Ooh, that's an interesting idea, le nubian. That would have been kind of awesome and terrible.

Just to be clear, we are allowed to have our own opinions here, right?

I'm not, but that's because I left my Opinionator on high and ran down the batteries.

I form my opinions from all of y'alls' opinions. But then it turns into a strange amalgamation, especially when some people are pro-glayvin and other people are anti-glayvin (and don't get me started on the splinter faction that's pro-REFORMED-glayvin).

Re: Hunger Games (which I still haven't seen, but I've been reading the whitefont because I needed to know how explicit the violence is -- i.e., how much we actually see play out onscreen) -- my biggest worry about the film is that they would keep the muttations the way they were in the book. That would have fucked me up to see.

Although I agree with ita that the book was somewhat unclear on whether they really were made from the dead tributes, or if it just seemed that way because Katniss was hallucinating. I would love to believe the latter, because it's less chilling, but given everything else that happens, I tend to believe it's the former.

It feels like making the muttations clearly some hybrid of beast and fallen tribute would have been a lot more CGI than the movie had otherwise, and might have been too frightening for the PG13 rating. I'm perfectly okay with them not being there -- the overall gist of the movie gave me a really clear idea what kind of atrocities the Capitol was capable of.

Just to be clear, we are allowed to have our own opinions here, right?

I think everyone's just expressing theirs, same as you.

Thanks for articulating that, le nubian.

you all might be right that they would have been too explicit for PG-13, and yet "The Dark Knight" fucked me up and that was PG-13. There has to be a way with movie magic to imply s how horrible these things should be.

perhaps they could have shown dead zombie-like tributes and then had them go into a "machine" in shadow and emerge as a weirdass werewolf?

I would love to believe the latter, because it's less chilling, but given everything else that happens, I tend to believe it's the former.

That's why it didn't bug me as much, because I always thought it was unclear in the books too. But someone said that in a later book, it's confirmed as true. Which, brrrr.

you all might be right that they would have been too explicit for PG-13, and yet "The Dark Knight" fucked me up and that was PG-13.

For reals. You can show the pencil trick, but you can't show resurrected child-beasts ? Come on now, MPAA. Maybe they should add this to the Bully platform when they go after a ratings overhaul.

Amy, to me, the beasts as rendered were totally CGI-ish and extremely fake-looking anyway, so I don't think the additional CGI-ish in creating them from tributes would've mattered.

We each have our things that made the book work or not work - so the importance of having them reflected in the movie certain ways is going to vary. For me, the detail of who gave the pin to Katniss isn't as important, for example.

the overall gist of the movie gave me a really clear idea what kind of atrocities the Capitol was capable of.

Right? They enjoy watching kids killing other kids for entertainment. These people are The Worst.

They enjoy watching kids killing other kids for entertainment. These people are The Worst.

Oh, come on, bon. They give them really fancy hotel rooms and excellent food first!

Some of them even get DESSERT!