I really hope they didn't dumb it down. The series is based off a brutal regime who make children fight in sadistic games for entertainment. The series was written for young adults, surely the ones who have read and are looking forward to the movies all have the maturity to handle what is described in the book as a direct visual.
Fair amount of tweens obsessed with it too. It does have a PG-13 rating for "intense violence and disturbing images involving teens"
The premiere was yesterday and apparently it's very good. Though, everyone who reviewed it was invited to the premiere so it's expected that they'd say they loved it.
Film-makers agreed to excise the footage from the final movie, and the film has been given a 12A rating by censors, which means that 12-year-olds can view the film without parental supervision. The British Board of Film Classification is said to have asked for blood splashes to be digitally removed from wounds and weapons, as well as changes to four scenes which it deemed too violent for younger viewers.
I'll still be watching it sometime during opening week. Hopefully there's an unrated/Director's Cut version on Bluray. I'm sure there will, any chance to make a few extra dollars.
I'll still be watching it sometime during opening week. Hopefully there's an unrated/Director's Cut version on Bluray. I'm sure there will, any chance to make a few extra dollars.
I heard it was only like 7 seconds worth of editing.
the "toning it down for the PG13 rating" smells of a ploy to get publicity/buzz from people who might be on the fence of whether or not it's Twilight Esque...
the "toning it down for the PG13 rating" smells of a ploy to get publicity/buzz from people who might be on the fence of whether or not it's Twilight Esque...
Lol. It's teens being forced to fight to death for a totalitarian government. Not sparkly vampires and fighting werewolves for a whiny teenage girl.
the "toning it down for the PG13 rating" smells of a ploy to get publicity/buzz from people who might be on the fence of whether or not it's Twilight Esque...
AFAIK they've severely downplayed the "romance" in the first novel...which I'm actually a bit frustrated about. It plays a huge part in Katniss's motivations in the next two books.
Not gonna lie, the plot at first glance sounds interesting. My wife read the books and explained much of it to me, and from what I've seen in the trailer and what my wife has explained to me...it sounds like the movie is primed for huge disappointed for me.
Also, I'm sure they'll somehow make 3 books into 9 drawn out movies where nothing happens until the last 2 minutes....just like they did with Twilight. Yes I saw those.
Not gonna lie, the plot at first glance sounds interesting. My wife read the books and explained much of it to me, and from what I've seen in the trailer and what my wife has explained to me...it sounds like the movie is primed for huge disappointed for me.
Also, I'm sure they'll somehow make 3 books into 9 drawn out movies where nothing happens until the last 2 minutes....just like they did with Twilight. Yes I saw those.
They're making 4.
The first one, the Games are supposed to take up about 2/3 of the film, just like the book.
The second one, I think will be slower moving, but the huge amount of action will take place in the last hour or so.
The third book they're splitting into 2 films, which I'm very happy about. Too much story that wasn't told in the books that could be shown very well on film.
The first one, the Games are supposed to take up about 2/3 of the film, just like the book.
The second one, I think will be slower moving, but the huge amount of action will take place in the last hour or so.
The third book they're splitting into 2 films, which I'm very happy about. Too much story that wasn't told in the books that could be shown very well on film.
Close enough. I should just go watch Battle Royal again.
Lol. It's teens being forced to fight to death for a totalitarian government. Not sparkly vampires and fighting werewolves for a whiny teenage girl.
You're missing my point.
I meant the movie is packaged hot teenagers (and young 20 somethings playing teens) who are over sexed, over dramatic, minimal plot and acting, bit of cheesy sound track behind it, and sold to high school students.
The "Oh we were almost rated R" reeks of trying to get people convinced it won't be a teen flick.
Read the first book and found it, for the most part, to be moderately entertaining. But there was a lot of side-story that, to me, felt like padding. You could have probably cut this book in half and it wouldn't have missed a beat. Katniss is really the only developed character. I had a hard time connecting to anyone else because they were so thinly drawn. We spend most of the actually Games following Katniss around as she worries about Prim, pines over Gale and daydreams about Peeta as various cardboard characters are chewed up and spit out all around her. But the writing was lively and when things were rolling the story crackled. I'll get to books 2 and 3 one day. As for book 1, I liked the plot a whole lot more when it was Battle Royale.
I'm interested in seeing how they're going to explain the deaths of most of the tributes from book one. It's not something that is extensively covered throughout book one. There's the way they do it in the book, but it's less eventful.
I meant the movie is packaged hot teenagers (and young 20 somethings playing teens) who are over sexed, over dramatic, minimal plot and acting, bit of cheesy sound track behind it, and sold to high school students.
The "Oh we were almost rated R" reeks of trying to get people convinced it won't be a teen flick.
Well. Here's hoping that isn't the case.
But if it is, I enjoyed the books enough so that the story won't be spoiled.
And I'm not some super fan. I'm only showing interest cause I literally read the books a week ago. So the novelty is still fresh. Much better books out there no doubt. But it's not as poorly written as some would suggest. It's no masterpiece, but it's worth the read.
I was going along with the story until Katniss voted for continuing the hunger games. Reading that left a bad taste in my mouth.
There's a reason for that though.
Spoil:
She's seeing what Haymitch does. At this point she's already debating killing Coin, and trying to figure out what to do. Haymitch's line, "I'm with the Mockingjay." is another case of them communicating very well. She's basically gauging whether Haymitch agrees with her on whether to kill Coin or not.
I was going along with the story until Katniss voted for continuing the hunger games. Reading that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Spoil:
I don't think she ever intended there to be another Hunger Games. I think she already knew she was going to kill Coin, and she just wanted to appear to be on her side.
She's seeing what Haymitch does. At this point she's already debating killing Coin, and trying to figure out what to do. Haymitch's line, "I'm with the Mockingjay." is another case of them communicating very well. She's basically gauging whether Haymitch agrees with her on whether to kill Coin or not.
At least, that's how I always read it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckJet
Spoil:
I don't think she ever intended there to be another Hunger Games. I think she already knew she was going to kill Coin, and she just wanted to appear to be on her side.
Well that flew right over my head. However, another gripe I had was
Spoil:
They never went into any detail about what happened to Panem. Before Coin died it looked like it was headed toward the same fate except with the districts controlling the capital this time around. I understand that the story is very Katniss centered but I was more interested in the fate of Panem.
Well that flew right over my head. However, another gripe I had was
Spoil:
They never went into any detail about what happened to Panem. Before Coin died it looked like it was headed toward the same fate except with the districts controlling the capital this time around. I understand that the story is very Katniss centered but I was more interested in the fate of Panem.
Holy crap. What did I just do? I unintentionally wrote an essay about why the ending didn't suck so badly.
Spoil:
I agree. I understand that war is hell and it shouldn't be a happy ending but come on, the government gets overthrown...so many people give their lives to see that happen and we don't know what happens to the new one? I think Collins wanted us to speculate when she has Plutarch give that line about human kind repeating history, but who knows maybe society has evolved. I think Collins thought that would be satisfactory.
I suppose it was. I don't know if you've read 1984...it's one of my favorite books and probably why I liked the Hunger Games so much. Similar enough concept except the government is even more powerful, and they don't force anyone to fight for their lives. They just remove anyone who opposes them from society or kills them. Along the way, signs and clues of that government and it's rule advancing to make things worse appear. And toward the middle you get the tiniest sense that an overthrow might be organized. It never happens. The bad guys win and that's simply the end. Nothing else is explained. You only assume the government becomes more powerful.
The Hunger Games got a better ending than that. At the end Katniss and Peeta are allowed to be together, they have kids and they're supposedly healthy and it seems they're free of the possibility of competing in the games, and instead learn about them in school. I think from that you can at least infer that the world they now live in is an improvement over the Capitol. And if they're living (along with a group of 200 or however many came back) in District 12 again you have to assume that a re-build effort was initiated, because no one is going to live in a smoldering wreck of a town when there are better options. That shows that the new Capitol was at least working on re-building their fragile new world/ Gale went to work in another district, Katniss' mother worked as a doctor somewherelse. Under the old Capitol no one was allowed to leave their district except to compete in the games or if you had already won them. I think what Collins does is let us infer about what happened. She drops enough subtle hints to suggest that things were better at the end of the day. We are then allowed to let our minds wander toward how that world advanced.
Sure it's not the best written ending, but in a sense I feel like Mockingjay was the most mature book of the series. Firstly, because she allows us to figure out what happened and infer ourselves. If this is aimed at tweens, she sure is giving them a lot of intellectual credit. Other books just explicitly tell you what happened. Twilight was garbage. I read two books and quit on them. I'm just going to assume that they live happily ever after (what kind of repercussions could there have been other than a werewolf not getting the girl? At worst everyone dies and it's nowhere close to the tragedy that was THG). Harry Potter...well...what was there to explain? We don't know what jobs they had, we don't know how well the world is immediately and long term after the fall of Voldemort. Honestly, Harry Potter's ending left as many clues as to what the future held as Mockingjay. We can only infer that everything was better and it was a happy ending. In no way am I comparing Collins to Rowling, because what Rowling did was simply magical. But it says a lot about the Hunger Games series that the ending we got left so many wanting more. But really, now that I've had time to think about it, the dark, sad, incomplete ending was the perfect way to end it.
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were too positive. They kept getting out alive and life looked like it would be better at the end of the day. That probably appealed to the younger readers. Mockingjay...I hated it at first because I was so used to the happy endings, but now I see it's the smartest of the series. The love triangle was destroyed (Gale being the indirect cause of Prim's death) along with Peeta losing his mind. Finnick dying. I mean everyone complains about that. That's as tragic as it gets, he is finally re-united with the love of his life who is already semi-insane. But he dies for the cause. He could have left his lover completely insane by dying but he cared more about her freedom. Prim dies, and everyone cries wolf because the whole series begins with Katniss volunteering to save her life. I think that adds to the tragedy. It's kind of a life lesson that you can do everything right and everything can wrong. Looking back now, I consider that to be sheer brilliance (and I'm not some sadistic freak who gets off to people's death, it's still sad, but it contributes to the book's message)
And then Peeta losing his memory. As much as I loved that character (I'm a dude so its not a crush kind of thing, I just genuinely loved the way he was written. Selfless lover and pure hero...I'm a sap and I think those kinds of people are amazing) he loses his mind and begins to hate the girl he is madly in love with. It was a message from Collins that even the best of us can be broken or corrupted, and that no one can escape the hell of war. Haha I'm like coming to realizations about this book as I reply to your post. I'm having an epiphany. I didn't really know how much I liked 1984 until I had to write a term paper about it.
I finished Mockingjay thoroughly disappointed, but I realize now it was the best of the series. Everyone complains about the lack of a games, I thought the attack on the Capitol was a third edition of the games as it was. And as for Katniss being a flawed character "demented" even. Take it in context, she's not a warrior princess. She's a 17 year old girl who had to twice fight for her life, she lost her home, she lost people she loved, and on top of that she had to be the face of a rebellion. It shouldn't be a surprise that she went slightly crazy. Thats a lot to ask of anyone. And I think it was pretty neat to see this girl who is tough, reliant, and self-providing be exposed as what she really is, a young girl. There's only so much someone at any age can handle. I think it was great.
Sorry for typing so much. Your post just got me thinking. Suddenly any gripes I had just melted away. I kind of want to read it again now. If you really want a good ending to Mockingjay, I posted a link to a fanfic (I feel lame just typing that) that does it pretty well somewhere in this thread. The only thing is it's a way happier ending than a series like this should have. But I know the author. She's a terrific writer. You could easily pretend it was just an alternate ending written by Collins herself.
the vuvuzela was a nice touch.
