Hunger Games

Post by **Ellienor** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:02 pm

The movie is coming out March 23rd. I've already purchased my tix to see it March 24.

This is worth paying attention to. The Hunger Games is the first book of a teenybopper trilogy, but although it's marketed to the teenage set, it's really a quite good series. I heard about it through my daughter. We both read all three books about six months ago. I really, really enjoyed the books. Absorbing. Interesting ideas. Good characters. Twists and turns (the event at the end of the third book was GENIUS, I thought).

So imagine my geekly pleasure at hearing a movie was coming out!!!

And then as I looked into it, it looked like it was going to be a quality adaptation. Good director, good actors, etc. The trailers have looked really good, and the first movie reviews are starting to trickle in..........very positive.

Anyone else geeking out about the Hunger Games move?

Post by **Holbytla** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:21 pm

Rebecca downloaded it to my Kindle the other night and is reading it. I could start to read it on my computer or phone and may do that sometime this weekend. As long as it isn't Harry Potter-ish or Twilight-ish, I'm sure I'll like it just fine.

Post by **Teremia** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:24 pm

I'm sure I'll see this film--the trailers look great, and the book has been phenomenally successful (and my kids want to see it). I worry about how the violence will transfer to the screen, though. It's all about violence, but the book is aimed at kids. Will they tame some stuff down for the film? (I'm a wimp, so I hope so.)

I thought the first book was completely gripping, the best in the series. By the third book I was less enthralled, but the first book simply grabs you and does not let you go.

Post by **Ellienor** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:02 pm

Well, I liked Harry Potter and I even liked the first book Twilight so there you go. I have no idea whether you'd like this one or not, Holby.

I suspect you'll like it, though.

Teremia, I too have read a piece about the movie-makers' struggle to translate the violence to the movie in a sensitive manner that doesn't traumatize all the young viewers but all the same doesn't remove the punch of the book. I read that they've done it with editing--the camera doesn't linger, it's seen in quick flashes, etc. Since I'm taking my 11 year old, I'm glad that it seems like (from the movie reviews) they've handled it pretty well.

Interestingly, the author's father was in the military, and he was in Vietnam (I think?) Her father also took his children around various battle sites. She grew up informed of war and of the effects of war on people. So I think that her depiction of some of the reactions of Katniss to what she had been through, is informed by this exposure she had as a kid.

Well, it seems almost a given at this point that we're going to see the second and third books translated to the movie screen, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out. I do think the first book has most of the punch, but I like the interesting set up between spoiler/ District 13 and the Capitol, how the two are opposed in every superficial way but underneath are a lot alike /spoiler.

Post by **Holbytla** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:09 am

I don't dislike Harry Potter. I just felt a disconnect with them. I don't expect to be the target audience for the Hunger Games, but I am hoping that I won't feel like I am on the outside looking./

Please tell me the series is all written, because I don't think I could tolerate dealing with anymore books that are incomplete. I'm dealing with two as it is and it is making me crazier.

Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:11 am

Ellienor wrote:Well, it seems almost a given at this point that we're going to see the second and third books translated to the movie screen.

They said that about the Barsoom books, too, but now that John Carter has bombed, not so much.

Post by **Frelga** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:23 am

The books are quite a high quality. There is no magic, just a strong, bleak distopian setting. The characters' devotion to their families and friends both tempers the bleakness and makes it more heartbreaking.

That's books.

However, it's not so much a spoiler but a fair warning that the core of the first book, the Hunger Games of the title, is about children forced into a game setting where they kill each other and only one can survive. And that is really not my idea of a fun afternoon at the movies.

Post by **Holbytla** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:27 am

Rebecca likened the setting or time as something akin to the Giver. Which I liked.

Post by **tinwë** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:14 pm

I haven't read the books and don't really know that much about them. It does sound rather bleak, which seems surprising, not just for a book aimed at young people, but also for a film that is being touted as the next big thing.

I'll almost certainly see the movie though, if for no other reason than it was filmed in my home state and partly in my hometown. It's a very big deal here - all of the local papers and news channels have been running stories about it for the last few weeks. The main headline on the front page of today's paper is about the filming of the movie. I even saw Woody Harrelson and Lenny Kravitz out the Whitewater Center several times last year while they were in town filming.

Given what I have heard about it so far, I'll be surprised if this doesn't do well at the box office.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:29 pm

My 18-yo daughter has wangled an early trip home for spring break so she can go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. One of them; there are 12 or 13 so far in town, more than half sold out (the multiplexes just add screens as shows sell out, an advantage of digital cinema; they're not limited by how many prints they have).

Post by **yovargas** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:36 pm

After 15 reviews, it's at 100% on rottentomatoes. A very promising start.

Post by **Maria** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:54 pm

I detested the premise of the books so much that I doubt I'll see the movie on big screen. I might get the DVD later on. It might be bearable when I can stop the movie and go do something else for a while.

But when just a trailer puts me in tears, it does not bode well for me to see the movie in a theater. I just don't think I could take it.

Post by **Lalaith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:58 pm

Sarah and her friends are dying to see it, so I suppose I will be dragged along. It's supposed to be a good series, though I never read it. She kept wanting me to, but I just didn't want to. Nor do I want to see the movie. I don't like the emotional pull of things like this.

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:29 pm

My nearly-17-yo read the books a few months ago, and my 12-yo nipped in and pinched the books before the 15-yo got around to reading them! 12-yo is still on the 3rd book, having got side-tracked with other novels (Darren Shan, Derek Landy, etc.) and 15-yo has now caught him up, having devoured the first two books in a weekend, and is waiting for said 3rd novel which is out of his reach at boarding school!!!

I expect Nos 1 & 2 sons will take themselves off to see the movie in the Easter hols which are a couple of weeks away...I don't think I could watch it so 12-yo will have to go with his dad if he is desperate to see it!

Post by **Ellienor** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:15 pm

I agree. If you just hear the story line for the books, it doesn't sound appealing at all! I remember when a friend of my daughter's mom told me about them, and she said something like, I don't want to explain the storyline to you, it sounds terrible, but trust me, the books are really good!

I think it has to do with the fact that the author has set SPOILER: up the Games as an illustration that this society is so terrible. And the fact that Katniss feels all the deaths so deeply and retains her humanity in the face of it--sets up the inevitable conflict between her and the society. Ultimately, it's an uplifting tale. It has a lot of stuff there, and the parallels it draws to modern day society are hard to miss.

It's not escapist fantasy--it raises a lot of questions, it asks us to compare authentically human and caring ways with a depersonalized and sensation-seeking society. END SPOILER

Post by **Farawen** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:38 pm

Post by **Ellienor** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:35 pm

Farawen: continue to stay away from Twilight.

Seriously. Don't bother. However, don't stay away from the Hunger Games. With Harry Potter, I resisted reading the first book for quite a while for the same thing--I hate to be such a sheep and follow the crowd. But once I read the first two books in 2000 of Harry Potter I just gave in and succumbed to it then.

Resistance is futile, Farawen.

Post by **Holbytla** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:58 pm

Rebecca read (swallowed) all three books between Thursday and Sunday, or maybe even Saturday night. She says they are more like the Giver (which is also being made into a movie) than HP etc.
I guess I can try and manage to read the first one before the movie comes out.

Post by **Frelga** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:21 pm

I didn't like Giver at all. The dystopia felt contrives and improbable. Hunger Games has the setting and the characters realized much better. Infinitely better.

Still not going to see it.

Post by **JewelSong** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:34 pm

My daughter and I loved the books and are really excited about the upcoming movie.

I also loved the Giver, and the two companion books: "Gathering Blue" and the third one: "Messenger" which brings the first two books together.

They are similar in that they both deal with a dystopian society. "Gathering Blue" is quite dark and made me cry towards the end. Was it contrived and improbable? Probably, but I felt they were meant to be more metaphorical than realistic.

"The Hunger Games" and the other two books are disturbingly realistic. And very good.