The Hunger Games

[El Dingo]

My sister-in-law recommended the book to me during our xmas visit. I finished it in a couple of sittings. The author really knows how to keep a fast pace and cliff-hanger chapter endings. It's great pop-fiction in the style of Stephen King (without the constant Ramones references).

The film follows the book pretty closely. A wealthy,powerful nation oppresses neighboring 'districts', forcing them to provide food, energy and other commodities to the 'Capitol'. At some point in the past the districts rebelled but were violently quelled. To keep the memory of the failed rebellion fresh the Capitol holds a lottery in each district, one boy and one girl are picked to represent their district in a fight to the death - The Hunger Games.

The acting was very good, although a few of the 'teen' characters looked to be well into their twenties. The 'shaky cam' was used throughout the movie to give a sense of realism and to make it harder to see the brutal violence. At first I found it irritating but eventually got used to it.

The sets and costumes were much how I imagined them from the novel. The districts were grey and depressing. The Capitol magnificent, it's people colorful to the point of absurd. Think Moebius meets The Wizard of Oz.

Dee Dee and I both enjoyed it and are looking forward to the sequel. I would recommend reading the book first. There is quite a bit of backstory that didn't make it into the film.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Ok, I'll read the book first!

[Drunk Monk]

T hasn't read it. She plans to do so, and then watch it. Until then, I'll stick with Battle Royale.

[Drunk Monk]

We'll probably see it soon. That being said, I've taken up the task of working the henna booth at T's school Spring Faire (a major private school fundraiser). I learned henna from my dead tour daze and my travels in India, so over the years, I've become a fav henna artist there (kids wait just for me). I also update the henna patterns because the people that run the henna booth just aren't in tune with kids today.

A few years ago, it was all about the Dark Mark. I sold tons of those, which was challenging as it is a complicated design. This year, it was all about the mockingjay. Sold a ton of those. The Avengers symbol was tied with the SF Giants. Sold a few dark marks. Only sold one Niners and one sharks logo.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Didn't read the book, saw the movie on DVD.

I'm going to have to say no to this one. It looked like they had all the parts for a good movie, they just didn't fit together very well. We have this disparate dystopian world. we have this annual ritual were children hunt down each other in a game show environment. We have this great archer who uses really ludicrous looking bows and arrows.

I think I wanted the kids to rebel more against the system than to actively take part in it.

And it was slow. You would think when they cut up the book they would stick to the best parts and things would fly by. but not really. It seemed like it took forever to get to the point where we are killing each other.

Plus, the film seems like the poster child for Deus ex machina. Oh my god. I have climbed this tree to escape from my pursuers, but they have found my perch. How will I ever get down. And I have terrible burn on my leg. Good thing someone has sent me some cream via parachute to aid me. Good thing there is a giant hybrid wasp nest right near me. And it continued.

Maybe the holes in the plot were cleared up in the book. But that doesn't make for good film making.

Plus, I kept on waiting for the other kid from 12 to turn on her. And waited.

All in all, no. Still not going to read the book.

[Drunk Monk]

T has read the entire trilogy and has seen the film twice already (to and from UK last summer). I have not read it and don't plan to do so. S & I found it entertaining, but it was all about Jennifer Lawrence. S saw Silver Lining Playbook and was quite impressed by her. It was my first exposure to J-Law's work and I can see what all the fuss is about. Without her, this film would have totally failed, mostly for the reasons Greg mentioned above. J-Law has great screen presence, one of those actresses who makes the most of her impossibly long neck, and she elevated what would have been another fantasy-book-adaptation into something much more engaging. I look forward to seeing more of her, even if that means another face-plant at the Oscars. While there was no actual sword vs. sword fight, there was some sword choppin, an ok hallucination scene, some blood spitting (I think, the camera was jiggly), silly knife-tossin, silly camoflaging, but no Bollywood number (but wasn't the Capitol City parade just ripe for one? Maybe in part 2).

I really wanted J-Law to wind up with a frying pan for a weapon (That's a Battle Royale joke, in case you missed it )

[Drunk Monk]

T is really into this book series and reread the first two books in preparation. We went with one of her school friends and ran into some more when we got there. It was fun.

HG2 is sort of like Half Blood Prince, in that it starts from a place where you really need to see the first one to get what's up, and then ends with a cliffhanger that teases the final installment of the trilogy (which, like Deathly Hallows, is to be split into two parts). Like Empire Strikes Back, this is a strong sequel, firmly establishing the franchise. And again, it's all about Jennifer Lawrence. She totally carries the character of Katniss. I watch her in just about anything now, even the upcoming X-Men silliness.

There's some sword fighting practice and some machete action, but it's mostly CGI bow shots. This one is more violent, lots of oppressor beat downs.

There's a soundtrack that features a lot of T's fav artists, but we didn't sit through the credits to hear it and it didn't really play into the film itself. But just for fun, here's our mutual fav, Lorde's HG2 track, which is like Tears for Fears on quaaludes, which works lyrically but I await an official music vid with scenes of the film for final judgement.
[youtube]DaVA6sgOpws[/youtube]

[Drunk Monk]

If CF (Catching Fire, not cranefly) was akin to HP&t1/2BP, Mkj is HP&tDH- PART 1. Still consistent to vision and T says fairly loyal to the book for a film. The cast is superb. Well, maybe not the male leads, but the supporting cast is great - Donald is seething with psychotyrant cunning, Juliane forsakes her main superpower, that shock of ginger hair, and is clearly the looming tyrant2b, Woody is spot-on as a grudging sober, Philip Hoffman makes us saddened with his passing. But ultimately, it's still all about J-Law. She nails Katniss. She makes this work. She even nails the rebel song.

There's a nice subplot on the power of media - Katniss filming rebel propaganda before a green screen was hilarious. That and the cat subplot gave a depressing set-up story some humor. Mkj moves along with fairly obvious story arcs beyond that. This installment is the greyest so far - very little in the Capitol. Mostly, it's the rebels in drab jumpsuits living in underground bunkers. No sword fights. Only one archery shot. One dog shot. Most of the sets looked like CGI. Lots of rebels getting machine-gunned down by stormtroopers...er, I mean peacekeepers.

I confess that I kept forgetting what happened in CF and replacing it with Divergent.

And Lorde gets the closing credit song again, but this time her own composition.

T says everyone dies in the final installment. But I'll surely forget about this until then, and replace it with Insurgent.

[Drunk Monk]

Mockingjay was ok - a decent close to a well cast franchise. Really, it's all about J-Law and her tremendous screen presence. She gets to give heroic speeches, shoot arrows and wear a cool superhero catsuit, so it's all good. The Hunger Games premise gets rather silly, as the rebels led by J-Law/Katniss enter the city which is riddled with spectacular booby traps. But they all have that AdamWest/Batman factor - remember how each episode of Batman left him and the boy wonder in some perilous cliffhanger? If the villains just killed Batman instead of doing some goofy torture kill, it would have been done. In that same way, if the city just had bombs for booby traps, it would be Hunger Game over. Anyway, best not to dwell on details with YA fantasies, right? I wouldn't recommend this to any of you as none of you are really following this franchise and there's no real need to invest in it now.

The funny thing was that Stacy had not seen MJ part 1, so when we walked out of the theater, she confessed that it made very little sense. We caught it while Tara was at a party with some old elementary school friends in redwood shores. Tara was a little mad because she's really the one that's into this, not us. We had hoped to see SPECTRE but because of the timing, the available showings were sold out.

[Drunk Monk]

We finally rented this so T could see it. She explained how it depicted the book, which made the book sound much better. I didn't notice the first time that one of the actresses was Ensign Ro from Star Trek. I hung out with her for a week in Manhatten. That was a funny flashback. I'm surprised I didn't notice that the first time. Maybe I did and just forgot to make note of it here... Michelle Forbes. She was charming.

[King Bob]

I read the first book and thought that it was decidedly mediocre. The writing is not that good, and she uses the (apparently obligatory for YA) first person narration which I found tiresome. And of course there is a love triangle. Perhaps that's also obligatory - it was just the same in The Mortal Instruments. And the idea that the hunger games will somehow keep the people downtrodden seems foolish.

That said, I did enjoy the first film, the second was okay.

[Drunk Monk]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)