boring, long and unimaginative take on dystopian fascism.
reminded me of Battle Royale (as it seems to have, others), but also reminded me why I couldn't be bothered to watch BR to its conclusion. I get the premise, it takes 3 minutes to outline the premise, another 2 perhaps to fully comprehend the enormity of the tragedies inflicted on people as a result and another 5mins (tops) to figure out what they should be doing (but of course, won't be doing) in order to get out of said mess.
Why bore me with 2hrs+ of childish survivalist antics and stupendously obvious 'twists'?
Watched it with 3 of my friends, out of the four of us, only 1 liked it at all. And he only appreciated it for its efficient combination of genres, tropes and clichés... says it all really.
I saw this the other night. It was entertaining, but predictable at times. And perhaps some of it makes more sense if you read the book, but I'll probably pass. It's definitely Battle Royale with cheese, but it's pretty well acted. But my god, the cinematography is horrible. Shaky-cam like crazy. I honestly might have walked out of it on that gripe alone, but the story is fairly compelling.
Originally posted by Peach
Yeah, you missed the message there, then, as well as not paying attention to the very start, where they talk about the war between the Districts and the Capitol, and how the Hunger Games started as a way to punish the Districts for rising against the Capitol and remind them that they are under the complete control of the Capitol.
I love you. You always say just what I want to say but can never find the right words. I tend to just "squeeeeeeeee...." at the screen, then see your comment, then calm down 😂
Finally saw it tonight. And my early impression of it from last spring was true - it's a heavily sanitized version of Battle Royale. Plus the directing talent of Gary Ross is very middle of the road, and lots of the CGI is dodgy.
Battle Royale also succeeds because it's a vicious black comedy about high school allegiances. But The Hunger Games wants to play it completely straight and be a serious look at a dystopia; it only halfway succeeds. I couldn't fully buy the entire premise behind this. If it's trying to satirize reality TV, it doesn't fully work doing that either.
Originally posted by maham
Haven't watched battle royale so can't compare the two, but I liked it. Listening to the audio book nowadays. Not that impressive, but a good pass time nonetheless. Too american imo.
It is very American in one sense, in that it will appeal to the gun packing, NRA supporting, ultra right wing conspiracy types who will view it as a critique of highly centralized government controlling their lives from afar in a distant capitol. And what will happen if they let that ruling elite in the capitol just keep 'taking away their rights', blah blah blah.