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The Hunger Games

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 221 ✭✭lestat21


    Galvasean wrote: »
    To me (someone who hasn't read the books) it just looks like a very blatant rip off of Battle Royale. Anything I'm missing that sets it apart?

    I taut that too but the writer apparently got the idea channel swapping between american idol and some war film .... shed apparently never heard of BR

    I havent read BR but I've seen the film and it didn't really look at the issues behind the kids been forced to kill each other. Hunger Games were set up to punish regions of a post apocolyptic state for rebelling against the city. Its a trilogy that evolves into a dark look at civil war, post traumatic stress, torture and all that stuff.. I taut it was something very different from the usual young adult BS but you might disagree. Does that sound like the BR book or bit different?? Id actually luv to know..

    Also I can imagine the first film will be very good and stick to the material of the book. But as the subsequent books get darker, I imagine it will get the hollywood treatment.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,915 ✭✭✭TheIrishGrover


    I haven't read the BR manga but I have seen the film (and, unfortunately, the sequel) and I have read the Hunger Games books. To be honest, there is a fair point to be made about the similarities and I don't really believe that Battle Royale (the movie/s) had no influence altogether. There are just too many similarities. Of course there are differences: The whole different region thing, the fact it's televised etc but, once they got into the games themselves and the other books, I kept being brought back to Battle Royale. I enjoyed the books (Wasn't too gone on the last one though) but I can't see what the hysteria is all about. They were fun and quick reads but not earth shattering (My favourite "kids" books have to be Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy which I urge everyone to read). It seems they have laid off the advertising a bit lately, although I'm sure it's the calm before the storm, but I'm already a bit jaded by the barrage of advertising. (Maybe because I've read the books)


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    lestat21 wrote: »
    I havent read BR but I've seen the film and it didn't really look at the issues behind the kids been forced to kill each other. Hunger Games were set up to punish regions of a post apocolyptic state for rebelling against the city. Its a trilogy that evolves into a dark look at civil war, post traumatic stress, torture and all that stuff.. I taut it was something very different from the usual young adult BS but you might disagree. Does that sound like the BR book or bit different?? Id actually luv to know..

    It's been ages since I've seen BR (never read the manga), but IIRC the idea behind it was to 'sacrifice' one class of school kids every as the youth of Japan were being too disrespectful to authority.
    Just checked Wiki and the film apparently opens with this text:
    "At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act..."
    Of course there are differences: The whole different region thing, the fact it's televised etc but, once they got into the games themselves and the other books, I kept being brought back to Battle Royale.

    Reminds me of The Condemed, where a TV mogul rounds up the world's deadliest convicts and puts them on an island BR style and streams it live on web bases pay per view.



    Starring Vinny Jones and Stone Cold Steve Austin no less! :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 51,342 ✭✭✭✭That_Guy


    Saw the trailer for this. Doesn't look too bad. As others have said it looks like Battle Royale lite though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,128 ✭✭✭cynder


    They still dont have a rating on the film, do you recon it will be a 12A?

    cant pre book tickets yet either :(


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,353 ✭✭✭Sasquatch76


    One thing it has going for it is Jennifer Lawrence. I was very impressed with her in Winter's Bone... she could be a talent.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,721 ✭✭✭Otacon


    she could be a talent.

    Yes, yes she could be!


  • Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ Alivia Nutty Therapy


    We're going to be getting a cut version over here, the BBFC has said that in order to achieve a 12 rating in the UK cuts have to be made so 7 seconds is being removed. It's obvious that they are going after the Twilight audience which I think is the wrong idea. While many of us instantly think of Battle Royale or the Condemned when we see posters/trailers for this there is a lot of potential.

    I'm curious as to why the BBFC allowed them a 12 cert meaning that under 12s can now go see a film about kids killing one another. Good chance that there's little in the way of onscreen violence.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,667 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    BBFC cuts usually only affect our DVD/Blu-ray releases. The cinema version should be untouched.


  • Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ Alivia Nutty Therapy


    BBFC cuts usually only affect our DVD/Blu-ray releases. The cinema version should be untouched.

    Hopefully we will get the uncut version, the one positive of digital is that it's much easier to create versions for each region. If the cuts were made in a half decent manner such as in the recent I Spit on Your Grave then it wouldn't be too bad but watching The Immortals a few weeks back I was struck by how poorly the cuts were implemented.


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,667 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Was the Irish theatrical realise of Immortals cut? What did they cut?


  • Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ Alivia Nutty Therapy


    Was the Irish theatrical realise of Immortals cut? What did they cut?

    I was referring to the Blu-Ray which had the following cuts:
    removal of the bloody focus on a throat being cut
    reducing the focus on young women dying, having been burnt
    reducing the focus on eye gouging
    removing the shot of a beheading, and
    reducing some focus on large splashes of blood resulting from characters being killed.
    The problem with the cuts to Immortals is just how jarring they are. There are numerous moments where you find yourself asking what the hell just happened there as it's obvious that footage is missing. There is one great moment where a character falls down dead and we have no idea what just happened.

    It seems that the version of the Hunger Games the BBFC cut had been cut by the studio before submitting it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,095 ✭✭✭Lirange


    This is receiving plenty of hype. I'm skeptical that it will live up to the expectations that some people seem to have. I'm not sure the books translate well to the screen. A central element of the books was the first person account of Katniss. That for me was the biggest strength of the story. That will be missing. The film will tell it in a completely different way. I'm not sure it will resonate as well. The inner conflicts of the character drove much of the story. It is completely inevitable and unavoidable that the audience that only knows the character from the film and not from the books will see Katniss much differently. Her outward projection of feelings often differed from what she really felt. Often her thoughts were probably much different than one might expect from most others. I'm not sure even a superb performance from Lawrence can address that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 867 ✭✭✭giddybootz


    I read the 3 books last week and I loved the 1st one, really liked the 2nd one and was a bit 'meh' by the end of the 3rd.

    I am dying to see the movie though....not because I think it can be a patch on the book but because I am so excited to see more of Effie Trinket and the stylists!!! Totally the most exciting thing about the film release IMO!!

    I'm a bit worried the love triangle will be over emphasized to reel in Twi-hards but fingers crossed it won't be too lame!


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,667 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    The Irish release of this has been passed uncut with a 12A rating.


  • Registered Users Posts: 263 ✭✭Sentid


    Will it break the $100M barrier on its opening weekend? I can tell you that it's got all the hype of Twilight, but fellas are joining in too. Hope it does well, good reviews flowing in on Rotten Tomatoes :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 829 ✭✭✭OldeCinemaSoz


    Is it just me or are the trailers just too carbolic?

    Like something for BBC's MERLIN? :rolleyes:

    I know it's a 12A and all that...


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,031 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Where did all the hype for this come from? Kind of making me feel really unhip :(

    Everything I read about it sounds like a sanitized Battle Royale, but hey there's no money in originality :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 760 ✭✭✭mach1982


    I only started reading the books( I've give the 1st 8/10 better than Twilight but not as good as Harry Potter ), on Kindle for android , this week. I though WTF haven't been to cinema in a while , so going to see it tomorrow..


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,095 ✭✭✭Lirange


    Where did all the hype for this come from? Kind of making me feel really unhip :(

    Everything I read about it sounds like a sanitized Battle Royale, but hey there's no money in originality :)

    Much of it is due to the popularity of the book trilogy. Which unlike a certain other recent "tween" book series has better transcended gender and age. There will be 3 possibly 4 films. BR and HG are not as similar as some people seem intent on suggesting. In fact beyond similarities in the initial premise they are quite fundamentally different. Kids forced to kill each other. That's where the similarities end. In this story much is focused outside the Games on the social structure and society of Panem.
    Only half of the first book is even spent on kids fighting in the arena. Less than half of the second book features fighting in an arena and most of them are adults not kids. The third book doesn't feature any arena fighting whatsoever as there's a rebellion against Panem.

    But the fighting itself is much different too. For Starters unlike BR the Hunger Games are a reality TV Show
    Contestants favoured by the audience are sponsored with gifts that help them and thus alter events in the arena. There are Gamesmakers that manipulate the environment (floods, fires, or even genetically engineered predators) during the games to put on a better show or push towards more desirable shifts of power or conflicts. So as a contestant you have to be mindful not only of your opponents but of how you are perceived in order to gain favour with the audience and avoid the wrath of the gamesmakers.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,555 ✭✭✭Kinski


    Lirange wrote: »
    There will be 3 possibly 4 films. BR and HG are not as similar as some people seem intent on suggesting.

    Whatever about Hunger Games, I wish people would stop going on about Battle Royale - it's a really bad movie, get over it.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,031 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Kinski wrote: »

    Whatever about Hunger Games, I wish people would stop going on about Battle Royale - it's a really bad movie, get over it.

    Id argue that BR is actually a much smarter film than its ultraviolent rep suggests, but that's an unrelated tangent.

    I am definitely willing to give this a shot - especially curious to see how Lawrence handles the role - but like Thirst and Let the Right One In should be welcome in conversations about Twilight, the films that explore similar territory are worth flagging here. By all accounts The hunger Games actually sounds like fairly solid material, though, which is one step up from Twilight.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,555 ✭✭✭Kinski


    Id argue that BR is actually a much smarter film than its ultraviolent rep suggests, but that's an unrelated tangent.

    I am definitely willing to give this a shot - especially curious to see how Lawrence handles the role - but like Thirst and Let the Right One In should be welcome in conversations about Twilight, the films that explore similar territory are worth flagging here. By all accounts The hunger Games actually sounds like fairly solid material, though, which is one step up from Twilight.

    Ah, I have no problem with the violence, just think it's a bad film. Critic and J-cinema obsessive Tony Rayns' review in Time Out did a better job of lancing that movie than I ever could, so I'd argue that he makes the case its fans have to answer.

    And you're right, of course, that similar films should be up for discussion (though I think the similarities between "serious" vampire films like Thirst and LTROI and lightweight fare such as Twilight are probably largely superficial). But I feel about BR much the same way I do about Scarface - it's a bad film which managed to make waves because it depicts graphic violence, and somehow this has endowed it with cult classic status.

    So BR is now being dredged up again, this time to claim that Hunger Games isn't original because it shares a similar premise, when - as I pointed out earlier in the thread - HG's premise is probably more like the film Running Man, which was itself based on a Stephen King novel. And now I'll get off the tangent, sorry!


  • Registered Users Posts: 497 ✭✭jpm4


    Lirange wrote: »
    BR and HG are not as similar as some people seem intent on suggesting.

    This has been done to death but I disagree, I think there are several pointed similarities between BR and the first book:
    Kids kill each other in a game. Set in a future controlled by a totalitarian government. Said games used to control/install fear into the population at large. Main focus on a male/female couple that protect and develop feelings for each other. As in BR the game ends with both couples surviving which is against the rules of the game by thwarting the system, leaving them to an uncertain future.

    That's pretty similar for me, far beyond comparisons to say The Running Man - I consider details like the fact that BR is not televised and Hunger Games is to be insignificant.

    But whatever - maybe it will be a good movie, the reviews seem decent anyways.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,915 ✭✭✭TheIrishGrover


    Id argue that BR is actually a much smarter film than its ultraviolent rep suggests, but that's an unrelated tangent.

    .............. By all accounts The hunger Games actually sounds like fairly solid material, though, which is one step up from Twilight.

    To be honest, the whole Twilight thing is really just a marketing ploy. While there is an element of a love triangle it's not as central as the Twilight films (I presume as, of course, I haven't either read the Twilight books or seen the films). Now, I'm sure they'll ramp it up to a degree but it's really just a push to get that audience. Don't let it put you off.

    As for BR: Yeah, it's actually smarter than just a bunch of kids killing each other. Especially whenever Kitano's in it. The second film is a bit on the nose though). The Hunger Games books themselves are about a lot more than the games. The games themselves are only part of the picture -without giving anything away- especially in the other two books.
    jpm4

    This has been done to death but I disagree, I think there are several pointed similarities between BR and the first book:
    Kids kill each other in a game. Set in a future controlled by a totalitarian government. Said games used to control/install fear into the population at large. Main focus on a male/female couple that protect and develop feelings for each other. As in BR the game ends with both couples surviving which is against the rules of the game by thwarting the system, leaving them to an uncertain future.

    That's pretty similar for me, far beyond comparisons to say The Running Man - I consider details like the fact that BR is not televised and Hunger Games is to be insignificant.

    I agree jpm. Especially
    Compare Battle Royale 2 and Hunger Games book 3


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,568 ✭✭✭✭VinLieger


    Okay so im a big fan of the books specifically the first which is by far the best of the three.
    The movie was ok but it was never going to live up to my expectations unfortunately and thats mainly because its impossible to adapt books perfectly to screen as we had to learn 8 times with harry potter.

    Going in my main concern was how they were going to convey Katniss's (main character) feelings and thoughts on the screen as throughout all the books there is a pretty constant inner monologue that is integral to understanding her character.
    This was completely missing from the movie and they didnt really atempt to show the audience what was going on in her head. As a result any audience who hadnt read the book would come away thinking "oh shes a lovely girl who tried her best and fell in love etc" however from reading the book you realise at the end that she is a pretty selfish person who only deserves sympathy for the situation she is put in but not for the decisions she makes which are always based on what is she going to get out of it and never about the others involved.

    The other problem i had was that someone somewhere decided that the best audience to market this at was the tweens. This meant all the violence, gore and blood from the books. which there is alot of, would have to be dramatically scaled back and in my opinion it was to the detriment of the film as the excitement and threat that is apparent in the book just wasnt there. Basically Kids were alive and then they were dead, there was no pain or suffering that was a constant part of the deaths in the books.

    That being said they did manage to hit nearly all the major plotpoints that needed to be shown and also didnt make it all seem too rushed like previously mentioned adaptations (HP).
    So yeah I dont know if id recommened people to go see it but if you do make sure to read the books, also if you dont go see it read the books.

    As regards the thread I do find it funny all those complaining about it being a rip off of BR also admit to never having read the books, if you had you would realise all those "similarities" are only on the surface


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,439 ✭✭✭Skinfull


    People keep saying Battle Royale but I keep thinking The Running Man but maybe I'm just showing my age :/

    Reckon I'll see this on sat. A little "meh" and a little excited.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Kinski wrote: »
    But I feel about BR much the same way I do about Scarface - it's a bad film which managed to make waves because it depicts graphic violence, and somehow this has endowed it with cult classic status.

    A here...


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,915 ✭✭✭TheIrishGrover


    Skinfull wrote: »
    People keep saying Battle Royale but I keep thinking The Running Man but maybe I'm just showing my age :/

    Reckon I'll see this on sat. A little "meh" and a little excited.
    No, don't worry, I'm old enough to remember seeing "The Running Man" in the cinema and the books are more in line with Battle Royale than The Running Man. The televised/Game Show (and social unrest) initial aspect of the advertising and trailers etc would lead you (if you are old enough) to think of The Running Man but the whole sacrificial nature through their youth and especially in the latter Hunger Games books and BR sequel would lead you to think that there was more than a coincidental connection between them.
    I mean it's not that she ripped off BR totally. It's not like Battle Royale itself was a particularly original idea. These types of stories, in fantasy or science fiction or legend/fables, have being floating around in some form since year dot. But I do think that the similarities between BR and The Hunger Games are a bit too close to be coincidence.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,721 ✭✭✭Otacon


    I went to this last night. I read the books about a year ago now and enjoyed them, more so the first one.

    I was pleasantly surprised by this TBH. They were as faithful to the books as I thought they could get. The few things they left out were not very important but some things did seem odd to me. SPOILERS FROM BOOK 3
    With the importance of District 13 later on, I wonder why they didn't really mention it. In fact, I think Snow's speech is the only time they mention 13.
    .

    I think what impressed me most was Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutchinson. They were very good, especially Lawrence. While we didn't get her inner monologue, she got most of the important stuff across. I do agree with the earlier poster that
    her cosying up to Peeta seemed too much like genuine love, rather than playing the crowd.
    . Other than that though, she nailed it.

    The camera work at the start was very good and gave the impression it was a documentary. However the action scenes were a shaky mess. I understand they wanted to keep the 12A cert but it did take away from the impact the violence should have had. Later,
    Cato snaps the neck of a fellow tribute and due to it not needing to be hidden, it gets the right reaction from the audience
    .

    Seeing as Ross is signed on for the next one, I'm looking forward to it, but its just unfortunate that the audience dictates what the film can show.


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