Amph The Hunger Games - best-selling trilogy, in production for a movie

Mockingjay DOES have a lot of ground to cover. It is very different in tone from the first two books and is much more cerebral than HG or CF.

That said, I'd love to see Tilda Swinton cast as Coin. She was who I pictured her as looking like when I first read it.

 

Doesn't it end horribly?

 

i wasn't going to see this movie since the first movie and the books are the some of the most boring/disappointing things i've ever seen/read. but if the movie's that good i'm considering it.

 

No, don't go see it. You won't like it.

 

Peter Jackson is making 3 movies out of a 351 page book

 

I haven't seen it yet. I'm torn. Against the advice of people I respect, I went ahead and read Catching Fire after reading Hunger Games. I loved it. As my friends predicted, I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to read Mockingjay, which was, by most accounts, inordinately terrible. They were right. Mockinjay is just terrible. I can't think of any way that the movie version could rescue it without completely rewriting the book. It's The Maxtrix: Revolutions level of terrible. And now they're going to split it in two? Gah!

 

The Hunger Games novel trilogy, much like the Pirates of the Caribbean and Matrix film trilogies, would better serve the world if they stopped after the first. Catching Fire wasn't a great read, imo. It was tolerable, whereas its predecessor was undeniably gripping. Mockingjay was just awful. A dry, boring, poorly written book and a disappointing conclusion to the story of the first book.

The first Hunger Games movie wasn't as good as the book, imo, but I'm hoping that I'll think differently of the Catching Fire movie (if I ever get the time to see it).

 

Yes, and the job he's done with it is exactly why we're all afraid.

 

You will. Catching Fire is a substantial improvement over The Hunger Games. Go see it. The poison fog sequence in particular, was quite sinister.

 

I liked that one crazy chick that stripped naked in front of Jennifer Lawrence in the elevator. She answered my question of what if Gary Busey was a participant in the Hunger Games.

 

I can definitely think of one way that would make the ending more tolerable and realistically it would be an easy change. However, they've stayed so close to the books with the first two movies that I can't see them changing the last. I liked Catching Fire the movie a lot more than the book, btw. I think the cast outdoes themselves and makes it far more enjoyable.

 

Which bit?

 

LOL! Yeah. That was kind of funny. Haymitch and Peta are just looking at her and Katniss is feeling really awkward. And then she just gets off the elevator, like that was a perfectly normal thing to do.

 

Spoiler: Major third book/movie Mockingjay spoilers

Basically the whole trilogy was destroyed for me during the third book and at the very end when Prim dies I just lost it. There is no hope at the end for the main character and that really bothers me. So if the movie changed this I think I would like it better. I've discussed this before in the thread so you could look at those posts too, but basically everything Katniss does is for Prim. I find it depressing that at the end after everything she does for Panem her sister still dies.

 

Having just read the first novel, I've got to say that the first film (which I really enjoyed) does take liberties with the characterisation of Peeta to make him a much wimpier character than in the book. I really don't see why they felt the need to weaken the character like that, it's not like Jennifer Lawrence can't hold her own on screen with another strong personality.

 

Just saw Catching Fire this weekend and it is really good. I do wonder how much credit can be given to Michael Arndt as the screenwriter for making this such a good movie. The movie stays almost a 100% true to the book. You can take almost every scene in the movie and find that exact scene in the book and in many cases they pull the exact dialogue from the book as well.

So how much credit can be given to Michael Arndt for making this a good movie since Suzanne Collins is really the one that put together the story.

 

Some of the criticism I've seen actually takes the makers to task for translating the movie so faithfully to the book. I reckon it's a valid criticism; films are not the same media as books. They have different modes of communication and different things that can be achieved through them. I've always thought if you want the same story on film as was in the book, read the damn book and exercise those imaginative muscles.

 

Saw this Friday and I got to say it did not disappoint i n the least. Its been a while since I've read the book but by what I remember I saw no mistakes or unneccesary things in it. Though I would've liked more focus on District 13 like in the book since the next story uses it so much. When reading Catching Fire for the first time I said to myself it would make the best movie of the three, and boy so far I was right. Also the arena in this was so well done and exactly how I pictured it.

 

The biggest obstacle in translating the Hunger Games books into movie form is that the books were written in the first person. So most all the development that took place in the book were not things that were said by any character but instead were thoughts that were going through Katniss's mind. Obviously they can't delve into Katniss's mind in the movie and that is something they had to find a way around. But Catching Fire is as bout as good of book to movie adaption as you can find.

 

The lack of development of District 13 is one mistake I think they did do. Given the fact how important District 13 is going to be in the next two movies a little more development would have been good. There was this one scene in the book I believe when Katniss goes out hunting in the woods and she runs into these two characters that claim they are from District 13 and pretty much give all the development you need to know about it in just a couple pages. That scene was completely absent from the movie though and it surprised me.

 

Can't express enough how true this is. I can't think of any book to movie adaption that was done so well. The people who made this movie need to give lessons to the others who try o adapt books to movies. I might even go as far as to say I see an oscar or two for this movie.

 

Lord of the Rings ring a bell?

 

I was tired when I wrote this and wasn't thinking straight ok

 

Harry Potter would like a word.

 

Emilio Estevez wants to remind you of Maximum Overdrive.