Cordelia ,'Lessons'
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Ugghh, Hil. We watched in an "18 and older only" theater, so thank heavens we didn't have to deal with any of that crap.
Kate, I do agree with you that I missed getting Katniss' perspective on things. I'm glad they didn't go with a voiceover, but a few muttered asides in the woods might have helped.
I can't speak for all the viewers that haven't read the books, but I think the relationships between Katniss and Gale and Katniss and Peeta do come across.
I didn't read the books, but I had read enough of the posts here that I had a grasp on what they were about. I never read the Harry Potter ones either, but loved the movies...most of them.
What was the significance of the three-finger salute? I got that it meant something to her district but wasn't sure.
quester, it was their way of showing respect. I don't think it was ever explained beyond that -- just that it was a custom unique to the district.
Oh, another difference that disappointed me a bit. They really downplayed that Katniss stays very ambivalent about Peeta throughout the games, and is laser-focused on survival. At the end at the Cornucopia when they announced that only one tribute could win, book!Katniss turns her bow on Peeta only to realize ashamedly that he has thrown his knife aside. It's a shame to lose that kind of nuance in the characters and their feelings.
Another thing I noticed was that they didn't really play up the "hunger" part of it too much. They didn't really say why Katniss and Gale hunt, the part about getting more grain if you put your name in the lottery more times was barely mentioned, and they cut up the conversation between Katniss and Rue where Rue talked about how they'd get punished if they ate the crops. And in the book, there was a real sense that Katniss was eating every bite of every meal in the Capitol, because she's known her whole life that any meal might be the last one for a while, and that wasn't really mentioned at all.
A friend is trying to figure out if the film is okay for his 9-year-old son to see. He has seen all the HP movies and all of the new Doctor Who and did fine with those. How "real" is the violence?
This does not seem appropriate for a nine-year-old to me; the premise is insanely dark. The violence is not gory but it is specific. You witness the killings of some 20-odd children.
How "real" is the violence?
Very. You really feel it. It's not for nine-year-olds.
Scrappy, I concur. I don't think this is a great movie for 9 year olds. Children die in this movie. Not particularly graphically, but if I saw this movie when I was a kid, I would have been traumatized. Nightmares for 2 weeks.
I almost feel like if the child is too young to read the books, they are probably too young to see the movie.