The Hunger Games Thread

[Northern Star]

I saw the film on Friday and thought it was great - but I think I"ll need to see it again. I was too excited throughout the whole thing that it just kind of breezed by. I kept thinking 'if I hadn't read the books - would this make sense?' so I kept over-analyzing everything

I kept thinking this too. But ultimately I believe that even if a viewer hasn't read the books and knew very little about the story, it would all make perfect sense.

Anyhow loved the movie and thought they did a fantastic job. The tone of the books has transferred really well to celluloid and the casting is brilliant.
Before I saw the movie, I thought that maybe they should have casted the 2 lead male actors in the opposite roles, but Josh Hutcherson did a fantastic job with Peeta, so now I think they got it right. Obviously Gale is a fairly passive character in the first movie and Liam Hemsworth will come into his own in the following movies. Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Lenny Kravitz are almost perfect for their roles and Jennifer Lawrence is just superb.
The scenes in District 12 were captured really well and the scenes in The Capitol. I was wondering how good 'The Girl On Fire' part would be and it was exactly how I imagined it while reading the book. So kudos for that.
@ the scene with Rue and the actress who plays her has such a beautiful face.

This deserves to be the major success it already is.

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

id anyone else keep thinking that when they saw the girl who played Clove and recognized she was the girl from the movie Orphan that she will forever be an old lady acting as a child? after the movie my friends all said the same thing


i agree with Meg i think i do need to see it again because the first time I was critiquing and analyzing everything. I want to enjoy it from start to finish

 

[heelscatchfire]

^ I knew she looked familiar! I just could not place her!

I wonder if Gary Ross will be the director of all movies? Or he signed only for the first? He did pretty great job and in genearal, I love his works.

I know he is signed on for the sequel, I would hope he is doing all 4 but you never know.

 

[YoninahAliza]

This is SO exciting!!! I'm so incredibly thrilled to see that it grossed this much money opening weekend. So take that, anyone who's ever said that a films with female leads can't succeed at the box-office (which unfortunately I've herd way too many people say to me)!

UPDATED: Lionsgate's book-to-film adaptation grosses a staggering $155 million, shattering records and surpassing any "Twilight" pic; overseas, "Hunger Games" opens to $59.3 million for a worldwide total of $214.3 million.
Making history, Lionsgate's The Hunger Games opened to an astounding $155 million at the domestic box office, the third-best debut of all time and the best for any film opening outside of summer.

Hunger Games -- the big-screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling young-adult novel starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth -- also reeled in the biggest opening for a nonsequel.

"It was the perfect storm. Having the first film in a franchise to be so gigantic is amaing. We had a great book, and a great director in Gary Ross," said Lionsgate president of marketing Tim Palen, whose team is credited with a savvy campaign.

Domestic box office revenues were up a whopping 78 percent from a year ago, thanks to the might of Hunger Games, which changes the fortunes of Lionsgate and gives the studio an instant tentople franchise. Lionsgate will make three more films by splitting the final book in Collins' trilogy into two movies.

Overseas, Hunger Games turned in a more muted performance for a solid bow of $59.3 million from 67 markets. The foreign tally, which came in ahead of the international debut of the first Twilight film, puts Hunger Games' worldwide opening at $214.3 million.

Hunger Games is projected to place No. 1 in virtually every foreign market, but did best in English-speaking territories, and particularly Australia, wehre it debuted to $6.7 million. Hunger Games turned in $7.5 million in the U.K., despite unseasonably warm weather, which often keeps consumers outside.

In North America, the tentpole came in not far behind the $158.4 million earned by The Dark Knight in its July 2008 debut. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 holds the record for best debut with $169.2 million in summer 2011.

Among the past films that Hunger Games surpassed in its opening weekend were Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million in 2007), The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8 million in 2009) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($138.1 million last year).

Hunger Games drew an A CinemaScore overall on Friday night, with those under the age of 25 giving it a glowing A+ and those over 25 an A-. Tweens and teens turned out in force for the film, with 39 percent of the audience younger than 18, according to CinemaScore exit polling.

Part of the movie's strength is that it is appealing to males as well as females, unlike the femme-heavy Twilight franchise, another blockbuster film property based on a young-adult book series. Males made up 39 percent of Hunger Games' Friday night audience.

"The numbers just kept growing and growing. And based on the trajectory of the weekend, we are going to have an unbelievable hold. We are going to play and play," Lionsgate executive vice president of distribution David Spitz said. "I think that when we initially looked at this property, we thought we were going to have Twilight numbers in terms of females, but we didn't."
Hunger Games also played like a family film, evidenced by its strong Friday to Saturday hold. The film fell a narrow 25 percent, while the Twilight and Harry Potter films fall anywhere from 44 percent to 60 percent.

According to CinemaScore, 49 percent of those showing up to see Hunger Games were under the age of 25; Lionsgate's exit polling showed that 44 percent were under the age of 25.

Hunger Games played in a total of 4,137 theaters at the domestic box office, including 268 IMAX theaters, which turned in a hefty $10.6 milion for a per screen average of $40,000, a record for a 2D nonsequel.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-hunger-games-jennifer-lawrence-josh-hutcherson-liam-hemsworth-twilight-304028

I bolded two parts that I thought were really interesting...

 

[Melancholybaby]

^Thanks a lot for posting this . A little bit bummed they are going to be 4 movies instead of 3...we'll now have to wait longer for the end (although one could argue that more movies= more pleasure for big fans).

I kept thinking this too. But ultimately I believe that even if a viewer hasn't read the books and knew very little about the story, it would all make perfect sense.

I had never read any of the books and my sister as a fan convinced me to go with her and at times she had to explain a few things but in general the plot was understandable to people unaware of the story. As for the movie itself, I'm a newly converted fan . I loved the entire movie: everything from the actors, setting, costumes to the music and scenario was magnificent (I guess not having read the book I'm not affected by things left out from the book). As people have pointed out the shaky camera was a little bit too much at times but that was a very small complaint. Everyone in the theatre clapped at the kiss and cried with Rue's death (I was moved but it takes much more for me to cry) and in general everyone loved it. And since I can't wait till November 2013, I'll start reading the books ASAP. B)

 

[dajrekshn]

saw the movie today. loved it. tone was translated beautifully and i couldn't believe how many times i started tearin up despite of the fact i've read the book and knew what was coming and how it all looked. jennifer had katniss to a spot. great job, really great job. loved wes bentley's seneca too. he sent so many different vibes and i don't recall having so much sympathy for him while reading the book as oppose while i watched the movie. the things that bugged me and what i thought was done badly was the peeta/katniss cave scenes - i mean, seriously? josh did a great job until that, and then the screenplay just went kinda corny. there was zero tension between them and it just wasn't working and i thought it took away too much from the original storyline aka games itself and the fact it was a strategy part. loved the uprising and the reaping the most. another thing that was, for me, done over the top were capitol outfits (with the exemption of cesar) - they looked so cheap and trashy - not classy and rich looking. basically, these are just things that bugged me cus i read the book i guess, but overall - this is really a great, great movie.

 

[heelscatchfire]

loved wes bentley's seneca too. he sent so many different vibes and i don't recall having so much sympathy for him while reading the book as oppose while i watched the movie.

I have to agree, he did a great job, when I read the book I didn't care for Seneca but in the movie, I was very sympathetic to him too.

 

[LUXXX]

I LOVED the movie--haven't read the books though, so I don't have that perspective. I just found it to be so intense, my heart was racing through out.

Two things though:

A. Had no idea Gary Ross also directed Pleasantville! One of my favorites, and also strangely similar themes to Hunger Games...in a weird way. So, I'm not surprised he did such a good job.

B. I would've loved to have seen a Rated-R version, I just think they could've pushed certain things further. But for PG-13, they really made the violence and rawness work well.

 

[loladonna]

I thought it was about as good an adaptation as could be even with the slight changes. The Reaping was exactly like I imagined. I loved the whole sense of dread and the reactions when the names were called. The girl playing Prim was excellent.

Jennifer did a great job as Katniss and I also loved the little girl playing Rue. I didn't mind the expanded roles of Snow and Seneca because it helped a bit with explaining what was going on. I really wish they had shown Katniss getting the bread from District 11 as it was one of the most moving scenes in the book.

The cave scene seemed to go on forever but I remember feeling like it was too long in the book also. The ending fell a bit flat though. It seemed a bit more ambiguous than the book on the state of Peeta and Katniss's relationship after their ordeal.

 

[Wolkfolk]

Saw it today and even though it took me a bit of time to really get into it, in the end I really adored the film. I'm a huge sucker fot this type of adventure flicks but I've never read the books or anything. Actually I don't the books were that known in france before the movie. There as part of me that feared it would have a Twilight syndrom, but this completely different. This film is really serious and brilliant. It reminded me of Battle Royal and The Triwizard tournament from Harry Potter. Also some scenes in the studios with Seneca made me think of The Truman Show.
I find the books inspiration very interesting and the film very well written. Alos the casting is perfect. Jennifer Lawrence is definitely one of the most solid actresses of our generation and I even liked Josh Hutcherson, who I didn't really pay attention to before. The actors who played Cato and Seneca were very captivating too.

 

[jemina]

I saw it yesterday and I think they did an amazing job. A love the camera movement and the fact that they didn't focus on showing killing to explicit. I missed the feeling of thirst and hunger.

I love Woody as Haymitch, he almost made him hot.

 

[enkeli05]

I watched it again and it gets better and better. I can't wait for the next movie.

 

[dajrekshn]

has anyone seen this? it's so screwed up. O_O

 

[Alvedansen]

i saw that on ontd last night...so disgusting. even if she were white in the book it shouldn't matter, there's way too much white-washing going on in Hollywood anyways.
the most disturbing thing to me were the comments about how Rue's death isn't sad anymore...how does the colour of one's skin change anything?!

 

[enkeli05]

That's really f*cked up.

I just read another article that stated that Jennifer isn't thin enough to play Katniss either.

 

[kokobombon]

Crazy people out there... dangerous people out there...

on a happier note, this made me laugh



facebook/lacosacine

 

[dajrekshn]

i saw that on ontd last night...so disgusting. even if she were white in the book it shouldn't matter, there's way too much white-washing going on in Hollywood anyways.
the most disturbing thing to me were the comments about how Rue's death isn't sad anymore...how does the colour of one's skin change anything?!

i know! that tweet in particular was so sad to read and sick at the same time. i'm usually the first one to skim the description of people and just make it by myself in my head, but movie rue was better than the book rue i had in mind. you can tell why katniss stood by her side. the only thing regarding race that went through my mind while i was watching the movie is how good it is they had a great proportion of various races in it. i was like genuinely "rock on!". the whole whitewashing in HW obv took a toll on me and my movie watching.

i know people are picky about this book and all, but damn, i never thought it would go in this direction. it's so disturbing.

love the meme Koko!

 

[YoninahAliza]

has anyone seen this? it's so screwed up. O_O

I follow the tumblr, Hunger Games Tweets, which has rounded up so many of these racist tweets and brought attention to this issue. I really have to give a hand to the person who runs this tumblr for making people aware of how racist other people are though. I'm sure it would have gone unchecked otherwise. And it absolutely astounds me that people actually feel that Rue, Thresh, and Cinna shouldn't be black or that they are thought less of because of their race. In the case of Cinna his ethnicity was never specified in the books so he could have been anything (and I think it's great that the casting directors went with Lenny, he was perfect). But it was very clear in the books that Rue and Thresh were both black. So apparently, these people also don't know how to properly read. I think what upsets me the most about this is that people think less of Thresh, Rue, & Cinna because of their skin color. That they feel they can't sympathize/relate to these three simply because they aren't white. Ughh... they make our fandom look so bad...I say we kick them out!

Also, as far as casting goes, I think THG's did pretty well with the amount of diversity in it's actors. Of course there is always room for improvement however I think (or rather I guess I hope) they will hire even more people of different ethnicities for the next two films (or is it three now?). Personally, I'm hoping that Johanna is played by someone who isn't white (she's only described as having brown eyes and short brown hair... so she could be anything really). But that's just me....

Here's another interesting article which came out a few months ago the cast was announced about this issue. I know it's been spread about the internet so some of you might have already read it.
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/11/15/yes-there-are-black-people-in-your-hunger-games-the-strange-case-of-rue-cinna/

 

[kokobombon]

^I would have been pissed if Rue and Thresh were white in the movie because like you and others said they were described having dark skin in the book. Only black, latin american or native american is the way to go... I forgive Katniss having light skin and blue eyes because I like Jen

The more articles I read I get angrier and angrier, it concerns me that youth in 2012 thinks like this... I wonder if the mayority of the racist fans are from US...?

 

[YoninahAliza]

^I feel the same way about Jen. Some people were really upset about Jen being cast but it didn't bother me too much because she was phenomenal in Winter's Bone so I knew she'd be a good Katniss. I can see why people were upset though. However, with Katniss it was a bit of a grey area what ethnicity she was, especially since she didn't look that much like her mother and sister (who were blond and fair skinned).

And yeah, Koko, I can't stop reading these articles even though they make me SO angry. I'm from the states and I'm not afraid to say that I definitely think a large majority of these racist fans are from the US. Not all of them mind you, but yeah, America still has some problems with race (and anyone who denies this is dumb... we don't live in a post-racial world yet. And even in Panem it wasn't really post-racial world because look at a lot of the people from from District 11 and how they were treated even more poorly then those from other districts...). But it looks like a lot of the people who've tweeted these racist things got a heck of a lot of tweets from people telling them they were racist. So hopefully a few of these people actually learned from this experience.