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The Hunger Games did have one really cool thing in the books and it was my IMM that they didn't do it in the movies, too. The dystopia is set up so there are twelve surviving districts each with a very specific export. The 13th district was completely obliterated prior to the books in the Great War or whatever. In the first book, a throwaway line references the 13th District as being for graphite production. You read it and think "uh that's pretty loving weird and specific." Then in the next book a character is talking to the main character and tells her not only did 13 survive but it's not under Panem control. Because it actually produced nuclear weapons, duh. I think the character in question even berates Katniss a little for buying into the dumb graphite farce.
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Nov 30, 2015 22:37
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dpack_1 posted:I just got done watching Mockingjay Part 2. It was in the books so they decided it would be cool in the movie but were too lazy to set it up properly.
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Nov 30, 2015 23:19
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Rurea posted:I haven't seen part 2 yet but I read the books and basically all of this can be explained by: This is why Book > Movie is always shite, where as Book > TV Series is usually a lot better. You can't fit 600 pages into 120 minutes, but you can fit 600 pages into 600 minutes.
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Dec 1, 2015 01:10
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Films that treat the book as a jumping off point or inspiration are good but a beat for beat adaption rarely works.
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Dec 1, 2015 01:30
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My irritating book moment from The Hunger Games was when Snow bombs a hospital. Like he literally orders his precious and irreplaceable military hovercraft to go and destroy a hospital full of wounded soldiers. Naturally it's a huge propaganda boost for the rebels and Snow ends up losing his hovercraft. When I was reading it I remember thinking how the obvious twist was going to be that it was actually the rebels posing as Snow who bombed their own hospital. Effectively demonstrating their callousness in targeting their own people just to score a propaganda victory and simultaneously get rid of the drain on their resources posed by the wounded. A decent literary device, if a bit predictable. Except it turns out it really was Snow, and he's just the worst military tactician ever and didn't realise a hospital full of wounded soldiers that need food/medicine/shelter is better for his side than a smoking crater the rebels can point to and say 'look what a dick this guy is'. Or to put it another way, writing convincing villains is hard and it's easier just to make them puppy-kicking evil for no goddamn reason.
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Dec 1, 2015 02:13
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FreudianSlippers posted:It's pretty simple. Stupid petty people land on planet for stupid petty reasons. Meet God, God hates them and fucks them up. I love that the whole human cast spends the entire time being huge douchebags towards their own "intelligent" creation and belittling the idea he could have thoughts/feelings, then being surprised and shocked when they discover their own creators feel the same way about them.
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Dec 1, 2015 03:42
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Jerusalem posted:I love that the whole human cast spends the entire time being huge douchebags towards their own "intelligent" creation and belittling the idea he could have thoughts/feelings, then being surprised and shocked when they discover their own creators feel the same way about them.
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Dec 1, 2015 04:14
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PuntCuncher posted:Roll credits. I watched Prometheus with my heavily-pregnant wife. Even in the alien abortion scene, she was so incredulous at how loving stupid everyone on screen was being, she found it hilarious and not shocking or gruesome in the slightest. That movie was a wet fart with very few exceptions.
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Dec 1, 2015 04:38
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I loved how they cut all mention of 'Avox' from the first two point five movies then just drop it in the fourth like you have any idea what it is without having read the books. Also the *stares directly at camera for three seconds* immediately before the credits rolled made me throw my hands up in frustration. More Hungry James 4: Harry potter had two movies for its last book too its totally fine 2, for what it's worth.
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Dec 1, 2015 12:00
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Ryoshi posted:The Hunger Games did have one really cool thing in the books and it was my IMM that they didn't do it in the movies, too. That's actually clever and good. Graphite was used as the moderating agent in the piles used to enrich uranium and plutonium for the Manhattan Project.
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Dec 1, 2015 16:54
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Jedit posted:That's actually clever and good. Graphite was used as the moderating agent in the piles used to enrich uranium and plutonium for the Manhattan Project. Yeah as soon as I read his post I figured there was some tertiary link between the two but I wasn't sure what it was. That's nifty.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:03
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I always thought the "Districts" were like, planet wide? And the advanced technology and super trains just meant going somewhere like Africa would take all of a few hours. Was I just reading that wrong in the book or did they just jib the idea for the films?
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Dec 1, 2015 17:12
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ChogsEnhour posted:I always thought the "Districts" were like, planet wide? And the advanced technology and super trains just meant going somewhere like Africa would take all of a few hours. Was I just reading that wrong in the book or did they just jib the idea for the films? I haven't read the books myself but all the text on the internet says Panem is North America, and all the maps of the districts show the US just cut up into districts. It can be pretty easy to do that when reading a book though, you miss one line and then they never really highlight the issue so you go on believing one thing when the intention of the book was something else. Having it be all or most of the remaining countries and having big bullet trains to go from country-district to country-district seems pretty cool to me though.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:15
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ChogsEnhour posted:I always thought the "Districts" were like, planet wide? And the advanced technology and super trains just meant going somewhere like Africa would take all of a few hours. Was I just reading that wrong in the book or did they just jib the idea for the films? Panam, the nation in the books/movies is, I believe, just a post-apocalyptic united states.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:16
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jabby posted:My irritating book moment from The Hunger Games was when Snow bombs a hospital. This is especially loving dumb because they outright state that the rebels do poo poo like this, and it ties into Katniss's decision at the end to shoot Coin. ....Which is it's own absurdly stupid plot point. Like, jeez, in an entire trilogy of contrived Ender-syndrome violence, the finale is the single dumbest most contrived thing I've ever seen published, both what was intended to happen and the "twist". E: Captain Monkey posted:Panam, the nation in the books/movies is, I believe, just a post-apocalyptic united states. Panem, because it's literally loving named after "panem et circenses", and not as a wink-wink-nudge-nudge thing but something they actually reference in the books to beat you over the head with it. Rockman Reserve has a new favorite as of 17:24 on Dec 1, 2015 |
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Dec 1, 2015 17:19
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Well yeah its YA so that's sort of par for the course. Which is a golf analogy.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:33
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Like Harry Potter, Hunger Games kinda loses its thread the longer it goes. The first was by far the best. /unpopular opinion True of lots of popular series, actually. (Game of Thrones  )
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Dec 1, 2015 17:34
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You saying that the first Harry Potter movie was the best is my irrational irritation. Except its kinda rational because that movie sucks dick
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Dec 1, 2015 17:37
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I liked the first one. It had a certain low-budget charm.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:41
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The first book was probably the best. Hogwarts is new, everything is new and exciting. All the stuff with the sorting hat and it ends in a pretty epic fashion the others couldn't quite match. The movie was a little low-budget compared to the others, but it had the best Dumbledore by far you can't argue that. And they kept switching directors so each of the subsequent movies had a pretty big tonal shift. Hey I even tagged it /unpopular opinion because I knew  Also Rowling is a fantastic drama writer, the books are amazing page-turners. But a good fantasy writer she isn't. The world building in Harry Potter is pretty sparse and contradictory. I think they're better as murder mystery books set in a fantasy world than actual fantasy books, although that's kinda splitting hairs.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:56
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I don't really buy the "low-budget" thing, since it cost 125 million, I think it's just that Chris Columbus has made consistently poo poo movies since Home Alone for some reason
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Dec 1, 2015 18:23
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Zaphod42 posted:The first book was probably the best. Hogwarts is new, everything is new and exciting. All the stuff with the sorting hat and it ends in a pretty epic fashion the others couldn't quite match. The first Harry Potter book is so bad that I have no idea why a second was ever published. Harry does literally nothing in the entire book. "We have four houses at Hogwarts - the good guys, the bad guys, the one with the silly name and the other one. Put on this hat and it will tell us which one you should belong to, except it actually tells us what house you chose to be in so it's loving pointless." Of course, the second book is worse. The fourth is OK, though.
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Dec 1, 2015 18:41
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WeAreTheRomans posted:I don't really buy the "low-budget" thing, since it cost 125 million, I think it's just that Chris Columbus has made consistently poo poo movies since Home Alone for some reason I swear I remember hearing they hired him in part because he works very well with child actors, particularly those without much acting experience. If true, that at least might make sense, almost like a rookie in baseball getting some playing time with an eye towards the future (in this case, the later movies where it would be more serious and less whimsical).
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Dec 1, 2015 18:48
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Jedit posted:The first Harry Potter book is so bad that I have no idea why a second was ever published. Harry does literally nothing in the entire book. "We have four houses at Hogwarts - the good guys, the bad guys, the one with the silly name and the other one. Put on this hat and it will tell us which one you should belong to, except it actually tells us what house you chose to be in so it's loving pointless." It was written for children and made a fuckload of money.
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Dec 1, 2015 18:56
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My favourite story about the books before they really took off is from Stephen Fry. He narrated the audiobook for the first one and when he was recording Rowling mentioned she'd written a 2nd and he responded with basically "How nice for you, pet" and never expected them to become the cultural phenomenon they did. Source: Stephen Fry
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Dec 1, 2015 18:58
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Captain Monkey posted:Panam, the nation in the books/movies is, I believe, just a post-apocalyptic united states. Yeah, there was some war that killed off most of the population in the world, just leaving a chunk of North America left. That's why the Capitol has such a high level of technology, it is several hundred years in the future.
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Dec 1, 2015 19:16
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Jedit posted:The first Harry Potter book is so bad that I have no idea why a second was ever published. "I hate these books so much I read FOUR of them!"
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Dec 1, 2015 21:14
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BiggerBoat posted:"I hate these books so much I read FOUR of them!" "Hey, this series is a cultural touchstone and like most things I'm sure it starts off weak and gets better later." ???????
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Dec 1, 2015 21:42
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muscles like this? posted:Yeah, there was some war that killed off most of the population in the world, just leaving a chunk of North America left. That's why the Capitol has such a high level of technology, it is several hundred years in the future. Except the Capitol's technology level is totally inconsistent and basically just follows whatever the author thought would be cool. Which is why they have holograms and crazy advanced genetics but they burn coal as fuel and their top tier weaponry is the hovercraft. They don't even appear to have an army as such, just a handful of easily defeated 'peacekeepers'.
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Dec 1, 2015 22:08
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Lady Naga posted:"Hey, this series is a cultural touchstone and like most things I'm sure it starts off weak and gets better later." ??????? Dean Koontz is a pretty popular writer too but I gave up halfway through third book I tried. I think that Transformers is really gonna pick up with the next film though.
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Dec 1, 2015 22:18
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Part of Harry Potter's popularity and positive reception is that for the most part it promotes positive and kid-friendly values like loyalty and friendship and doing what's right and anti-racism and all that sort of thing. Literally one of the last things that happens in the first book is Dumbledore saying "Standing up to your friends when you believe they're doing something wrong is worth a lot of points." And the overlong fifth book has a part that people tend to ignore but which very explicitly says "The Ministry of Magic is out of touch with reality, wizard society is racist and messed up, things need to be done to make things better."
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Dec 2, 2015 00:29
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They never did do anything with Muggle relations. Wizard Hitler's on the loose but everyone without magic is kept in the dark. I really liked the Bartimaeus Trilogy instead, because it showed what it would be like if there were a magic ruling class; pompous dick-heads who get what they want, who seldom face repercussions for their actions, and who deem everyone else beneath them. The hero goes through this mindset until other people knock sense into him.
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Dec 2, 2015 01:12
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Inspector Gesicht posted:They never did do anything with Muggle relations. Wizard Hitler's on the loose but everyone without magic is kept in the dark. I'm pretty sure I remember a line in one of the later books where the Ministry of Magic and the Prime Minister of Britain are actually in contact and aware of each other, and the MoM sent the PM a warning about Voldemort in case he becomes powerful enough to threaten all of Britain but wanted to try and take care of him themselves so they could keep up the facade that the wizarding world doesn't exist.
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Dec 2, 2015 01:34
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Zaphod42 posted:The first book was probably the best. Hogwarts is new, everything is new and exciting. All the stuff with the sorting hat and it ends in a pretty epic fashion the others couldn't quite match. WeaponGradeSadness posted:I'm pretty sure I remember a line in one of the later books where the Ministry of Magic and the Prime Minister of Britain are actually in contact and aware of each other, and the MoM sent the PM a warning about Voldemort in case he becomes powerful enough to threaten all of Britain but wanted to try and take care of him themselves so they could keep up the facade that the wizarding world doesn't exist.
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Dec 2, 2015 03:11
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:I'm pretty sure I remember a line in one of the later books where the Ministry of Magic and the Prime Minister of Britain are actually in contact and aware of each other, and the MoM sent the PM a warning about Voldemort in case he becomes powerful enough to threaten all of Britain but wanted to try and take care of him themselves so they could keep up the facade that the wizarding world doesn't exist. This is one of the few times in the series the book shifts away from Harry or Voldemort. It does indeed happen.
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Dec 2, 2015 03:20
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Tiggum posted:Prisoner of Azkaban is the best one. Deadly Hallows is garbage. The rest are OK. The procedure is apparently that whenever there's a new PM or a new Minister of Magic, the minister pops in to say hi to the PM and say "Hey, by the way, magic's real, I'm in charge of it in Britain, will let you know if anything crazy happens." The bit at the start of, I think, book 6 is a bit of a montage of the old Minister Cornelius Fudge popping in the first time in a cheery manner, then he pops in years later looking freaked out going "Wizard Hitler is loose, I don't know what the gently caress is going on, sorry", and then finally there's a new Minister who's all "Yeah you just sit tight, we got this bro". He then dies later that book. He's played by Bill Nighy in the movie.
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Dec 2, 2015 03:29
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Tiggum posted:Prisoner of Azkaban is the best one. Deadly Hallows is garbage. The rest are OK. Prisoner of Azkaban is garbage. GARBAGE!
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Dec 2, 2015 03:41
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To go along with bad dubbing from earlier, my favorite has always been Major League: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAA2KxYyfYU It has been at least 20 years since I saw it on TV and I still self-censor myself with a weirdly out of tone GUY every now and then.
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Dec 2, 2015 03:42
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Kruller posted:To go along with bad dubbing from earlier, my favorite has always been Major League: That actually sounds like it could be the same guy who did the Die Hard "melon farmer"
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Dec 2, 2015 03:47
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Tiggum posted:Prisoner of Azkaban is the best one. Deadly Hallows is garbage. The rest are OK. Prisoner of Azkaban is so bad that it was all resolved by such a blatant deus ex machina that Rowling had to explicitly write it out of the next book by destroying every Time Turner in the world, pinky swear that's all of them, they kept them all in a single cabinet all together with no extra security and nobody thinks anything odd about that, and the ones Hogwarts had in the last book are there too for some reason, and nobody can make more because uh I don't recall them actually giving a reason, okay now there's dramatic tension again. Everything other than the Time Turner is cool though, and Deathly Hallows was impossibly bad.
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Dec 2, 2015 04:48
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