Why are you interested in this adaptation?

Rachel-

I am interested in this adaptation because, like everyone else last year, I read the Hunger Games Trilogy over the summer. Initially, I was resistant to reading them because I felt that reading about kids murdering each other would be too stressful, but I gave in. I didn’t have to wait at all to read the complete trilogy because I began the first book only a few months before Mockingjay was published. Good thing, too–I was instantly obsessed. These books are a return to the type of science fiction I read as a child, and thus, I liked them very much. They are a return to the dystopia youth fiction, often shockingly violent and generally interested in psychology and sociology, that forces a young mind to examine its own preconceptions. Books like Ender’s Game, 1984, The Girl Who Owned a City, The Giver (which connects pretty easily to the self-sufficient, nature survival novels like Hatchet or My Side of the Mountain that were also pretty popular with my fellow elementary school attendees). I will say that the first book is far better than its sequels. There are lots of reasons for that, but it is true.

The Hunger Games tells a very timely story that combines the fear of economic and ecological collapse with big brother corruption and a sort of selfish interest in one’s own survival over that of the complacent collective. Mix in reality television, Battle Royale, and an ass-kicking heroine, and I’m sold.

I am excited about this story reaching an even broader audience, and I’m excited about another great science fiction novel being adapted, because that means more great science fiction novels stand a chance of being adapted and reaching a wider audience. (Although, there seems to be a large amount of YA fiction being adapted, and that just isn’t fair.) Plus, it’s fun to see things you’ve pictured in your head come to life. Duh.

Elena-

I’ll be the black sheep here and admit that I’m only interested in this adaptation as a pop culture phenomenon. I have not read the books. I have no interest in reading the books.

Nothing about the scenario or the story (which has been summarized for me) nor the characters inspires me to want to know more than I already do. I’m not trying to be stubbornly contrarian about this the way I was with Harry Potter back when I was in high school. If I had more time for reading I’d probably pick the first one up just to see what the fuss is all about. But instead, I have about 10 hours of leisure reading time a month these days, and I do not give that time to anything that does not grab me from its concept all the way down to its composition. So, hate on me all you want for not reading the trilogy, but it just ain’t gonna happen unless the movie blows my mind so hard that I can’t live without reading the book.

For the record: I do not expect that to happen. You may all lay odds on whether I will eat the words come March (or whenever the movie is out). I will openly accept your ridicule should I be forced to eat crow after seeing this film.

The main issues I have with the story are these:

1. I read to de-stress, and shit this dramatic and fraught is not going to relax me or lessen my stress load. Maybe if I end up bed-ridden with an illness or accident this book would grab me, but not the way my life and reading interconnect right now.

2. This story? The idea that kids go into a confined space and kill one another off while the country watches for amusement? Straight up rip-off of Battle Royale. Like shameful lifting of that book/movie’s premise. If you have read all my movie reviews at Boomtron then you know how much I hate remakes in general, and most especially American remakes of foreign films. An Americanized rewriting of a Japanese novel is not any better. Maybe it really was congruent creativity. Maybe Collins really did have the same idea without having seen or heard of BR. But for me it just looks like a cheap knock-off, and, y’all, I like the real thing in all things.

What will make it suck?

Elena-

If Lionsgate gives it the Twilight treatment and decides the target demographic is not going to be sophisticated enough movie-goers to care about things like artistry and creativity in directing and acting and scoring and cinematography.

If there are scenes that are blatant re-creations of scenes from the Battle Royale movie.

If the scriptwriters assumes everyone will have read the book a la Harry Potter films 3-6 and leave out rather important details and nuances in favor of an extra five minutes of action.

If there is a lot of CG. From what I understand of the setting and the action, there shouldn’t be a whole lot that cannot be accomplished with practical effects, and I am always annoyed by productions that take the easy way out and just slap a CGI patch over their own inadequacy as filmmakers.

Rachel-

It will suck if it rides the Twilight express. If the studios are identifying it as a young adult love story with genre aspects, and the film becomes a big, stupid sigh fest about how some pretty, yet accessible, girl can’t decide on a boyfriend.

It will also suck if the filmmakers decided or were forced to downplay the violence. It’s so important to later themes in the novels and integral to Collins’ criticisms of how we glorify violence, fight wars for money, and completely abandon the mostly young people who fight these wars to a myriad of mental illnesses without treatment.

What will make it awesome?

Elena-

Guilty as charged! I am almost always on board the glorified violence train…although there is an interesting psychological question raised when the lines between fantasy violence and reality are blurred like this scenario posits…the violence is supposedly for everyone’s entertainment, and yet it is real, gladiator style, not a cathartic role-playing exercise the way movies, books, video games, or songs that we know to be fiction are.

That being said…the movie will be awesome if it’s rated R! I have heard from all my friends who understand my Battle Royale complaint that the book’s action is creative enough that I should read it just for that. I take “creative action” to mean awesome deaths. And I do love me some good death scenes…I enjoyed the hell out of Shoot ’Em Up and Sukiyaki Western Django in part for their marvelously—and often hilariously—creative deaths. There was definitely something of that humor in the film of Battle Royale, as well (and, no, I’m not going to stop referencing it when I need to so just stop asking me to or I’ll just start talking about that and completely lose focus on Hunger Games like I totally already have, because, seriously, what was I saying?…), and while I don’t expect the humor to be present in Hunger Games, because HG strikes me as being a Serious Issue story, the breathless “Wow, I have not ever seen anyone killed to death like that before” would be nice to have.

Let’s see, what else would make it awesome?

If the boys cast have the acting chops Jennifer Lawrence appeared to have in Winter’s Bone.

If the post-apocalyptic fashion is as awesome as it was in The Book of Eli. I still have a crush on Mila Kunis’s wardrobe from that movie. Damn. Anyway. So far I’ve been underwhelmed by the costumes I’ve seen in the trailers.

Rachel-

It will be awesome if they take advantage of Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson. If they deliver this story sharply and violently, and if they keep the love story as a SUBplot. I cannot stress enough how playing off the love triangle thing will NOT work. There just isn’t enough of it, it’s not important enough, and if you try to boil Katniss Everdeen’s motivations down to love for her little sister and teen lusting then her story is pretty crap. Katniss is a regular person, she doesn’t know what she’s doing but she goes with her gut most of the time, even if her gut is wrong. She’s violent and snarly, and she doesn’t make friends very well. Those stupid boys (Team Gale Forever!) are usually there to trip her up or be totally useless and dude in distressy. Katniss is the one with all the motivation and abilities! Which is why she’s so awesome! Reduce her to a love sick little girl, and you ruin the story.

Also if it’s not CGId to hell. Some of those battle scenes seem ripe for CGIness, and ya know…grass and explosions and rain and shit don’t NEED to be computer generated!

Comments as to casting/production?

Rachel-

I know fans are very concerned about the casting. Personally, I think the kids are all too old but there’s always talk of how hard it is to find good actors in young children (see early HP—which ended up working out—and the casting for Ender’s Game, which is RAGE INDUCING in its lunacy). People are also throwing around the term “white washing,” which I don’t know if I agree with. The characters all appear to be the correct appearance according to the descriptions in the novels. Many people believe Katniss should be black or brown or whatever, but her sister is a little blonde girl, and having dark eyes doesn’t mean you aren’t white, so I’m OK with it. Jennifer Lawrence is a good actress, if a bit TOO pretty. Whatever. The extreme unattractiveness of the boys cast to play Gale and Peeta concerns me more, but I am an old and pervy lady that way.

What else? Woody Harrelson isn’t really what I pictured in my head when I pictured Haymitch, but he’s fugging awesome so I’m totally cool with that. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna was weird just because I don’t consider him an actor? That character always seemed weird and clunky to me anyways, so…I don’t care? (Yes, I don’t care about Cinna. His character is confusing to me. He exists to make Katniss pretty. Like being pretty is important. I guess it is when garnering public support and opinion, a sad fact. Not everyone who is interested in the beauty and fashion industry is evil or vapid or shallow like the majority of the Capital characters, I get that. But sometimes I felt like Cinna was created to manipulate the reader into accepting all the cosmetic stuff, and I never did. It was always really uncomfortable for me to read those long passages about how Katniss is SO PRETTY but she NEVER KNEW IT. Blegh.)

Elena-

I’m definitely curious to see how Jennifer Lawrence does in this role. I don’t know what kind of personality Katniss has, just that she’s super-determined and a bad-ass, and Lawrence definitely can play that. As for the boys, isn’t one of them Chris Hemsworth’s brother? Is he as hot as his brother? Because if he is then I’m also interested in watching him.

Who directs this one? Wait, someone I’ve never heard of or someone the hype isn’t pointing out? Hm. Well, at least it’s not Michael Bay. An unknown could go either way, I just have this feeling this isn’t going to be a movie where the director’s role is being given prime importance—feel like the studio probably tapped someone to do it inoffensively—and I would much rather see a strong director than one who is just there to show the story. From the way the previews look I am extrapolating this movie is not about the directing. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

And I can’t help a moment of snark: are side braids going to be the new Thing now? I mean, popular movies with iconic hair have untold influence on that aspect of fashion. Leia’s various do’s are still famous 30-some-odd years later. How many people had The Rachel in high school? So is 2012 going to be the year of the side braid?

Thoughts about trailer?

Elena-

Um…yeah, that did not really inspire me to heights of excitement here, I gotta be honest. I wasn’t loving what I saw of Lawrence? Is that possible? Something felt off to me, but maybe seeing it not in clips but from the opening would make me buy it…I think maybe the part in the woods just seemed like she was acting, a bit too much like poor Jake trying to ride the horses in Brokeback Mountain. You could tell he wasn’t someone who had *actually* been doing it his whole life…I think that was how the hunting scene felt, that it wasn’t really a natural set of movements?

I feel like I recognize Gale from The Dark Is Rising movie, The Seeker or whatever they renamed it…or was it Bridge to Terabithia? Either way…way to typecast yourself, kid. (Okay, this bothered me so I looked it up…apparently those are two different actors who used to look a lot more alike than they do now, and they are actually both in this movie. The Hunger Games is going to be the base for many rounds of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon! But Terabithia/Zathura, AKA Josh Hutcherson, is the one I was thinking of. And, Rachel: the kid playing Cato, AKA the one from The Seeker, is exponentially hotter than the two leading men. Please tell me that is an important character with good screen time!) Right. So I find Hutcherson’s body of work inoffensive, and actually both of those movies have very memorable moments for me that he sold, so I actually think this might have been a casting based on acting chops. Peeta I got no real sense of so I still have no opinion.

The costumes are definitely disappointing. There was a marked contrast between slick city/government and the country, but at the same time…it wasn’t the right kind of contrast. I didn’t get a sense of desperation from the way everyone appeared, of being crushed under the heel of a corrupt and oppressive nanny state. Isn’t that the idea? It just seemed like a bunch of people with no fashion sense meeting people with bad fashion sense. None of it was interesting to look at. The glimpses of the city society left much to be desired. It was like the bottom half of a Project Runway “show us the future” challenge. And the hunting uniforms? Please tell me she swaps that shit for some camo made of out leaves and mud or something. Because I do not want to have to stare at that charcoal and red Lycra for two hours. Yawn.

Rachel-

I’m laughing at Elena’s reaction to the costumes. So much of this story is about “being seen”. In the literal and philosophical sense. “No camo in these here woods now! Don’t look good on camera! Cry some more, maybe I’ll send you a can of Coke.” All these Capital assholes complacent while a bunch of invisible people’s children are being murdered for their entertainment. It all sounds too ridiculous to ever happen. But examining how horrible things happen on large scales and how the people who could do something about it…don’t, is important. Look at Wall Street, the global environment, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing in Africa…it’s all still happening. This story is relevant!

I’m pissed there don’t seem to be any hideous orange backpacks? Hahaha.

I’m actually more convinced by the boys in the trailer than I am by Lawrence. That opening shot of her walking…nothing about that says athletic young girl who hunts to survive. But my biggest complaint? WHY IS EVERYONE SO CLEAN?!!! I’m serious! Those whites are white, those faces are scrubbed, that hair is combed. These are people who are starving to death, who are all dying of black lung, who drink rancid goat soup they bought off a crippled lady! Ugh…I don’t even feel bad for them!

The Capital looks awesome, though. The Capital citizens are all Kardashians. We don’t really get enough footage of the games themselves to make any real statements about how they are filmed. I recognize that bit with Peeta and Katniss on the roof of the training building and it’s pretty much exactly how I pictured it.

On the whole I expected to be really worried once I saw the trailer, and the art direction is less than inspiring, but I find myself really looking forward to the film. I guess that means if I had long hair I’d be wearing it in a side braid!

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