Jaymann wrote:I am about to finish the book on Kindle. One of those rare stories that will most likely be better on film. Great concept, but doubt if I will be reading any more.
+1
Exactly how I feel. In a way, I'm embarrassed by how much a few of my friends like the books...I found the writing to be very childish (go figure!).
I had the book on tape version. It was infuriating actually, due to the slow pace of the narrator and her precise enunciation meant for younger audiences.
My wife went to Audible to get the audio book last night. She had a credit so she got it free, but she said the book was going for $20+ if you had to pay for it. WTF?
ok heres a helluva deal. I just picked up the Hunger Games trilogy for $4.05 in epub format. Yeah thats not a typo. Kobo books ( heres the link Kobo Link ) is having a sale with a special code that gives you 80% off on all Hunger game e-books, including the full trilogy. The code is : HungerGamesDeal2
I just finished my purchase and the code works. If you havent read this yet and can use books in e-pub format. Then this is pretty hard to pass up. You can also use the code on the individual books if youve already purchased one or two of them, and save on whats left of the trilogy.
just found out that you need to alter the promo code (hungergamesdeal, hungergamesdeal2, hungergamesdeal3) for 3 separate transactions, if you want the individual books.
Well do you ever get the feeling that the story's too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage and it seems like you're the only person sitting in the audience?
Scuzz wrote:My dyslexic 19 year old daughter just read the book in about 48 hours and is now waiting for the movie and dying to read the second book.
She has now finished book 2 and is looking for someone's book 3 to borrow.
I hope we can find another series that will interest her as she rarely reads anything.
I would STRONGLY suggest a series by a gentleman by the name of Jonathan Flanagan, called "The Ranger's Apprentice." The first book is called "The Ruins of Gorlan." Great book with a little bit of everything for everyone. Lessons about staying true to who you are, trying new things, bullying, a little hint of budding romance with young adults (but by NO means any kind of focus on that at all in the first four books).
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same." ~Jonathan Davis
"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." ~Robert M. Hutchins
One of the partners in the company I work for has an 11 year old daughter. She really wants to see Hunger Games. I guess she's told her father about it, but he's not really a movie fan and barely watches television. I know this because of the following exchange that took place about 90 minutes ago.
Boss: Hey, you ever hear of a new movie called "House Hunters"?
Me: Huh? You mean "Silent House"?
Boss: Nah, I think it's called "House Hunters" or maybe "Hunters 2".
Me: Never heard of it.
Boss: "House Hunted" maybe?
Me: "Hunters of Houses" you mean?
Boss: Yeah, that must be it! You heard of it?
Me: Nope. I just made that up.
Boss: Ass. Look it up on the internet.
Me: Ooookay.
Boss: It's about some kids who go hunting. That's all I know.
Me: (light going off in head) "Hunger Games"?
Boss: Yeah, that's it! My kid wants to see it. Is it too mature for her?
Me: I'm not sure, will she be expecting any kind of house hunting in it?
I thought it was a good representation of the book. Harrelson was shown way less drunk than I expected but I guess they didn't have time for him to be passed out for the whole movie. Two nitpicks:
Spoiler:
Kat's outfits were way less fabulous than I imagined them and I was expecting a little more Peeta/Gale angst, but I can understand how that got pushed to the side. Even with such a long movie there was a lot to fit in!
Liked it, but a little disappointed - they sorta soft pedaled the violence of the story - and the quick cuts didn't work for me. But the acting was good all around and many of the characters on the screen were just like I pictured them. The film was mostly faithful to the book but the omissions were pretty obvious. OTH, Katniss was far more likable in the movie than she was in the book. The only reason I pulled for her in the book was because she was caught up in a bad system.
Spoiler:
The part in the movie when Roe dies, people were loudly boo hooing sobbing - for me that part of the book was a lot sadder because I had come to know Roe better.
I was expecting a little more Peeta/Gale angst, but I can understand how that got pushed to the side.
Bah. This is really never the point of the story, much as some of the adolescent female readers make it the point of their reading of it. But really, it's a disservice to Collins and Katniss both to characterize her feelings towards them as angsty. Katniss has bigger problems.
To be fair, adolescent power fantasy tripe is way easier to write than absurd existential horror, and every community has got to start somewhere... right?
Unless one loses a precious thing, he will never know its true value. A little light finally scratches the darkness; it lets the exhausted one face his shattered dream and realize his path cannot be walked. Can man live happily without embracing his wounded heart?
I was expecting a little more Peeta/Gale angst, but I can understand how that got pushed to the side.
Bah. This is really never the point of the story, much as some of the adolescent female readers make it the point of their reading of it. But really, it's a disservice to Collins and Katniss both to characterize her feelings towards them as angsty. Katniss has bigger problems.
To be fair, there is a fair amount of "tee hee" kissing and "oh, how do I feel about Gale/Peeta?" My kids even noticed and commented on it. I think angst is an appropriate word to describe it.
silverjon wrote:Bah. This is really never the point of the story, much as some of the adolescent female readers make it the point of their reading of it. But really, it's a disservice to Collins and Katniss both to characterize her feelings towards them as angsty. Katniss has bigger problems.
Agreed. Even wrote as much already in the thread. Yeah, there's a love triangle, and yeah, it's troubling for her at times, but you're right, she has WAY bigger problems to deal with. It's not twilight.
On that note, my wife invited me to a date night next Tuesday. Pho and Hunger Games. I'm actually more excited that my wife proposed a date night than about the movie, but it will be fun to talk about it with her afterward as well.
Odin wrote:To be fair, there is a fair amount of "tee hee" kissing and "oh, how do I feel about Gale/Peeta?" My kids even noticed and commented on it. I think angst is an appropriate word to describe it.
No. There isn't.
Spoiler:
That's weird. There is exactly zero tee hee kissing, and only a little reflection on her relationship with the 2 guys. Hell, there isn't even any actual kissing in the first one that I remember. Wasn't the entirety of the kissing solely for the audience in the first book?
edit: Added spoiler tag just in case. Seems minimal but ok.
Spoiler:
She doesn't even accept that she has anything but vague stirrings of feelings for Peeta and Gale is a companion for her. She feels a kinship for Gale and not a huge amount of anything besides gratitude for Peeta for the bread he gave her.
I'm telling you that anything that could be considered teenage angst doesn't exist in the first book. You *might* be able to argue a few scenes in the later books. And even if I were willing to concede some scene I'm misremembering in the first book, it is an incredibly minor aspect. If anything could be considered angst-y in the first book, then no human relationships exist without angst and we'd have to find another word to describe the type of overwrought, overly emotional, crisis without merit that I'm used to referring to as angst
Angst implies anxiety. Do readers really feel that the book was all about Katniss being filled with anxiety with regard to her boy relationships? Concerned? Sure. Troubled? Possibly at times. Spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about them? I never got that impression
Last edited by GreenGoo on Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.
OK since we have decided to destroy the sanctity of the the spoiler tags: Kat's feelings about Gale and Peeta are the whole subtext of the entire book series!
Half of the first book is Kat trying to figure out whether she can love anyone (besides her family) at all, who she dares to trust with her love, how she deals with her feelings, and the repercussions of those feelings.
I'm saying this as a robot: You are all dead inside.
I really don't remember Katniss agonizing about "oh noes, how will I ever decide between them?" Too busy surviving. She is also set up as someone who intends to never marry and never have children because she cannot bear the idea that they could be made tribute one day. She doesn't want to love anybody because loving opens you to the agony of loss, as she saw with her mother and father. But she can't help connecting with people, like Rue, and like Peeta, and Finnick and other past winners, even Haymitch... and this connection is what makes her the symbol of the revolution. She builds community in a society founded on pitting everyone against everyone else. But her connecting also means that loss breaks her. She doesn't ultimately decide between Gale and Peeta, but between revenge and healing. She chooses the person who can possibly help her find a future where she can be whole again. It's much bigger than just deciding who she loves more. It's doing what is right for herself.
Some credit must be given to essays from critical work The Girl Who Was On Fire, particularly the one titled "Team Katniss".
To be fair, adolescent power fantasy tripe is way easier to write than absurd existential horror, and every community has got to start somewhere... right?
Unless one loses a precious thing, he will never know its true value. A little light finally scratches the darkness; it lets the exhausted one face his shattered dream and realize his path cannot be walked. Can man live happily without embracing his wounded heart?
7/10. Well acted, mostly good film. The two issues are that the camera man seems to be drunk half the time (Jesus man, you are worse than Greengrass!) and the entire thing feels very rushed. Like, "Introduce character. Wait 3 minutes. Kill character. Introduce new character. Wait 2 minutes. Kill character." I know movies need to compress the book, but damn yo.
theohall wrote:Screw shaky cam. There was absolutely no need for that in any of this film. Take that crap out and it gets 8 tentacles.
THIS. Bang on.
As I posted on GT, there was one set of scenes where I could understand the use of the technique:
Spoiler:
The 'bloodbath' at the start of the Games was pretty brutal as it was, and I imagine would have been much more graphic if NOT quick cut/shaky, pushing up the rating of the movie...
But using it throughout? Nonsense and detracts from an otherwise very good film, making it simply a good movie in my books.
In the ads I only saw shaky cam for that scene, and thought it would be appropriate. If it's shaky cam while following her around during "quiet" times then yeah, what the hell?
The film makes the mistake of trying to set tones and fails when too much what cam is used in those scenes. Especially the beginning when they are trying to show the poor mining district. If they wanted to show that imagery, all they had to do was look at Winter's Bone. Directorial mistake.
GreenGoo wrote:In the ads I only saw shaky cam for that scene, and thought it would be appropriate. If it's shaky cam while following her around during "quiet" times then yeah, what the hell?
They use the shaky cam in a number of actions scenes - sort of to imply more violence then they were actually showing. That decision really knocked the film down a couple notches for me. And don't get me wrong, I liked the movie.
I was really looking forward to this movie but I REALLY REALLY hate shaky cam.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
Shaky cam is overused at the beginning and during the fight scenes, but other than that it either went away or I stopped noticing. The other thing they do is zoom in too close to everyone all the time, that's fairly annoying.
Just saw it this afternoon. I did not read the books and stayed away from the previews, so I went into it knowing nothing. Surprised that the theater was packed. I haven't seen that in awhile. I give it a solid 8/10. Very good but not excellent because of the ending. The ending was A typical. It was by far the worst part of the movie. The story itself was good. Harrelson was excellent and wish he had more scenes as a drunk. He plays that part very well. I did like the main actress. I will be looking for her in future movies.
So now I need to make the decision of reading the books. Is book one the best of the series?
Torfish wrote:Just saw it this afternoon. I did not read the books and stayed away from the previews, so I went into it knowing nothing. Surprised that the theater was packed. I haven't seen that in awhile. I give it a solid 8/10. Very good but not excellent because of the ending. The ending was A typical. It was by far the worst part of the movie. The story itself was good. Harrelson was excellent and wish he had more scenes as a drunk. He plays that part very well. I did like the main actress. I will be looking for her in future movies.
So now I need to make the decision of reading the books. Is book one the best of the series?
Torfish wrote:Just saw it this afternoon. I did not read the books and stayed away from the previews, so I went into it knowing nothing. Surprised that the theater was packed. I haven't seen that in awhile. I give it a solid 8/10. Very good but not excellent because of the ending. The ending was A typical. It was by far the worst part of the movie. The story itself was good. Harrelson was excellent and wish he had more scenes as a drunk. He plays that part very well. I did like the main actress. I will be looking for her in future movies.
So now I need to make the decision of reading the books. Is book one the best of the series?
Book one was absolutely the best of the series. I thought book one was great, book two was good and book three was meh but I needed to wrap up the series.
Black Lives Matter. No human is illegal. Women's rights are human rights. Love is love. Science is real. Kindness is everything.
I honestly noticed no difference in the quality of the books. I went into the 3rd wondering just how she was going to have all the same things happen a 3rd time and was pleasantly surprised at how she managed it.
But I'm not a huge fan of the series. I liked it. I thought it was good enough. I read it quickly, which is about the best indication of my feelings for any book.
Torfish wrote:Just saw it this afternoon. I did not read the books and stayed away from the previews, so I went into it knowing nothing. Surprised that the theater was packed. I haven't seen that in awhile. I give it a solid 8/10. Very good but not excellent because of the ending. The ending was A typical. It was by far the worst part of the movie. The story itself was good. Harrelson was excellent and wish he had more scenes as a drunk. He plays that part very well. I did like the main actress. I will be looking for her in future movies.
So now I need to make the decision of reading the books. Is book one the best of the series?
Sending in computer generated giant dogs? Changing the rules at the last minute/seconds! Come on.
Cool. Wasn't sure what you were driving at, but now I do. Sounds like the movie is a direct translation of the book in this aspect, for what it's worth.
Took the family today and everyone loved it. Kids would probably give it a 10/10, but they're pretty generous for movies they like. I'm more in the 8/10 range, just because I don't see it becoming a perennial favorite that I watch over and over on DVD for many years to come.
The ONLY time I ever noticed shakycam was at one point where Katniss was running and the "Hunger Games Cameras" were supposed to be following her as she ran. It was totally appropriate to the scene. I'll accept on faith that it was used elsewhere, but I never noticed it and certainly wasn't annoyed by it.
Family spent a fair bit of time discussing the book vs. movie and concluded that it was an appropriately faithful adaptation. It dispensed with some things that would have slowed it down or bogged it down, and made a handful of ultimately minor changes, but overall did a good job of capturing most key elements of the novel (the main exception being a lot of what was going on in Katniss's head - her history, her feelings, her conflicts, etc., but that's pretty typical for a film adaptation.)
I'm glad it's doing well. We really liked the second book, and some in my little clan might actually prefer it to the first one, so it's cool that the likelihood of it getting made is as close to 100% as anything in Hollywood ever could be. I hope they bang it out quickly.
Sarkus wrote:Third biggest US opening weekend ever. Yes, I said "ever." $155m, especially for March, is crazy.
Hilarious. I often marvel at what captures the imagination of the public. I liked the books. I will probably see the movie in the theater, an event that is so rare that it happens less than once a year. But I'm going due to a mutual interest in the books between my wife and I, not because I feel the need to see the movie before it's released on dvd.
I don't get the popularity (at least not this level of popularity) but hey, good for Collins. Let's hope she kept international marketing rights.
To be fair, adolescent power fantasy tripe is way easier to write than absurd existential horror, and every community has got to start somewhere... right?
Unless one loses a precious thing, he will never know its true value. A little light finally scratches the darkness; it lets the exhausted one face his shattered dream and realize his path cannot be walked. Can man live happily without embracing his wounded heart?
and I was expecting a little more Peeta/Gale angst, but I can understand how that got pushed to the side. Even with such a long movie there was a lot to fit in!
