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That post-apocalyptic tween thriller you're tired of hearing about officially breaks box-office records
By EJ DicksonMarch 24th, 2012, 10:00 pmComments (7)
Hey, Person Who Has Used the Internet Over the Past Two Weeks, aren't you sick to death of hearing about The Hunger Games? I know, me too. It seems like everywhere you look there's a report about how many twelve-year-old girls seized from excitement during opening night, or a trend piece about how coal-miner chic is totally gonna take off next season, or an interview with Donald Sutherland in J-14 about how he thinks Selena and Justin are the Taylor and Burton of the aught-teens. Personally, I'm over it, or at least, I'll be over it in about an hour and a half, when I actually see it in theaters. Squee! It'll be totally awesome, if the $68.3 million it raked in during opening day is any indication.
What's that you say, PWHUIOPTW? Well, yes, I agree, that is a ludicrous amount of money for a movie to make on its opening day, particularly if it doesn't feature puckish English wizards and/or sassy killer robots. In fact, Hunger Games now has the fifth highest-grossing opening day and the highest opening day of a non-sequel ever: although its numbers fall short of the Harry Potter and Twilight sequels, it's already grossed more than The Dark Knight and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did on their opening days. Not bad for a miner's daughter from post-apocalyptic Appalachia.
So there you have it: your Hunger Games news of the evening, whether you like it or not. At the very least, it gives me an excuse to post this:
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The Hunger Games
Commentarium (7 Comments)
Really? Tween? I fucking hate that word, and the series is just as popular in high school, college circles, and the average workplace.
It was really bad. Really, surprisingly bad. Bad enough to make me feel sorry for Elizabeth Banks, who seemed like the only person not sleepwalking through their role. The audience in my theater went in applauding and left laughing; if they were any indication (and, to be fair, they were all older 20-somethings, so maybe they're not), there will be a crash once word of mouth gets out.
A comment that kinda puts one of the linked articles - The Hunger Games full-length trailer is awesome, puts all our fears to rest - to shame.
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-hunger-gam
"Generally Favorable Reviews"
I know, I read a bunch of middling-to-positive reviews before I went, which is why I wrote "surprisingly bad." I don't know what to attribute this to, but I was clearly not the only one in the theater to find it disappointing. Maybe it's better if you haven't read the book? Maybe they went in anticipating Twilight levels of awful and were impressed it didn't reach them? Maybe they just don't want to be the reviewer who was too out of the loop to praise the young people's blockbuster? I honestly have no idea, but I did not see in it what they saw.
I agree. The first half of the film was dreadfully dull, and the second half was a survival film cliche fest including the deus ex machina conclusion. I think the material is best left in book form, and this is a case of them making a movie from a story that is basically unfilmable. OK that's not entirely true -- had Quentin Tarantino been given the authority to do an R rated version and done it as a "tongue firmly planted in cheek" satire, it might have worked as a movie. But they did it as a sincere drama set in a less than believable future, keeping the violence to a minimum to keep it PG-13 so the target audience could watch it, pulling punches at every turn.
"The first half of the film was dreadfully dull, and the second half was a survival film cliche fest including the deus ex machina conclusion."
I disagree with this, actually: I thought the first half of the movie was absolutely riveting, considering how much attention they paid to world-building (by far what Collins did best in the trilogy) and showing the audience from the get-go how brutal and unfeeling this world was. Then when it got to right before the actual games it just kinda farted out and the 2nd half was totally abysmal. They had a lot of material to cover, so I guess I understand, but I agree that if someone like Tarantino or David Fincher had a go of it it would have been a much smarter and grittier movie rather than just fanboy/girl fare.