Fire offered anything the was essentially different but I genuinely think this is one of the few instances where the films surpass the books, particularly in the case of this second film. Found Katniss to be quite unlikeable in the books but Lawrence's performances do away with that in the films.

If I remember rightly, the third book was a bit of a mess so I'm quite worried about them splitting it into two films - there is a lot going on with potential to flesh out scenes in the capitol and have it being pretty much a war movie and that could be a possibility after seeing the trailer for Mockingjay from Comic-Con
 
Just watched Catching Fire tonight... it was a little annoying that they stopped the movie mid-stream in order to lead into the third movie, Mockingjay, otherwise it kept my attention to see where people's alliances were. Even more annoying is that the Mockingjay will be split into two movies, one released in 2014 and the second part in 2015. At that rate it'd be easier for somebody to just pick up the books and read them several times over instead of waiting.

Have you read the books Kevin? They actually do that in the books. It's awful. I think these films actually sacrifice making a cohesive film for mass audiences, in favor of making fans of the books happy. I didn't actually notice this when I was watching the movie, but I was speaking with people who hadn't read the books and for 90% of the second movie, they had no idea why anything was happening.
As for splitting Mockingjay, OH MY GOD, I hate this trend. I think it was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that kickstarted the trend, and I didn't feel back then that there was enough content to split it into two movies. I think when you're making a film, it has to be a single cohesive unit. When you make a trilogy, each film needs to be a single cohesive unit that, when combined, tells a bigger tale. But when you take a single story and split it in half, you get two pieces of story. That detracts from the whole film viewing experience of BOTH of those parts. It also relies on the same people viewing both parts of the movie. Normally in these cases, you can make that argument, but there are large numbers of people who don't think in that manner.

I liked this film although I preferred the first one. I didn't think Catching Fire offered anything the was essentially different but I genuinely think this is one of the few instances where the films surpass the books, particularly in the case of this second film. Found Katniss to be quite unlikeable in the books but Lawrence's performances do away with that in the films.

If I remember rightly, the third book was a bit of a mess so I'm quite worried about them splitting it into two films - there is a lot going on with potential to flesh out scenes in the capitol and have it being pretty much a war movie and that could be a possibility after seeing the trailer for Mockingjay from Comic-Con

Gemma, I think the key issue with the second film, as with the second book, is that it's literally "Whelp, Back into the hunger games!" I'm going to disagree that the film is better than the book though. The book isn't an amazing piece of literature, but the book has internal logical consistency. The extra information you get while reading the book informs a great deal of what's happening, whereas in the film, things just happen because they happened in the books.

I don't think the third book being a mess is the big issue for the third and fourth films. I think the issue is that there just isn't enough content for 2 films in that 1 book. It's a revolution. There are dozens of films that deal with the same concept in single films and many of them are quite good. Splitting it is just another cash grab from the studio. I was impressed with Catching Fire though in the way it laid the groundwork for the third and fourth films. Reading the books I felt like I got whiplash when I went from Hunger Games to Hunger Games to EPIC REVOLUTION MASS DEATH AND PTSD!!! That was absolutely one part where the films were better than the books.
 
Have you read the books Kevin?
I haven't and, honestly, not sure if I ever will. I'm not exactly in the 'young adult' demographic so a lot of titles that fall into that category I pass over but the first Hunger Games movie was available on cable so I thought I'd watch it to see what the fuss was about. It was better then what I as expecting it to be.

Gemma, I think the key issue with the second film, as with the second book, is that it's literally "Whelp, Back into the hunger games!"
Not being familiar with the source material, the books, I was a little surprised at that aspect of it as well. Having the previous winners be forced back into the game though did act as a way of bringing the discontent directly to the citizens of the Capitol. The public acts of rebellion was surging among the districts but it wasn't until the victors demonstration of solidarity against the games that the citizens of the Capitol also started turning against the games.

Knowing already that the third act has been split into two movies I will likely end up just waiting until next when when both are available and watch them back-to-back.
 
I haven't and, honestly, not sure if I ever will. I'm not exactly in the 'young adult' demographic so a lot of titles that fall into that category I pass over but the first Hunger Games movie was available on cable so I thought I'd watch it to see what the fuss was about. It was better then what I as expecting it to be.

Not being familiar with the source material, the books, I was a little surprised at that aspect of it as well. Having the previous winners be forced back into the game though did act as a way of bringing the discontent directly to the citizens of the Capitol. The public acts of rebellion was surging among the districts but it wasn't until the victors demonstration of solidarity against the games that the citizens of the Capitol also started turning against the games.

Knowing already that the third act has been split into two movies I will likely end up just waiting until next when when both are available and watch them back-to-back.

See, here's the thing for me in the books.

First book explains the world a bit and then throws Katniss and Peeta into the Hunger Games. It's in this book that it's established that the games are used to quell revolution.
The second book, Katniss is literally being punished for taking on the people in charge by threatening to kill herself and Peeta at the same time so that there's no winner in the first book. By standing up to Capitol, she proves that it can be done. So, she gets punished. Best way to do that, throw her back into the arena. It's mentioned in the movie that each person she kills will make the public hate her more.

The third book, NO HUNGER GAMES. This is where ALL the revolution stuff happens. It honestly felt like the author couldn't figure out a third way to involve the actual hunger games in her hunger games trilogy. But she clearly wanted book 3 to follow on directly from book 2, so book two ends with Katniss being pulled out of the games, unconscious, no idea what's going on, and nothing is explained until the next book. It really has no closure. This is another reason it pisses me off that they're making a movie 3 and 4. Books 2 and 3 already don't have individual stories so 3 and 4 will really be quaters of a story rather than halves.

Really, the much better thing to do would have been to completely rewrite the stories so that they work better as films.
First film, It's the hunger games. People clearly aren't pleased with the games, but nothing much else is happening.
Second film, sow the seeds of rebellion, TIE IT TO KATNISS! This is huge, Katniss really has nothing to do with the rebellion, it just sort of happens around her. She incites something of a riot with a speech about rue, but nothing else. Make it bigger. Explore it more.
Third film:
Katniss is pulled into the revolution as a figurehead, but give her agency. Make her actually significant to the revolution. She's not in the book, it just happens around her. Even though she's supposed to be "leading the revolution." Finish the story! It doesn't need to be 2 films. There just isn't that much stuff going on. Hey, it's a revolution what are you going to do, get part way through and say "To be continued..." ? No, that's stupid.

These books aren't dense. They're easily light enough to turn into very successful movies. The movies are making money but from a storytelling perspective, they're not succeeding. That's going to be worse in 3 and 4. I'll be seeing them, but only because my wife will want to go. The second film didn't make me want to go back into the cinema, particularly since the next film will be a 2 parter.
 
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Just though you might want to know there is a Blue Ray release streaming at putlocker
http://www.{...}/file/F711FA334904B4D3#
 
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