Hunger Games movie comment thread

[JasonEvans]

Grrrrr... wrote a long review and then my computer crashed and it went into the netherworld. Grrrr.

So, it took me some time to rewrite...

I came into this film with sky high expectations. I am talking about "one of the best sci-fi films of all-time” kind of expectations. So, when I tell you that it was a wonderful film that beautifully tracks the story of the book but it came up short of my expectations, please know that I am still heaping tremendous praise upon the movie.

Lets start with the good. Jennifer Lawrence does a very good job capturing the complexities of Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is not an easy character to play – a woman who is more than just strong and defiant, she must also be someone easy to fall in love with and yet not overconfident or prideful. Lawrence nails it… and it is a good thing she does because she is in every pretty much scene of the movie.

The supporting cast is also quite strong. I enjoyed Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch and wish he had been on screen more. Lenny Kravitz is great as Cinna and I won’t be upset or surprised if the movies veer off from the books and make him into a bigger character in the sequels. The one person who comes up a bit short is Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. I wanted him to be a little stronger. Peeta’s charm comes through a couple of times, but I think his character was a tad underdeveloped. The movie could have done a better job of building the romance between them and the uncertainty about their true feelings. The movie does not even begin to try to get into Katniss’ head the way the book does, which is fine, but there is a ton of nuance going on in her head that is missed in the movie. I also felt there could have been more character development of the other Games participants, as we don’t feel as much as I would have hoped when they face peril or death.

The leadup to the actual competition is excellent, in some ways it is the best part of the movie. There is a stark bleakness to the time in District 12 and then such a change when we get to The Capital. The training is really compelling. Sadly, the “Games” themselves were a bit flat, a lot of running around in the woods. This was the place where the book excelled in letting us hear Katniss’ thoughts, something the movie does not do. I also think the movie was so conscious of not wanting to show too much teen violence so that we don’t get quite the sense of peril, death, and danger that we did in the books. Make no mistake, there is action aplenty and plenty of death, but it did not grab me the same way it did in the book. Close, but not quite.

The 2 hour, 20 minute run time is a tad long. It probably could have been shortened by 15 minutes as the film does drag at times. But, my biggest criticism is that it follows the book so closely. As a result, people familiar with the book will rarely, if ever, be surprised. Knowing what was coming actually hurt the movie a bit for me. I truly think people who have not read the book will enjoy this movie even more than the book fans.

Make no mistake, it is a very good movie, one of the better action/sci-fi films I have seen in quite a while. I enjoyed it tremendously. If it did not quite live up to all of my high expectations, that is not a big deal. It is still a film worthy of your moviegoing dollars and the kind of thing that we need to see more of from Hollywood.

-Jason "look forward to hearing back from all of you who go see it in the next few days" Evans

[alteran]

I still can't get over that this BOOK was listed as a book for young people. I'm in my 70's and really liked it. Maybe I'm starting over.

The sci-fi genre has really become a death stamp in the last 10-15 years or so for sales. The irony is that public appetite for sci-fi stories is near insatiable-- people just have come to hate the label.

A lot of novels that previously would have been written to a sci-fi (and ARE sci-fi, make no mistake) are written so as to sneak into the "Young Adult Fiction" category, so as to have a reasonable commercial future.

[alteran]

But of course, the book didn't exactly strike its own territory either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale

Battle Royale didn't exactly strike its own territory either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies

Seriously though, having only read the BR wikipedia synopsis, there seems to be only one strong parallel between the BR and HG. Don't want to get into too much spoiler-age, but HG has a lot of stuff going on besides The Arena that seems to differentiate it.

[wavedukefan70s]

I wish i had read the books.i may after the movie.im usually very skeptical of going to see a movie my wife recommends we go see.it may be to my advantage considering i wont be expecting certain characters to be spot on.

[Mudge]

I guess I'll go, as long as no one gets turned into Soylent Green crackers that the rest of humanity snacks on, OK?!

Speaking of crackers, what's with the name of the heroine-- Katniss-- sounds like one of those made-up names that's too cute by half... does anyone actually have this name, or does it exist solely in this book?

--Mudgeniss

[Tom B.]

Speaking of crackers, what's with the name of the heroine-- Katniss-- sounds like one of those made-up names that's too cute by half... does anyone actually have this name, or does it exist solely in this book?

"Katniss" is a common name for a type of edible aquatic plant of the genus Sagittaria. The genus name means "of an arrow" or "like an arrow" in Latin. The plant is also sometimes called "arrowhead" because the leaves are in the shape of, well, an arrowhead. And the character Katniss Everdeen is an archer -- get it?

So the question is how many new parents are going to start naming their children "Katniss" now that the books are so popular and the movies are about to go supernova?

[alteran]

So the question is how many new parents are going to start naming their children "Katniss" now that the books are so popular and the movies are about to go supernova?

Why wait for kids-- you can get a Hunger Games name RIGHT NOW!

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/201...er-games-name/

My Hunger name is Uhlspetra H. Divepine. I suspect I'm from District 7.

[bjornolf]

Why wait for kids-- you can get a Hunger Games name RIGHT NOW!

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/201...er-games-name/

My Hunger name is Uhlspetra H. Divepine. I suspect I'm from District 7.

Mine was Thurpetra D. Falloak. Not many choices for dudes, eh?
My wife is Dumet D. Runaloe.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

[rthomas]

My daughter, teenaged senior in high school, saw it last night (at 12AM) and also read the book. I have done neither, but she told me that it was somewhat disappointing with lack of character development, shaky camera scenes and blurry camera angles. Otherwise it was pretty good. Of course this is the opinion of an 18 year old watching it at 12 AM.

[allenmurray]

My daughter, teenaged senior in high school, saw it last night (at 12AM) and also read the book. I have done neither, but she told me that it was somewhat disappointing with lack of character development, shaky camera scenes and blurry camera angles. Otherwise it was pretty good. Of course this is the opinion of an 18 year old watching it at 12 AM.

My 17 year old son also saw it at midnight. He really liked it, but i was struck by his comment that he liked the book better because "much of what was important" took place in Katniss' thoughts and that isn't easily translated to the screen.

[JasonEvans]

$19.7 million from midnight showings... not bad!

Online ticket seller Fandango reported 3,500 sellouts for “The Hunger Games.” Fandango said more than 97% of its current ticket sales are to people who are going to see movie and says it is selling 12 “Hunger Games” tickets per second. Many theaters showed “The Hunger Games” on every screen in the house to accommodate the demand for the film.

Biggest non-sequel in Hollywood history. Folks I am talking to are predicting a weekend of about $125-$135 million, which would be one of the 5 biggest opening weekends ever.

-Jason "this is gonna be bigger than Potter and Twilight" Evans

[JasonEvans]

And, as I continue to pimp myself out, here is the audio of my radio gig this morning with Star94 in Atlanta.

-Jason "thanks for tolerating me " Evans

[Udaman]

Saw it today at lunch on IMAX. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had super high expectations, and they were matched, and then some.

As JE said, this movie is going to be huge. HUGE.

[Tommac]

I saw Hunger Games today and I was not all that impressed. To me it was just ok. After reading the book earlier this week I was impressed that the movie stayed fairly true to the book. But for pure entertainment, I would have to say I preferred John Carter which I saw last weekend. Just my opinion.

[gotoguy]

I saw the movie tonight with my 17 year old son, his second viewing. Totally entertaining IMHO. He liked it more on the second viewing. We both read the books. Theatre was full at the 9:45 showing and all shows had been sold out after 6 pm until then. 6 of 16 screens.

Much of the action scenes were filmed in the Dupont State Forest located in western North Carolina south of Brevard. I recognized some of the waterfalls from hiking there in the past. Lots of good waterfall viewing there in Transylvania County.

Great performances by Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson.

[Udaman]

My daughters saw it with a friend yesterday. The all loved it. They all said they want to see it again.

This is going to finish north of $300M.

The second movie will do even better (it's a great story as well). Now the third...I'm not so sure about. It's a very different book and story.

As for THG....I thought Woody was fantastic, as was Elizabeth Banks as Effie. The two of them stole every scene they were in. Unlike JE, I actually really liked Peeta in this. I thought he was just about perfect. I also really enjoyed Gale, though he was only in it a little. He'll be great in the next 2 movies, for sure.

The scene right before Katniss goes into the games (with Cinna) was so extremely well done by Jennifer Lawrence. I know it's acting, and maybe someone would say, "well anyone can shiver like they are terrified," but the two of them interacted so well in that scene. She was terrified, and his heart was breaking watching her like that.

I will definitely see it again. Maybe more than once. Haven't done that since Avatar and Titanic.

[JasonEvans]

Huge... beyond huge!

I just got the boxoffice report from Lionsgate. Hunger Games did $155 million its opening weekend. That is a crazy number for a non-sequel. It is the 3rd biggest opening of all-time, trailing only part 2 of the final Harry Potter series and The Dark Knight. I don't think anyone, in their wildest estimation, thought it could be that big. The highest "whisper" expectations I had heard were in the $135 mil range.

The audience was 60% female and 40% male, a very good skew for a film like this. By comparison, the latest Twilight film was 80% female. The audience was 55% over 25 and 45% under 25, again a great ratio for a movie that was supposed to skew young. It is clear that the marketing campaign and the strong reviews convinced adults and males to come see this.

It is pretty much impossible to see the movie making less than $350 million at this point and perhaps much more. The strong reviews and "A" cinemascore mean word of mouth will be strong and that there will be healthy repeat business over the next few weeks.

Oh, and it is already the biggest film in Lionsgate history. The studio is going to make hundreds of millions of dollars off this flick.

-Jason "wow, just wow" Evans

[aimo]

Overall, I really thought they did a great job. It is unfortunate that they had to tone down the violence for the PG-13 rating. Not because I loved the violence, but b/c it took away from the atmosphere of terror that the kids were feeling. I never got the sense that she was all that frightened, and not b/c of her acting, but because that part of the movie was so short and so edited. I also never got the impression that either Katniss or Peeta had the hots for each other. If I had not read the book, I would have thought he WAS faking the whole love thing. And it never seemed that Katniss was ever confused about her feelings.

Even though I read the book, I was still totally caught up in the buildup to the Games. The little girl who plays Prim was amazing. When Effie was reaching into the bowl, even though I knew the outcome (and maybe especially b/c I knew the outcome) I felt physically ill. And the scene b/tw Katniss and Cinna just before she was sent up the tube was fantastic. I was actually shaking during that scene - plus the theater was FREEZING!

I wish they had done the ending as in the book - with Peeta being whisked away in the hovercraft and Katniss screaming like the lunatic they had turned her into. When she sees her reflection and thinks she's looking at a madperson, THAT was an important part of the story. Showing what the Hunger Games really did to them.

[davekay1971]

$19.7 million from midnight showings... not bad!



Biggest non-sequel in Hollywood history. Folks I am talking to are predicting a weekend of about $125-$135 million, which would be one of the 5 biggest opening weekends ever.

-Jason "this is gonna be bigger than Potter and Twilight" Evans

Your box office predicting folks blew it, Evans. $152.5 million. 3rd biggest opening of all time. That's amazing.

It would be hard to imagine this movie ending up as the top box office of the year. There are some ridiculous heavyweights coming in the summer. But...but but but. Between a lack of obvious upcoming competition, strong reviews, strong exit scores (an A on cinemascore), and an evenly mixed audience, the movie could have better legs than it's lead actress (hey, she's 21, I can look).

Note: I forgot about Wrath of the Titans this upcoming weekend. I suppose that may siphon a little business away from Hunger Games, but the audience is looking to be a little different, with 60% of the Hunger Games audience female, and the audience skewing a little older than Wrath is likely to have...

[JNort]

I saw the movie on Friday with my sister (we both read the books and are huge fans of them) but I was kind of disappointed.... No stones thrown yet? Now I did like the movie but I just did not like certain things which make it disappointing in my eyes.

Negatives to me:

- The fight scenes had to be very mild to keep the pg 13 rating.
- You couldn't tell how badly the citizens struggled to live. They all looked healthy and fit for the most part and you didn't hear about the struggle Katniss had to go through after her father died.
- In the actual games you never saw her struggle to get water or the struggle she went through to keep Peta alive.
- You never knew she had to fake loving Peta and how he thought it was real the whole time.
- Her relationship with Rue in the movie was not very special where as in the book she loved her almost like a sister.
- Horrible choice for Gale as an actor.