Hunger Games: Catching Fire

[ranchlandsselling]

Saw this last night with the wife. Not bad, actually enjoyed the first one and found this one to be so so. Generally find the whole theme quite dark and borderline sick which I suppose is the point and partly makes the movie(s) what they are.

Didn't see a thread on the movie so figured I'd start one. Not sure if there will be many fans on this site, don't think I'd have gone without my wife wanting to go.

Spoiler!

First thing that popped into my mind at the end was "holy empire strikes back ending". Which, could make no sense depending how you look at it...

[photon]

I liked it better than the first one, though the arena felt rushed (but that was expected given the time constraints). I thought the end was a great setup for the last movies (I think they're splitting the last one into two aren't they?).

[Flabbibulin]

I thought it was a big improvement on the first film. It is also the best book of the series. The last book was the weakest imo, so curious to see how the 2 final films turn out.

[Yeah_Baby]

The last book suffered because all this interesting was happening, but because it was 1st person perspective, Katniss was more interested in lamenting about other things.

[Acey]

To put it in perspective how much money this movie has made so far: 17 days into its run it is $20 million ahead of where the final Harry Potter movie was at the same point, and Catching Fire doesn't have the significant boost of 3D ticket sales. That's domestic, of course... Harry Potter still more than twice as big internationally. Still impressive.

The weather and my final 2 weeks of school have kept me away so far but I'll be there next weekend... can't wait. Loved the first one.

[CaptainCrunch]

Is this a movie about gay closeted male super models coming out of the closet?

[GreenLantern]

I wish.

[Bertuzzied]

Do yourself a favor and skip this and go and read Battle Royale by Koushun Takami or watch it. Infinitely better than this Disney PG crap.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Do yourself a favor and skip this and go and read Battle Royale by Koushun Takami or watch it. Infinitely better than this Disney PG crap.

There's always some dork that does this.

Why read/watch the super popular one when you can read/watch the obscure one which is thematically similar?!

Maybe because I don't give a crap about Battle Royale. Or that Avatar was similar to 'Ferngully' (a movie absolutely no one watched or heard of until that one guy pointed out it was the same story).

Maybe this should go in gear grinders.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

There's always some dork that does this.

Why read/watch the super popular one when you can read/watch the obscure one which is thematically similar?!

Maybe because I don't give a crap about Battle Royale. Or that Avatar was similar to 'Ferngully' (a movie absolutely no one watched or heard of until that one guy pointed out it was the same story).

Maybe this should go in gear grinders.

haha. maybe before you proclaim Battle Royale is obscure you should do more research on it.

Since its release, the novel and its film adaptation have had an influence on later works. These include filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino,[18][19] most notably his Kill Bill films;[20] the character Gogo Yubari, played by Chiaki Kuriyama, is similar to the character she plays in the Battle Royale film, Takako Chigusa.[21] V.A. Musetto of the New York Post also compared it to The Condemned, which the critic called "a bad rip-off" of Battle Royale as well as The Most Dangerous Game.[22] Critics have also noted the influence of Battle Royale on other later works, such as the 2008 film Kill Theory,[23] and the 2009 film The Tournament,[24] and have noted similarities with the novel and film franchise The Hunger Games.[25][26] Battle Royale has also been compared to the manga, anime and film franchise Gantz,[27] and the 2007 video game The World Ends with You.[28]
The 2008 American young adult novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has been accused of being strikingly similar to Battle Royale in terms of the basic plot premise and the world within the book. While Collins maintains that she "had never heard of that book until her book was turned in", Susan Dominus of The New York Times reports that "the parallels are striking enough that Collins's work has been savaged on the blogosphere as a baldfaced ripoff," but argued that "there are enough possible sources for the plot line that the two authors might well have hit on the same basic setup independently."[29] The general consensus in the time since has been one of amicable controversy, especially since the release of the The Hunger Games film adaptation. Battle Royale author Takami said he appreciated fans "standing up" for his book, but stated that he thinks "every novel has something to offer," and that if "readers find value in either book, that's all an author can ask for.


But if do want to use the Fern Gully reference it is pretty applicable here. Hunger Games= Fern Gully.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

haha. maybe before you proclaim Battle Royale is obscure you should do more research on it.

It's obscure. Maybe in the realm of online nerd-stuff it's not, but in the realm of normal people, a Japan-only movie from thirteen years ago that was never released in North American theatres is obscure.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

It's obscure. Maybe in the realm of online nerd-stuff it's not, but in the realm of normal people, a Japan-only movie from thirteen years ago that was never released in North American theatres is obscure.

Yeah i guess you are right. sorta like a Buffalo Sabres fan.

I still don't know what your point is. I'm offering you an alternative to Fern Gully. But i guess you must really like it to be that upset.

[Violator]

Katniss pretty much just cried the whole time that and it moved way to quickly at least through the games portion.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Do yourself a favor and skip this and go and read Battle Royale by Koushun Takami or watch it. Infinitely better than this Disney PG crap.

I found Battle Royale to be absolutely horrific. Not my cup of tea mind you, but was incredibly disappointed after hearing so much about it.

[Ped]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

I found Battle Royale to be absolutely horrific. Not my cup of tea mind you, but was incredibly disappointed after hearing so much about it.

I liked it, but I don't really consider HG a ripoff. HG goes much much farther and further than what BR's plot was (not saying it's better, just goes beyond the games part).

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Yeah i guess you are right. sorta like a Buffalo Sabres fan.

I still don't know what your point is. I'm offering you an alternative to Fern Gully. But i guess you must really like it to be that upset.

are you this annoying in every thread? Nobody asked for an alternative, but you've come to this conclusion that you're doing us a "favor"

The thread is about the Hunger Games movie. Not a fan? Then get lost

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Yeah i guess you are right. sorta like a Buffalo Sabres fan.

I still don't know what your point is. I'm offering you an alternative to Fern Gully. But i guess you must really like it to be that upset.

I don't get how you can say the Man vs Man Archetype is a rip off of Battle Royale. You have to go at least back to The Most Dangerous Game from the 1920's as referenced in the review you quoted. Or maybe just as far back as running man. Or perhaps the WWF Royal Rumble, Mortal Kombat, Bloodsport or perhaps even a few star trek episodes. The Genre of the fight to the death / humans hunting humans in post apocalypse is filled with excellent and terrible entries.

To say one obscure Japanese movie is what it was copied from is ridiculous. There is plenty more sorce material than that.

I haven't seen this movie yet but enjoyed the books and the first movie.

3rd book spoiler

Spoiler!

I hope in the 3rd books movies they decide to take the focus of Katnis and onto what the rest of district 13 is doing. If done as a Vietnam style movie like full metal jacket I think it would work well. The first movie would be them training, debrainwashing. The second half would be the platoon going into the capital. If you can capture the grittyness of the good vietnam movies you could turn the source material into a classic. If they just follow the book closely it could also be really bad.

[The Fonz]

Went to this on the weekend, and thought it was incredible.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I haven't gone to see the movie yet but have read the books.

A genuine question for those that have seen Battle Royale. Does the movie (or it's source material if there is any, again I don't know) go into the intra-political and economic workings of the society?

That's what I found most interesting about the Hunger Games. Katness living or dying, the Peeta/Gale love triangle for me were secondary to how society was set up, the role of the Hunger Games in PanAm, the socio-economic structure. The books are so much more than man vs man, the first movie has it between the lines but not like the books.

I'm curious as I haven't decided if I'll check out Battle Royale yet or not.

[East Coast Flame]

Saw this last night and was totally blown away. Never read the books and I thought the first movie was ok, but Catching Fire was freaking awesome.