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Talas posted:After reading the first book, I actually asked about this in TBB. It doesn't get any better. Yeah, the first book is a flawed but ultimately guilty pleasure inducing read that, in my opinion, is worth the two hours or so that you spend reading it. The second is some of the shittiest fuckin' writing I've ever seen. It combines, literally, the worst aspects of any Twilight book with an already overdone, overused, and uninteresting plot that ends with a literal Deus Ex Machina. Seriously, hollllllllllllllllllllly poo poo is the second book so loving bad.
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Dec 5, 2011 15:51
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Rentrent posted:It combines, literally, the worst aspects of any Twilight book with an already overdone, overused, and uninteresting plot that ends with a literal Deus Ex Machina. I'm in no position to call you on anything else, but Deus Ex Machina? History is scattered with the corpses of would-be dictators who make really bad decisions in the heat of their frustrations, and that's what happened with President Snow. He got frustrated with Katniss and Peeta outsmarting him, and he decided that one or both of them had to die for it, and the only way to do that was to throw them back in the games via the Quarter Quell loophole, making all previous winners re-enlist. Of course, he's focused so narrowly on what Katniss could do to him, that he (and by extension, the reader) doesn't realize how much this might poo poo off many of the other previous winners. People who were promised that they'd never have to worry about getting bent over the table by Panem again. People who are very, very good at what they do. That wasn't Deus Ex Machina, that was unintended blowback.
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Dec 5, 2011 22:13
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DivisionPost posted:I'm in no position to call you on anything else, but Deus Ex Machina? History is scattered with the corpses of would-be dictators who make really bad decisions in the heat of their frustrations, and that's what happened with President Snow. He got frustrated with Katniss and Peeta outsmarting him, and he decided that one or both of them had to die for it, and the only way to do that was to throw them back in the games via the Quarter Quell loophole, making all previous winners re-enlist. Yeah you're right, but I mean that literally as a hovercraft appearing out of NOWHERE (god from the machine) saved Katniss' rear end. Yeah, it was foreshadowed and made sense in retrospect, but I read that and went "Really? REALLY?"
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Dec 6, 2011 04:54
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Rentrent posted:Yeah you're right, but I mean that literally as a hovercraft appearing out of NOWHERE (god from the machine) saved Katniss' rear end. Yeah, it was foreshadowed and made sense in retrospect, but I read that and went "Really? REALLY?" They always appear out of nowhere, they can become invisible.
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Dec 9, 2011 22:54
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Danny Elfman is out as composer so he can work on Men in Black 3. Replacing him is (reportedly) James Newton Howard, composer of Batman Begins.
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Dec 10, 2011 05:48
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Kush posted:
I think most of the kills will be of the "cut away at the last second" type ala Dark Knight. That'll keep it in PG-13 territory. The filmmakers really only need to get two deaths right to make the movie effective though: Rue and Cato since Katniss is "involved" in both. All the others just show character traits or the general hosed-upness of the whole situation. Hopefully we just get glimpses of the muttations if they go for the full-on effect. Otherwise, they could just throw some creepy looking body extensions on the original actors with some make-up, etc and that could work, too.
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Dec 10, 2011 19:20
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jazz babies posted:They always appear out of nowhere, they can become invisible. Oh there is a plot reason for the deus ex machina so I guess it isn't a dues ex machina after all THIS IS SARCASM!! Also
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Dec 11, 2011 01:57
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Regarding that specific quote, I think there's an important REASON for that, not just a contrivance but a vital symbolic justification that fits into the wider story. It's not just that Katniss needs the medicine, the people for whom Katniss has become a symbol need her to have the medicine. It's a method of illustrating that there is more to the Hunger Games than one girl desperately trying to survive, because her survival is important to the downtrodden people of the nation who are the ones giving her help. It shows this not just to the audience, but to Katniss herself. Her role as a symbol becomes more and more important in the later books in the trilogy; the hovercraft at the end of book 2 mirrors these occurrences. From Katniss' point of view (and thus the readers, because we ARE Katniss) it all comes from nowhere, but throughout the story up to that point it is made more and more explicit that Katniss has become extremely important in a wider conflit, to the point where outside interventions are logical and consistent. If she's not getting outside help, she's just an unfortunate girl desperately trying to not die. That's not what the books are about.
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Dec 11, 2011 13:50
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Popcorn posted:Oh there is a plot reason for the deus ex machina so I guess it isn't a dues ex machina after all THIS IS SARCASM!! All Stephen King did there is basically prove that he failed to read the book or was too dumb to understand it
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Dec 11, 2011 16:22
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Fatkraken posted:
It also shows Katniss becoming savvy (unwillingly) to the media side of the games, and how Haymitch wants to control her image. Basically, play up the love angle = get a treat. Stephen King was only a little off on his description, but it could've been for brevity's sake.
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Dec 11, 2011 17:06
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I thoroughly enjoyed the trilogy. You have to go in to it acknowledging it is a young adult novel and expecting a certain amount of characteristics that go along with that. There's the love triangle between one girl and 2 guys which is a teen novel must apparently, the disconnection from the majority of adult figures and the growth of some kind of surrogate family for the main character. Beyond all of that I thought the novels were solid. The only thing I can truly complain about was some slow parts in the last novel and a rather anti-climatic end. That being said I'm excited for the novels to be turned in to movies. I feel like this story is one that can easily be transferred to film because of the heavy action portions. I'm nervous about the comparison to the Twilight movies because I'm not particularly fond of the films, especially the first two. The trailer was very promising and although originally I wasn't too excited about the casting I've grown to become quite excited about it. I watched Winter's Bone and Jennifer Lawrence was amazing in it. My only casting reservation is about Peeta, but only time will tell if he can pull it off. There's a chance this could be a phenomenal trilogy of movies if made correctly. If it comes out bad I feel like it will be the fault of the production company and not the novels themselves.
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Dec 12, 2011 06:04
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On this week's season premiere of Face Off, they announced that Ve Neill, one of the show's judges, and Conor McCullagh (winner of season 1) were working on THG. They're both proven special FX makeup artists in their own rights so it should be interesting to see what they'll be contributing. Also I wasn't even aware a THG movie was in the works until that happened. Guess even reality television can teach you something.
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Jan 14, 2012 02:05
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redjenova posted:I think Rue is consistently describes as black, though. I'm not sure how anyone could miss that. It's right in her first description and reinforced multiple times, even after the first book, IIRC. Cinna's race isn't really defined as explicitly but I can't understand anyone being upset about "he's not how I pictured!" since the description is so vague. Personally I always imagined him to have darker, olive skin, maybe Hispanic. but I have zero problem with their casting choice. To be fair, I assumed she was either black or hispanic, since it felt pretty obvious that they were kinda hinting at it considering she worked in the agriculture district and was banned through violence from eating what they picked since most the book is pretty overt about criticizing white washing as a process in general.
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Jan 15, 2012 01:40
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The film's marketing just launched a fake Capitol fashion blog to promote the movie. The .pn web domain is a nice touch.
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Jan 25, 2012 22:13
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Farbtoner posted:The film's marketing just launched a fake Capitol fashion blog to promote the movie. The .pn web domain is a nice touch. I need those fake butterfly lashes of Effie's right now
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Jan 26, 2012 00:19
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Lady Frenzy posted:I need those fake butterfly lashes of Effie's right now
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Jan 26, 2012 20:32
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Metaline posted:paperself.com!  Did you ever know that you're my hero?
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Jan 27, 2012 03:08
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I just finished Mockingjay over the weekend and then rewatched the trailer and I think the movie looks pretty awesome. Peeta looks a bit different, a bit.. Weaker than I had imagined, but other than that all of the cast and characters look fun. Also, I think Tilda Swinton would have made the perfect Effie.
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Jan 30, 2012 18:26
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I have a 12 year old daughter, and OH MY GOD kids her age are loving crazy about these books right now. I got her a Kindle for her birthday and put all 3 books on it, and she read them within a week. She has already read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire again, and is working her way through Mockingjay (and making hilarious annotations, which I like to read after she goes to bed.) I really enjoyed the books (not so much the third one, though) and I am super excited for the movie. It comes out over spring break, so it's actually a reasonable night to take a pre-teen to a midnight movie. I love watching her get all wrapped up in the hype - it's adorable. She checks the poster sections of stores to see if they have the Katniss and Peeta posters yet, she wants to put them on her ceiling. I also found a free archery program that meets monthly at a local nature center, and took my daughter a couple of weeks ago. She and the rest of the 12-14 year old girls there all had big big Katniss crushes. 
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Feb 2, 2012 18:47
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That's adorable.
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Feb 2, 2012 22:37
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I don't know if this is has been posted before but there's another minute long trailer up. http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/hunger-games-reveals-trailer-premiere-giveaway-174213303.html#more-4941 The capital looks loving amazing and the cornucopia scene looks chaotic.
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Feb 2, 2012 22:46
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Only 50 days? Holy crap, that's way sooner than I anticipated! I can't wait, especially with the new trailer out. 
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Feb 5, 2012 00:47
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This movie looks like it's going to be a lot of fun; every trailer just kinds of adds to it a bit. The nail polish collection has some really great stuff in it too.
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Feb 5, 2012 02:35
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I saw the trailer when it came out last year, but hadn't read the book. Found out the premise and immediately went "Oh, American Battle Royale and a young adult novel? Pass". Friend insisted so Iborrowed the books and read. Books were more than I expected and I'm pretty pleased with the read. Watching the original trailer and 2nd trailer again I'm pretty excited and will catch the movie when it comes out.
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Feb 7, 2012 02:38
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One of the guys that worked in the camera department for the movie is doing an AMAA on reddit if that's your thing: http://www.reddit.com/r/Hungergames/comments/ppcz3/i_worked_on_the_first_installment_in_the_hunger/
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Feb 14, 2012 22:22
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Huh, that's an interesting answer:quote:Great question. I'm not really sure which way Gary will go about showing the violence. We shot everything with and without blood. So I guess thats going to be up to Gary and how far he decides to push the MPAA rating. Personally I wish they would just release the movie R, but obviously that cuts out a HUGE demographic. Maybe well see something like a directors cut when the DVD drops.
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Feb 14, 2012 22:27
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Yeah, unfortunately when your movie's specifically targeted to teens there won't be much gore. Which is interesting because there's nothing stopping a teenager buying terribly explicit books.
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Feb 15, 2012 01:03
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The disparity between what's acceptable in teen-targeted books as opposed to films is kind of weird. I've read far more graphic things in novels at a really young age than you see in a lot of adult-targeted movies. I mean, yes, it makes sense, because the visual impact is much more different than imagery you picture when you're reading, but still. It's pretty interesting, but it can really ruin the translation.
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Feb 15, 2012 02:09
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Still PG-13 movies can still be pretty drat violent. It's really only sex/nudity that the MPAA cares about.
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Feb 15, 2012 04:44
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Another interesting thing I saw from the AMAA was that Soderbergh directed second unit for a few days. That's pretty cool. I haven't read the novels yet, but I'm honestly pretty excited for this movie. My friends and girlfriend are nuts over it, and the trailers I've seen for it (besides the god-awful teaser trailer) have really piqued my interest.
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Feb 15, 2012 05:06
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Wow, we just put up the sessions for our midnight screenings and in a few minutes we already had heaps of online sales (some sites have already sold out) what type of fans does this series have? should i be expecting near twilight levels of insanity? that a joke please don't kill me
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Feb 21, 2012 14:53
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It's a young adult novel that has a sweeping adult fanbase. Twilight and even Harry Potter are fine comparisons even if the content isn't similar.
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Feb 21, 2012 15:31
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FateoMcSkippy posted:Still PG-13 movies can still be pretty drat violent. It's really only sex/nudity that the MPAA cares about.
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Feb 21, 2012 16:55
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weekly font posted:It's a young adult novel that has a sweeping adult fanbase. Twilight and even Harry Potter are fine comparisons even if the content isn't similar. I would only go out on a limb and say that Hunger Games had the broad adult appeal that Harry Potter did, whereas Twilight wasn't exactly 'diverse' in it's adult fanbase. Independent of that it's great in that the protagonist is a relatively strong female, something that's pretty lacking in general. I've only read the first two books (got the third but can't start it yet) but thus far she's not really faltered from that description. The books aren't subtle, but this really works to it's advantage. Katniss is effectively our eyes into the world, and she's not subtle either, so why would the world she sees be? In terms of the trailer, the footage is fantastic. It looks like they've messed with the color saturation in the scene with Effie choosing the name. The color has been sapped out of everything there except her. Most of the visuals thus far look great, which means my hopes are far too high.
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Feb 21, 2012 17:19
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Timeless Appeal posted:They do care about human blood which is a problem for a book series that has some pretty bloody moments. The first book shouldn't be a huge problem, but the violence in the third book is going to be hard to work around. I was worried about the "credibility" concerning the violence before even reading the books, but after reading them, I guess they can go with PG13 at least with the first film, even though it has some brutal scenes in it. But not with the third one, basically everytime a character dies, it is very brutal and most of the book is pretty much full-on war. It is kind of saddening to know they could make the movies as violent as the books but since the fanbase is mostly teens and young adults, they have to tone it down a little. It is just funny that (young) people can read the books and imagine all the horrors themselves but the film cannot show it the same way without getting an R and forbidding all of the target audience from seeing it in the process.
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Feb 21, 2012 20:43
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Well, at this point it's pretty late but all the violence could be handled in such a way as to make it more powerful by not being shown, or reduced to horror movie standards. I'm thinking of Rue's death and in the book Katniss wanted to force them into having to show her bloody body, but you could shoot her coming upon the scene and her face should be able to tell the audience just how horrific the scene is...but then I remember that the Katniss we are getting doesn't seem like a very good actor, and so I despair. There are a whole bunch of really gory parts of the third book, loads of death throughout all three but much of that doesn't have to be shown enough to upset those delicate folks who decide ratings. As long as no boobs get flashed, I figure the movies will be a solid PG 13. Really, gore is just not needed, the horror of off-screen death isn't used often enough these days. I am still looking forward to seeing the actual Hunger Game, mainly for the end of it. Probably a lot of CGI but I am interested in seeing how that plays out on screen.
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Feb 21, 2012 23:15
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Barometer posted:...but then I remember that the Katniss we are getting doesn't seem like a very good actor, and so I despair. Why on earth do you think this? Lawrence was outstanding in Winter's Bone, and that part couldn't be more perfect in terms of giving you a feel for how she might approach Katniss.
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Feb 22, 2012 02:57
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Yea if there's one thing about this movie that is virtually guaranteed to not suck, it's Jennifer Lawrence.
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Feb 22, 2012 03:01
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ClydeUmney posted:Why on earth do you think this? Lawrence was outstanding in Winter's Bone, and that part couldn't be more perfect in terms of giving you a feel for how she might approach Katniss. Well, I didn't see that so I only have X Men First Class and the trailer for this to go on. She was pretty much an annoyance to me in X Men and a bit of a non-entity. In the trailer of Hunger Games her delivery of "Me...take me!" doesn't sell me on emotion, it's really bland. I don't know how else to put it, I just don't like the way she delivers the lines, it feel forced and emotionless. Reminds me of Natalie Portman in Episode one. I like Natalie Portman, and I know she can act, but her delivery in those movies was horrible.
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Feb 22, 2012 03:12
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Barometer posted:Well, I didn't see that so I only have X Men First Class and the trailer for this to go on. She was pretty much an annoyance to me in X Men and a bit of a non-entity. In the trailer of Hunger Games her delivery of "Me...take me!" doesn't sell me on emotion, it's really bland. I don't know how else to put it, I just don't like the way she delivers the lines, it feel forced and emotionless. Reminds me of Natalie Portman in Episode one. I like Natalie Portman, and I know she can act, but her delivery in those movies was horrible. I'm just saying, dismissing an actress who scored an Oscar nomination in her first major starring role - whether you've seen it or not - seems absurd. Saying she seems like she might be bad in this is one thing; saying she's not a good actress is another.
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Feb 22, 2012 03:17
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