Trollers gonna troll. These movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
If I've seen Battle Royale do I need to see the Hunger Games?
I've heard almost nothing but good things about these books tho.
Fortunately, common target audience is not an indicator for the quality of the production.
time for stupid spoiler time :
shallow characters ahoy ! a 5 minute death scene for a character that we see 5 minutes and has 3 lines of dialogue... sorry, but I don't feel anything for someone who was going to die anyway.
Mostly agreed. It didn't have as much of an impact as it could've, but in the time alotted, you can only develop the minor characters so much. At least she came off as a genuinely likeable, kind hearted person. And most of the audience did seem saddened by her death.
it's supposed to be a spectacular event where people kill each other. How is making dogs appear in the middle of the night spectacular ? it beats the principle of the whole "game".
Yeah the dogs were a bit weird for me, but apparently that's how it is in the book too. I think it's more about the capitol having control over them and manipulating them like puppets (fireball scene comes to mind). They are sick people who get joy out of controlling (and ultimately killing) the players in the game. Plus it's the "finale" of the game, so they want to end it with a bang.
the fake love story was taken too far, we don't see that she's faking it. and there's no reason for her to suddenly fall in love with stupid. (book-readers told me that she was indeed faking)
I wasn't a big fan of the love stuff, but it wasn't the focus of the film. I just really wish the "damn you" scene was removed, because that was just embarassing.
there's no ending ! wtf is with that ? "they go home and that's it".
I heard afterwards that it was a trilogy, but it's still a letdown.
Which is why I would've preferred the suicide. But still, for no characters dying (besides Donald Sutherland forcing the other dude to commit suicide in a locked room with poison berries), it wasn't a bad ending. It left me thinking what was going to happen next. I mean obviously Donald Sutherland was PISSED and planning his next move.
The whole Hunger Games movie expects that you've read the book. As such, it's not really a good movie on its own. I think they did many things well and decently but on the whole at least one of my friends was completely lost. There's too much about the book that is internal monologue on behalf of the main character, and it's hard to translate into film. I give it a 6.5/10 for effort, but execution lacked style and some substance.
Hunger Games-6/10
I'd have to agree with you. I don't know the book(s) but I get the impression from the film that the flick doesn't play up the political commentary of the novel(s) as much as it may have.
.... the whole story about the entitled few in the Capitol and the impoverished masses in the sticks got glossed over in favour of a teen death-match angle.... we got teen angst vs. dystopia with a dash of the Coal Miner's Daughter.
In effect this film and story owes more to novels like John Christopher's Tripods books and the novels that Robert Heinlein wrote for teens (it's even got odd sniff of Golding's Lord of the Flies). From a film point of view it really owes a lot to Punishment Park, Rollerball (the original one with Steve McQueen), Logan's Run, Series 7, the Truman Show and, yes even Death Race 2000, to name but a few.
The lead character is cute and innocent-looking enough to bring the threat of a developing femme fatale that tends to drive the film along.But this isn't a film about death-matching; it's a survivalist flick. The killing is secondary, in my opinion. Personally I think anyone who went along to see an out and out Battle Royale was primed for disappointment.
That being said I probably would have given this a higher rating if it wasn't for the 15 minute directorial mess that opens the film. The continual handheld camera, zip panning, re-framing, frame jitter and jump cutting becomes annoying really, really, quickly. It's a two hour film for f***'s sake not a rock video.
Death-matching for the MTV generations perhaps?
It's not the worst futurist film I've seen...........
Hunger Games-6/10
I'd have to agree with you. I don't know the book(s) but I get the impression from the film that the flick doesn't play up the political commentary of the novel(s) as much as it may have.