Movie Discussion! - Page 145

On May 03 2012 09:27 GolemMadness wrote:


Yesterday I watched The Hunger Games. This is a movie with a lot of potential, but no soul. It takes no risks, does nothing original or unpredictable whatsoever, and its idea of an interesting character is to have them dress weirdly (which doesn't disguise the fact that most of them extremely one dimensional; they exist for a single purpose and do nothing outside of that). The shaky cam makes the fight scenes nearly unbearable; it's impossible to tell what's going on most of the time, and every time it cuts to a wider shot for a tenth of a second is a breath of fresh air.

People inevitably compare this to Battle Royale; they're both movies about kids annually being forced into some place where they have to kill each other off until only one survives. While I'm not the biggest fan of Battle Royale, it does so many things so much better than Hunger Games. It actually has a variety of characters with back stories to care about; they have connections to each other, so when one of them dies it's much more significant. In Hunger Games, there's one death that has any significance whatsoever, and it's a character whom we barely know anything about anyways, so it has little emotional impact.

With the exception of the wasp nest scene, the deaths are cliche and predictable. They're so, "you've seen it a million times before" that there's never any real tension or feeling of danger. Someone's about to kill you, but instead they delay and decide to trash talk you instead? Wow, you're definitely not going to get saved at the last second. Maybe the terrible shaky camera was an attempt to make the stale writing more interesting, but a better way to do that would have been to actually write a good screenplay.

On May 03 2012 09:43 Microsloth wrote:


Movie based on a book.... Character development and connections are in the book. Books are great, and the movie isn't nearly as bad as you think it is imo (if you'd actually read the books that is ).

Anyway.. book book book. That is all.

On May 03 2012 09:08 victoryimminent wrote:



I went into this movie thinking it would be OK. I came out very pleasantly surprised. Such a fantastic pitch black dark comedy about how superficial and shameless our country has become. If you have become sick of the crap on TV or the endless political hate mongering you will absolutely love this movie. The chemistry between the two main characters is great and their conversations are funny enough to keep you laughing throughout.

9/10



See this in theaters while you still can. A masterpiece of martial arts and action, it will keep you glued to your seats with the impressive choreography and skill displayed. This is the new gold standard in action movies. Don't go into it thinking you will see a great plot and character building. Go into it with the foreknowledge that you are about to witness some of the most intense martial arts filmed.

10/10