The Hunger Games

[The Mike]

See Josh I think you just proved my point, you filled in all of those blanks and kept going back to "since I read the book" or explaining from the book. You can't deny that removing what you know from the book and looking at the film on the surface my points aren't clarified.

To me that isn't a great adaptation that's more of an "ice cream sundae" for fans of the book.

 

[The Josh]

I just think the points are stated without having to have them blurted out. So as I said I think its a good adaptation of the book. As I said different strokes for different foks.

 

[Darth Madden]

I’m going to have to agree with TheMike on this one a little. I loved the books (I reread the entire series a week before I saw the movie) but I thought the movie was ok... not great. I know the answers to all of his spoilers but that’s because I read the book and I can see somebody coming in fresh could very easily be confused by a lot of what went on. The one thing they need to fix for the next movie is to add Katiness’s narrative. The books really take place in her mind so we need to see what she sees and hear what she is thinking… that one thing would have made the first movie so much better because it would have explained 95% of what TheMike said was bad.

 

[The Mike]

There is a massive amount of potential just going with what I saw and not knowing crap about the books. The visuals really were outstanding (outside of the shaky cam) and I loved the adults. My wife got into it although she wiki'd the whole damn thing because she knew she couldn't finish the book before we went and admits that there are a lot of hole for those who are "fresh" and not having any background.

I'm sure because of her I'll see whatever the next one is but I really hope that with the new director that he pushes a bit for more of a movie only friendly film. I'm still astonished that the actual writer took part in the script writing process and let so many "holes" exist. Realistically I haven't spoken to one fan of the books who dislike the film so maybe that is what she was gunning for, the "Twilight" mentality where you are trying to simply gauge your established fanbase but can you imagine if Superhero films for example simply just accepted that someone read the particular story arc and continued in just a visual manner? The genre would be dead already.

A good friend said though what Madden pretty much summed up that when they heard that Katniss' inner dialogue was going to be cut and not voiced over that there'd be a ton of people who would leave the theater with a "WTF?" kind of mentality towards it. It is kind of fun though being on the other side of the fence where people are defending something to me instead of the other way around, my students especially are diehards trying to convince me to read the book and that the movie was a modern day "Gone with the Wind"

 

[OSCORP]

Agree with Mike


/always

 

[devilof76]

Didn't read the book. Didn't need filling in.



I only saw it once, but perhaps a second viewing would reveal holes. I was pretty swept up in it.

 

[CelticPredator]

Yeah, I didn't see any holes.

Some things I didn't quite get, technology wise. But I just said "It's the future, ____ it".

 

[Darklord Dave]

I read and liked the books but thought the movie was better. It's difficult to distance myself from the books, but I think with close watching a lot of Mike's questions are actually hinted at or answered in the film.

The one I'd address:

Spoiler

Haymitch's switch - you said it yourself - District 12 never had a chance and that's why he was despondent. Once he saw that Katniss had some traction with the audience and sponsors he decided to try and help.