It was the wife's turn to pick a movie and I was dreading this one.

I ended up thinking it was VERY good. It is not pure greatness but is probably better than 90% of what Hollywood turns out.

For all those thinking it is a teen girl mush fest, not true. There is a certain love triangle as part of the plot and setup for sequels, but it is not the entire vehicle for the movie itself.

The director did a nice job with the material, sets up very good, moves along well. Lucas could take some pointers from this guy on how to not overuse CGI and how to get decent acting even when the dialogue is silly.

My only complaints, the costumes look ridiculous at times, the pacing is off during the actual "games". It is supposed to put 24 kids into a playfield and they fight to the death until only one remains. About half are killed off right away, then a lull, then a bunch fall in quick order and boom, it is over. There was a big buildup to the "games" themselves, but that acts out real quickly instead of being the real centerpiece.

It is still a good movie, but a lot of drama that could have played out is skipped IMO in favor of the setup to the games themselves and the politics behind them.

I thought there was actually a lot of good social commentary about society, materialism, high fashion, vanity, and reality shows in the subtext that was a nice surprise. It is almost like a thinking person's "Running Man." It also does not play out the child deaths as gruesome exploitainment to great extent, but more for sad dramatic effect, and many occur off screen.

 

Did you read the books?

I loved the books.
I read all three in less than a week (they're a 9th or 10th grade reading level) and literally couldn't put them down.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the genre ("Battle Royale" and "Running Man" and the like).
Even the crappy "most dangerous game" movies like Hard Target, the one with Ice T, and "The Condemned" with Steve Austin.
Love them all.

not sure what that says about me. *shrug*

 

I thought The Hunger Games was fantastic.

I'm a sucker for any movie with a dystopian future, and this was a fresh take on that. There was only one thing I didn't like, which I can't reveal for spoiler reasons. I was blown away by the rest of it. I had no idea it was intended to be a chick flick.

 

I left pissed off. I went in uneducated I loved it, but now I have to wait. NO I don't want to read the books, I seem to be the only one who tends to like movies better than the books they were based on.

 

I liked it too. I went in expecting the worst I had a couple free passes that were about to expire and nothing else really seemed any better but everyone was talking about this one so its what I saw.

I was surprised at how good it was. I couldn't stand all the shaky camera crap in the beginning though.

Evan

 

It is a great movie which is why its at the top of the box office, numbers don't lie. For anyone thinking its a mushy love plot, its not even close. I didn't find it awkward with my date at any time. Shoot, I watched it 4 times just because I get in for free.

OP, it's the hunger games. It's suppose to be a deathmatch, if i was in that position I would've ran away though. But anyways its survival of the fittest and that's why more than half was killed.

 

Run away from what?
Once you were in the games? Or from society in general?

 

I think he means just hide and survive while the rest kill each other for you.

Evan