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This is an adaptation of one of the worst books I've read in years - it's separate from Twilight in my mind only in that it swaps Twilight's hideous self-regarding misogyny for competitive survivalist action, which is admittedly a huge improvement - but the film looks much better than I'd expected. Compared to the initial teaser, which made it look like made-for-TV garbage, this new trailer structure is good, emphasising character and setup and ending with a teaser for the 'meat' of the premise, the Hunger Game itself. Jennifer Lawrence looks good, even if her male co-stars all look like teen girl bait with faces that look like they've been pumping iron. Considering I have a pathaological need to see any adaptation of anything I've ever read (even when I hate the source material), I'll almost certainly see this, but it might even not suck completely. And, uh, I don't mean to threadshit, but banning Battle Royale comparisons seems a bit rich coming from someone who hasn't seen Battle Royale... and while I agree the stories are distinct, that they use such similar premises surely invites discussion on how well each uses it and what their implications are. BR was a very Japanese satire, but (and I think this is a major problem) THG doesn't seem to know what point it's making beyond exciting teenagers with its violent premise. The stuff about the media (and the chat show in particular) felt like the book was getting at some broader dig at society, about celebrity and sex and bloodlust, that it couldn't really articulate.
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Nov 15, 2011 16:12
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ClydeUmney posted:B) I think the series definitely has a point, one that becomes more and more clear as the series progressed. Collins said that she wrote the series as a way of exploring the effects of war on children - it's one reason that the characters don't just shrug off the book's events. There are serious PTSD issues throughout, which makes it all more complex. Yes, there's more going on in terms of social commentary and whatnot, but I think that theme very much ties it all together. Ah, well, to be fair on the series, I only read the first book. I may have dismissed it too readily because by the end of it I was so sick of the trashy 'teen lit' prose and the deus ex machinas I had no urge to continue.
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Nov 15, 2011 16:26
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Fatkraken posted:You can judge how much you like it, sure, and stop reading it if you don't like it, but you cannot judge the complete POINT it is making, because you haven't actually read the entire story. The first book does have it's own internal themes and plots, but they tie into the wider story in ways that don't become clear until you complete the trilogy. That's fair enough - I can't judge how well it works as a story about child war because I haven't read that far. But the first book - and from the looks of it this movie - identifiably attempts to satirise the media's fixation on sex and bloodlust and I don't think it's unfair to discuss that on its own terms.
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Nov 15, 2011 19:58
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weekly font posted:People get mad about it for the same reason they get mad about pop music or Adam Sandler films. Low-brow? Easily accessible?! Not to MY standards?! AND WORST OF ALL SUCCESSFUL WHILE MY PRECIOUS INTELLECTUAL [thing] IS NOT?! Or they just identify the poo poo writing, the deus ex machina-tastic plotting, the abundance of cliches... (and FYI I don't think any of my favourite novels aren't bestsellers.) But I'll concede that the Twilight comparison is lazy and probably only occurred because it's the only other trashy YA fiction I've read in recent years. "Hey, this crummy sentence about feelings is just like that crummy sentence in Twilight..."
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Nov 16, 2011 01:48
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The population is starving. The kid who wins The Hunger Games wins their hometown lots of food from the evil government. There might be a metaphor involved too but you'd have to ask one of the scholars who read the whole trilogy.
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Nov 16, 2011 03:50
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:Perhaps the most important thing that's being missed in this open disdain for "Young Adult Novels" is that Hunger Games comments on those novels the same way this film comments on blockbuster films. The character can't simply live in the woods like a hippie, but rather must look pretty, must kill people in stylish ways in order to be the franchise's heroine. The point being that if you're an 'ugly' pacifist, you're not going to end up the star of an American blockbuster. You're not going to have a book written about you. SMG, I agree with your analysis and your posts always impress me, but I do envy your ability to overlook seemingly any normal indicator of quality in favour of a theoretical reading. I mean, am I supposed to concede that The Hunger Games is a good novel after all because it may function as a discussion of the Young Adult Novel/Hollywood Blockbuster as a genre, even though it contains sentences as maddening as "now it was Peeta's turn to look surprised"? Or is this not a question of "good" for you? One of the reasons I'm optimistic about the movie is that I won't have to put up with that prose anymore. There may just be a story I can enjoy underneath it.
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Nov 16, 2011 16:12
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sportsgenius86 posted:It's a young adult novel. That's readily apparent going into reading it, so if your biggest criticisms revolve around a clearly meant for young adults style, I'd say the fault lies more in unrealistic expectations than it does on Suzanne Collins. I don't think this is fair. The world is not lacking in truly excellent literature for teenagers. We shouldn't set our standards for literature lower because we're aiming it at kids; I don't see any necessary "obvious drawback" in writing a young adult novel for young adults. Your argument shouldn't be "but you should have known it was going to suck, so you can't complain". (And you seem to admit that it sucks to some extent by mentioning these alleged "obvious drawbacks".) Instead your argument should be "here's why it actually doesn't suck". You're right about Twilight, though, that was a lazy comparison.
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Nov 16, 2011 23:11
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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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Peeta is a silly name for a baker character. Are his siblings called Baygel and Chiobatta? 
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Apr 23, 2012 02:14
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I guess I had the opposite reaction to all those racist tweeters, because not only did I have it in my head that Rue was black, I also, for reasons I can't recall (and I'll be damned if I'm reading the book again), thought Peeta was Indian/South Asian. Did the movie whitewash him or did I just assume that because of the spelling of his
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Apr 23, 2012 03:02
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I hated it too. It's just phenomenally cheesy.
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Dec 2, 2013 11:06
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