I was so sad at the end when Cato was just acting like a normal child because their all children who were put in their awful game of death for the capitol to enjoy
One of the very best adaptation decisions made was the bits of dialogue between Snow and Seneca Crane. We don't get that in the book since it's only from Katniss' point of view, but it was a brilliant addition to spell it out for the audience and give us much better insight into how the Games are manipulated. I know people consider Catching Fire to be the best one but there are so many things that the first movie did *just right.*
Yea I feel like most of the misses in the first film were technicals due to the lack of budget (set design, effects, camera, which were still phenomenal, or missing characters, because then again you'd have to hire actors for those) since it wasn't sure to become A Thing yet then. Which led to a good handle of the rest of the franchise, given a bigger budget thanks to the success of the first one.
I liked how they made Cato more of a person just before he died, I always knew the Capitol is the enemy. In the movie, Cato falls off the cornucopia into the dogs who rip him apart, but he isn’t dead yet. You can hear him quietly say “please” through screams, and that’s why Katniss shoots him, so he’ll be out of his misery
That would have made the movie so much better. The book goes into detail about how the mutts are recognizably representing the dead tributes and share some identifiable physical characteristics, like hair/fur color. It's horrifying when Katniss realizes there's a small mutt especially to correspond to Rue
Gary Ross often gets overshadowed by Francis Lawrence. While I do think Ross made some big mistakes (Madge), he ended up casting some of the most talented actors for the roles. I can’t imagine anyone else portraying Katniss with the same intensity and vulnerability that Jennifer did or the same tenderness that Hutcherson did. And Donald Sutherland as Snow? Perfect. I also love the tone he directed for the film through the score/soundtrack. It wasn’t glamorous Hollywood production, which was very much needed for the world Katniss knew.
@@rons_seb In the books, there was a character named Madge who was the daughter of the District 12 mayor and a classmate of Katniss as well as the only one who would eat lunch with her. Madge was also one of the people who visited Katniss in the Justice Building after her reaping, where she gifted her the gold Mockingjay pin to wear as her token to represent District 12 (which made Katniss realize that Madge really had been a true friend to her). In Catching Fire, the two got even closer when Katniss and Peeta returned from the games, so much so that Katniss would take Madge to the woods to teach her how to shoot a bow and arrow while Madge tries to teach Katniss how to play the piano. Madge also helped out a lot too, like when she gave some of her mom's headache medicine to help Gale after he was beaten by Peacekeepers and by giving Katniss her father's newspaper after the Quarter Quell was announced, which holds polls in the Capitol on who is most likely to be a victor of the Games. We also learn in this book that the Mockingjay pin was a family heirloom that has been passed down from her aunt (Maysilee Donner) who was a former District 12 Tribute in the game that Haymitch won. Unfortunately though, Madge a her family didn't survive the District 12 bombing in Mockingjay. 😔 In the movies though, Madge was completely cut out and the pin was instead given to Katniss by the vendor at the Hob.
I think Gary Ross was so much better at making things feel real emotionally, if that makes sense. His script was at times lacking (he wrote the movie too, and his biggest mistake was getting Peeta wrong character-wise), but he was better than Francis Lawrence. Wish he had continued.
I think he probably did the best he could, with the budget and restrictions given to him. And he handled the source material with decent care, if not at a truly fan like level. There was no guarantee that it would be a box office hit -- popular young adult books brought to film usually are not, sadly. And you can even tell it's more clunky and less polished compared to the second film, which had all the money pouring in to it.
Showing the behind the scenes and shots of the capital was such a good idea it really helped drive home the sharp contrast between the reality of the districts and the reality of people in the capital. A prime example in this video is Katniss running for her life and then the camera cutting to the game makers calmly controlling the arena as if they're not actively trying to kill a child. However I do still think the best example of it is when Haymitch is it in the Capitol and he watches the little boy receive a toy sword as a gift and begin to chase his sister around. Does anyone know if that was covered in any of these behind the scenes type documentary, I would love to hear about what the director thought about that scene
I honestly think there are parts of the movies that are better than the books because we get to see moments from outside Katniss' perspective - especially all of the scenes with Snow
Back when I first watched and read the hunger games as a kid i saw Cato in black and white, he was simply a bad guy who liked to kill and only acted the way he did in the end cause he knew he had lost. Now I see him as much a victim as Katniss and Peeta, albeit in a very different way. His whole life he was told that volunteering and winning the games was a source of honor and pride for his district, similar to how many men back in WW1 and even today were tricked by their nations elite to go off to battle and die horrible deaths that amounted to little if anything at all. I know its a very serious comparison that shouldn’t be taken lightly but if you look at him in the end you can see he realizes how stupid he was to volunteer, and how the games dont truly bring him or his district any honor, the games keep his district enslaved
From my understanding, in the books the hounds were made to have the faces of the dead tributes from the current games, so for that psychological horror, it would’ve been difficult to make before hand I think.
i can see after snow become president snow, all the tribute are no hunger to be fight, and no more fix arena, there be a biggest arena, everything upgrade after snow.
Honestly while it would be fun to read I don't think they should as the story has already wrapped up I feel like they would have to either invent a new storyline or new antagonist to justify it. I think it would go similarly to starwars where Disney had to retcon and make up new foes just to justify making more movies (instead of just using the eu like they should have) which ultimately led to Palpatine being cloned
Maybe not for all the young people who watch. Plus the Career tributes (Glimmer, Clove etc) are mostly portrayed as bad, it's only Cato you see a different side of. Wouldn't blame the, say, 14-year-old who thought the Careers were the bad guys.
The director change was necessary. I never liked how Gary Ross handled the first movie, specifically with the camera. The story was a decent interpretation but that camera shaking is nauseating
Agree. I personally hate the "I volunteer as tribute" moment, because you can see the cut from the begining of the sentence to the end, it drives me crazy everytime. Katniss starts talking and there's nothing in front of her, by the end there's an arm that she has to remove, but we never see the arm come in, we just cut to already being there. So annoying, takes away the suspend of disbelief, you can SEE the cut, it's so infuriating obvious. And it's an important part of the story, so we're all gonna pay attention. Makes me annoyed everytime.
It makes the setup seem more authentic to me. It’s as if ur put in the very same situation Katniss is in, especially during the moments where there was no music and only background joisesb
@@waenara7364 you're good. It's still a good movie, I just disagreed with some choices the director made. But to each their own. I Love the series no matter what.
It's not really stated as such but the fact Plutarch takes over suggests maybe Plutarch mentored him. However much more likely and as it's portrayed is he was thrown by the Peeta and Katniss move to potentially kill themselves and as a loyal Capitol man he didn't have the freedom of thought to know how to deal with it. So he panicked. Unlike Snow, who had seen Dr Gaul prepared to let everyone die in the 10th hunger games and then been forged by her, Snow chastises him for panicking and said he should have let them. Be no Victor. To show the Capitol always wins. Probably thinking how he'd fought to keep Lucy alive and then been betrayed. So now remembers that manipulation. Hence his reaction to Seneca. Overall my conclusion is Seneca wasn't a rebel just hapless and another capitol victim.
Because it takes a lot of effort to adapt something that has a lot of source material. Directors/writers have to consider the runtime of the films, which often limits what they can show and *how* they show it.
Jokes on you he actually wrote all this stuff himself. Meaning the control room, Seneca's extra plot with Snow. Gary is a writer and he invented this for world building which was so damn good
