I am in favor of catfights

You mean a character who is written to be fairly multi-dimensional is better than an empty slate, personality-less, abusive relationship Mary Sue into which the author and her fans can inject themselves?

A plate of chopped liver is a better character than Bella.

I know absolutely nothing about the Hunger Games. So, I'm wondering about this comparison. Please tell me HG is nothing like Twilight. The last thing we need is another Twilight.

Cythraul: I know absolutely nothing about the Hunger Games. So, I'm wondering about this comparison. Please tell me HG is nothing like Twilight. The last thing we need is another Twilight.

It's nothing like Twillight. It is a lot like Running Man and Battle Royale. My 13 year old daughter insisted I take her to the midnight showing last night and it was pretty enjoyable. The main character is believable, strong and intelligent. There is a love triangle of sorts but the girl seems to view it more as annoyance than what she is after, she is much more about survival (at first due to poverty and then due to the psychotic gladitorial games she is thrown into) than starry eyed love affairs. As a father of a teenage girl that's good enough for me to recommend it.

effexca: Quasar: You mean a character who is written to be fairly multi-dimensional is better than an empty slate, personality-less, abusive relationship Mary Sue into which the author and her fans can inject themselves?

I watched Twilight, and the thing I never understood is why do all the guys get all worked up over Bella?

Because she's plain, dreary and clumsy. Apparently these are MAJOR turn-ons in the Pacific Northwest.

effexca: Quasar: You mean a character who is written to be fairly multi-dimensional is better than an empty slate, personality-less, abusive relationship Mary Sue into which the author and her fans can inject themselves?

I watched Twilight, and the thing I never understood is why do all the guys get all worked up over Bella?

Because they are required to for the story. Bella has no personality and is a terrible friend and daughter, but the second she walks into that school she has two guys fighting over her, a new best friend, and a creepy stalker/future love interest. It's almost embarrassing to know you're watching Stephenie Meyer's high school daydreams.

Don't you mean Katfight?

I liked it better when it was called "Battle Royale".

And a kick in the ass is better than one in the nuts.

ShawnDoc: I liked it better when it was called "Battle Royale".

[www.horror-extreme.com image 433x300]

I'm calling it "Battle Royale With Cheese"

I've read both series:

Bella: No personality except for occasional biatchiness, plain-looking. Everyone in her new high school instantly adores her. The 2 hottest guys in the county are madly in love with her. The one she wants to be with stalks her, breaks into her bedroom to watch her sleep, and beats the shiat out of her when they finally get it on but it's okay because he totally loves her and stuff. When he leaves her, she crawls into the fetal position and goes catatonic for 2 weeks.

Katniss: Strong, independent, self-sufficient, caring (but refuses to let it show). Enters into gladiatorial combat to the death so that her younger, not-so-self-sufficient sister won't have to. 2 of the best guys in the county are madly in love with her but she doesn't want any part of it because there's too much to worry about, like staying alive and feeding her family. The one who is most devoted to her is a master manipulator and excellent actor who uses his talents to give themselves the only possible edge they have in the competition. Katniss puts her life on the line to save them both.

Case closed.

Jennifer Lawrence is hotter than Kristen Stewart, but I wouldn't say no to Stewart any day.

I've been listening to the the audiobook this week on the bike ride to work to see what the fuss is about, and it's pretty enjoyable. Sure, I'm a 40-something male and the book is written in first-person teenage girl, so there's a bit of a barrier there, but she is a very strong and believable character. I like her.

And I like any story where teenagers have to kill each other for sport. I would so watch that.

There's no way in HELL would I read Twilight, even if it were the last book on the planet. Hunger Games... well, I'm working my way through it again... for the 3rd time.

brigid_fitch: I've read both series:

D：

From what I can tell, The Hunger Games is The Running Man meets Clueless and Twilight is The Vampire Diaries meets Every Lifetime Movie About Abusive Relationships. Advantage: Hunger Games.

And the Hunger Games girl has a nicer rack.

I don't see any Clueless in the Hunger Games but your mileage may vary I guess. And plus I never saw Clueless.

Mugato: From what I can tell, The Hunger Games is The Running Man meets Clueless and Twilight is The Vampire Diaries meets Every Lifetime Movie About Abusive Relationships. Advantage: Hunger Games.

And the Hunger Games girl has a nicer rack.

Confabulat: I don't see any Clueless in the Hunger Games but your mileage may vary I guess. And plus I never saw Clueless.

It's closer to The Longest Walk than Running Man. And no Clueless to be found (esp. since Clueless is Jane Austen's Emma).

1st HG book: Battle to the death so that the winner's district will be well-fed for a year instead of the usual live-on-the-brink-of-starvation daily life
2nd HG book: Psycho president makes the winners battle to the death again the following year because the main character survived only by gaming the system
3rd HG book: Near-suicide rescue mission-cum-revolution

adamgreeney: Um, you read the second two books of the Hunger Games? Katniss becomes a whiny, self absorbed twat. I hated her in the last two books. Everything that made her impressive in the first one was tossed out to make her more like Bella. Talk about depressing.

Kind of how Lyra went from interesting to I never even bothered to wiki the end of the third book and really hope she just gutted herself after beheading her dorky sidekick with the subtle knife.

brigid_fitch: cum-revolution

I thought this was for YOUNG adults.

Maybe I will have to read these books after all...

adamgreeney: brigid_fitch: I've read both series:

Bella: No personality except for occasional biatchiness, plain-looking. Everyone in her new high school instantly adores her. The 2 hottest guys in the county are madly in love with her. The one she wants to be with stalks her, breaks into her bedroom to watch her sleep, and beats the shiat out of her when they finally get it on but it's okay because he totally loves her and stuff. When he leaves her, she crawls into the fetal position and goes catatonic for 2 weeks.

Katniss: Strong, independent, self-sufficient, caring (but refuses to let it show). Enters into gladiatorial combat to the death so that her younger, not-so-self-sufficient sister won't have to. 2 of the best guys in the county are madly in love with her but she doesn't want any part of it because there's too much to worry about, like staying alive and feeding her family. The one who is most devoted to her is a master manipulator and excellent actor who uses his talents to give themselves the only possible edge they have in the competition. Katniss puts her life on the line to save them both.

Um, you read the second two books of the Hunger Games? Katniss becomes a whiny, self absorbed twat. I hated her in the last two books. Everything that made her impressive in the first one was tossed out to make her more like Bella. Talk about depressing.

She did internalize a lot in the other 2 books but I wouldn't classify her as whiny. A little self-absorbed, maybe, but I didn't mind since she was constantly being thrown into shiat against her will. She never asked to be a symbol for the resistance. All she wanted to do wast hunt & take care of Prim and her mom. Instead, she had to survive the Games twice and lead a revolution, all before she's even 17. Nowhere even close to Bella's constant idiocy. Not to say the HG books aren't without their problems but they're still far and away better written than Twilight, with a much better story.

Does Bella kill any innocent kids for sport?

doglover: adamgreeney: Um, you read the second two books of the Hunger Games? Katniss becomes a whiny, self absorbed twat. I hated her in the last two books. Everything that made her impressive in the first one was tossed out to make her more like Bella. Talk about depressing.

Kind of how Lyra went from interesting to I never even bothered to wiki the end of the third book and really hope she just gutted herself after beheading her dorky sidekick with the subtle knife.

Ugh, the other books in that series just pissed me off. Not only did Lyra degrade into a selfish, pathetic moron the story went from fantasy-adventure to...I don't even know what. It just sucked.

JerseyTim: Does Bella kill any innocent kids for sport?

Okay, not that would have made for a good twist. After all the whining and kvetching, Edward finally agrees to turn Bella. Overcome with her new found power, Bella decides that the clan of "oh, we don't eat humans" vampires are bunch of pussies and becomes a full-blown psycho throat ripper.

JerseyTim: Does Bella kill any innocent kids for sport?

From what I gather, the other girl was killing other kids to survive, not for sport. But if she did kill them for sport, that would put another mark for Kahless or whatever her name is.

Bella's a farking vampire now, isn't she? Christ, even the pussies in Interview with a Vampire actually killed people.

Just got back from seeing it with the rest of the Love Zombie family. The director suuuuuure loves his goddamn shakycam. Seriously, folks, this is a warning to ANY of you planning on seeing it soon -- don't sit in the front third of the theater, and if you have a tendency to motion sickness or just plain hate the whole shaky-cam thing, be forewarned. It's heavily abused in this film.

That being said -- not a bad adaptation of a YA. The director had to walk a tightwire between the material (teenagers murdering each other by stabbing, slashing, beating, neck-breaking, shooting, and exploding) and a maximum PG-13 rating to allow for their target demographic.
Casting: Cast is pretty darn good. Jennifer Lawrence shows that you can exude beauty even when made up to look like you have no makeup on, and you're stuck in a coverall/jacket for eighty percent of the movie. She would biatchslap Bella across the room and stake her with an arrow in half a heartbeat. Two guy stars are suitably cute (though I would imagine more than a few female fans would have appreciated the casting being reversed). Dude who plays Seneca (the GameMaster) has a beard on loan from Mephistopheles. Donald Sutherland plays Donald Sutherland. During one scene I almost audibly riffed the line "Can I buy some pot from you?" Fark it, he's Donald Sutherland. Oh, and Lenny Farking Kravitz plays a glorified hairdresser, which is a casting choice both inexplicable and strangely spot-on.
Art direction: All the po' folk in the districts are lit and dressed like they come from the area of the country somewhere between Forks and wherever the hell WInter's Bone was set (Jen Lawrence was probably pretty comfortable, considering). All the rich folk in the Capitol look like they were vomited upon by Willy Wonka's drug dealer.

Apart from the nauseating camera motion, I would watch this movie a dozen times before I would willingly watch one of the Twilight films.

Dahmers Love Zombie says go see it.

brigid_fitch: doglover: adamgreeney: Um, you read the second two books of the Hunger Games? Katniss becomes a whiny, self absorbed twat. I hated her in the last two books. Everything that made her impressive in the first one was tossed out to make her more like Bella. Talk about depressing.

Kind of how Lyra went from interesting to I never even bothered to wiki the end of the third book and really hope she just gutted herself after beheading her dorky sidekick with the subtle knife.

Ugh, the other books in that series just pissed me off. Not only did Lyra degrade into a selfish, pathetic moron the story went from fantasy-adventure to...I don't even know what. It just sucked.

Good Lord, THIS. The Golden Compass set up a pretty cool alternaverse concept, which was made confusing by The Subtle Knife and completely shat upon by The Amber Spyglass.

Just got back from The Hunger Games. Depressingly mediocre, IMO. I had no knowledge of the books going in, so I just wanted to see a good movie. It was very cookie-cutter, by the numbers in its cinematography and music and...just everything. Not a single scene in that movie seemed inventive or inspired, not a single "WOW" shot.

vygramul: Don't you mean Katfight?

Katnip.

rocky_howard: The movie fell flat with me. No chemistry or emotional involvement in the characters unless you're a teen girl I guess. Jennifer Lawrence did a good job though. The bad guys were terrible caricatures. There was this annoying black girl who's a total Mary Sue. The shaky camera hiding terrible CGI and production values. Suspension of disbelief totally broken by the scenario they were in. Sometimes it felt they were in the Matrix or something. Lame "violence".

It's just there. 2.5/5 for me.

Almost a simulpost, and basically we had the same reaction.

"It's just there" is a perfect way to sum it up.

Quasar: It's almost embarrassing to know you're watching Stephenie Meyer's high school daydreams.

Basically this.

I dunno.. between the HG being constantly compared to Twilight and it being made for tweens that adults are raving about reminds me of the Harry Potter movies. The only way I was able to stomach the first 4 of those was with Rifftrax.

Now, the comparisons and such could be due to the disastrous state of the film industry and critics playing to the last big craze (which belittles whatever work they are making/criticizing), or that people have such low expectations of movies that anything better than 'x' has got to be the best shiat since sliced shiat. Either way, I think I'll wait for the Rifftrax take on it.

dahmers love zombie: The director suuuuuure loves his goddamn shakycam.

Dammit, I hate that shiat. I have no opinion on this movie in any way, I'll probably get dragged to it but I'm sure there are worse movies playing now but the shaky cam shiat pisses me off. I know it didn't start with the Bourne movies but that's when it was looked at as an actual artistic choice to show the confusion and chaos of battle of whatever and now everyone does it and it sucks. My cinematography instructor loved that noise and he was a tool.