2D OPENING WEEKEND - ALL TIME 1. The Dark Knight Rises - $160,887,295 2. The Dark Knight - $158,411,483 3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - $158,074,286 4. The Hunger Games - $152,535,747 5. Spider-Man 3 - $151,116,516
"If you make yourself more than just a man... If you devote yourself to an ideal... You become something else entirely- A Legend."
Just saw it. Fantastic in every way. Absolutely loved the arena, though as I said when I saw the trailer, I imagined the beach was a bit different. The romance triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be. They did very well with it.
Every old actor (from the first movie) stepped up their game -- Jennifer, Josh and Woody were amazing! -- and the new ones especially Finnick, Johanna and Plutarch were excellent.
9.5/10 -- Fantastic adaptation of my favorite book in the series.
Top 5 Favorite scenes (not in particular order)
1. Katniss' reaction to Cinna's death 2. The first battle on the Cornucopia. 3. Peeta announcing Katniss is "pregnant". Favorite scene in the book, great job in the movie. 4. Johanna! Her "naked elevator" scene, Cursing during the whole interview thing. Yelling at the dome after the Jabberjays. 5. Katniss being lifted out of the arena as it is being destroyed.
Honorable mention: Katniss splashing Haymitch with the water (?), and Haymitch standing up to that Peacekeeper dude.
Ooh, he did answer a question that was lingering in my mind... the whole "star-crossed lovers with a baby" thing... After Peeta's faux announcement there was nothing. He explains:
FL: There's a few moments in the book where the baby gets brought up again, usually in a sarcastic manner and usually by Finnick. And it was scripted, but it was cut, usually during rehearsals, because we found that when approaching a scene and trying a scene that is scary and where the stakes are life and death, it was hard to work in humor in those moments and maintain any sense of reality. So some of those moments were cut.
Q: I just wanted to mention that the final closeup of the film on Jennifer’s face was so haunting that I have not been able to get it out of my head. I need to see it again! Was there anything about the final scene / shot that is noteworthy in mentioning or sharing? Thanks!
A: The scene at the end of the film is straight out of the book, and was scripted (dialogue included) pretty much straight out of the book (maybe one additional line), and Katniss’ response at the end of the scene was to break down in the book. And partway through shooting the scene, I caught a glimpse of Jen doing something different. I saw that she started to break down, and then shifted into anger, and defiance, and I liked it, I thought it was better, and I then came up with the idea of the final shot looking straight down with her look nearly into the lens for the final moment. So the ending beat of the film was a circumstance of happy, on-set accidents.
I hope somebody mentions the lack of backstory for the mockingjays. My brother never read the book and didn't understand the 'importance' of it when watching CF.
I hope somebody mentions the lack of backstory for the mockingjays. My brother never read the book and didn't understand the 'importance' of it when watching CF.
Well, Francis did a mention about it when he was asked about why Plutarch's clock wasn't showed in the film.
I hope somebody mentions the lack of backstory for the mockingjays. My brother never read the book and didn't understand the 'importance' of it when watching CF.
Well, Francis did a mention about it when he was asked about why Plutarch's clock wasn't showed in the film.
Hi. I wanted to know what was the reasoning behind leaving out the scene where Plutarch shows his watch to Katniss during the ball?
FL: There's a very easy reason. We shot the watch, we tried the watch in the cut, and we took it out. Because we don't have the option of having Katniss wonder and doubt the meaning of the watch in the film, it becomes way too clear what the watch means in the movie, and that would have been a mistake.
Just wondering why there was no other mention of 'the baby' during the games. In the books Peeta was suppposed to play up the whole 'star crossed lovers....with a baby'. Other than that, the movie was spot on! Totally impressed!
FL: There's a few moments in the book where the baby gets brought up again, usually in a sarcastic manner and usually by Finnick. And it was scripted, but it was cut, usually during rehearsals, because we found that when approaching a scene and trying a scene that is scary and where the stakes are life and death, it was hard to work in humor in those moments and maintain any sense of reality. So some of those moments were cut.
How has it been working with Ms. Collins, and how has she influenced the movies?
FL: Suzanne is amazing. The source material is the thing that drew me to the projects in the first place. When I got the job, the first thing that I did was fly to New York, initially to sit with her for a couple of hours and pick her brain about the world of the Hunger Games, just to immerse myself in the world as much as possible. But what ended up happening was that we ended up sitting in an office in her publisher's office for three days straight, going through the book and creating a beat-by-beat outline of what we thought the screenplay should be. Nina Jacobson (the producer) would pop in and out, and we would pitch her our ideas, and at the end of those 3 days we gave that outline to the writer, and let him get started.
Big fan of the trilogy. Saw Catching Fire yesterday. My question is do have any plans for the white lizard mutts in Mockingjay yet? Thanks and great job so far.
FL: I do have plans! I do have a design. And I think they're going to be really scary.
Where is district 13 going to be set?
FL: We've already shot 5 weeks inside of District 13. We're shooting most of the movie in Atlanta, and a lot of it is sets.
Why is Mockingjay being split into two parts, if you know?
FL: The decision to split the book into two parts was made before I signed on to do the films, but I liked the idea. Whenever one adapts a 400+ page novel down to a 2 hour-ish movie, there's a lot of loss. By splitting this into two movies, more of the book can be maintained and more world growth can be added, so more surprises for the fans of the book.
LoyalWeasley18 - POTTERMORE EARLY MEMBER -CRIMSONICE199-
Francis Lawrence would have wanted to take advantage of the IMAX format for the arena scenes, but since they don't appear in Mockingjay, there's no IMAX. The format wouldn't have been used for Catching Fire if not for the way the arena this time around had to be presented.
i finally saw it !!! it was spectacular , captivating and breathtaking !!! i loved pretty much everything about it :
1. let's start with the direction: Francis Lawrence is a pure artist !!! i loved almost every little shot of the film (especially the final one ) 2. the cinematography: dark,atmospheric and trully beautiful 3. the adaption : i was so surprised and impressed with how good this adaption is. one of the best ones ever seriously !!! in my opinion it told the story even better than the book. the spirit of the trilogy and particularly the cf book was so obvious and it was more developed !!! so many emotional scenes i could barely take it. 4. the performances : jen is now my favourite actress period !!! she was destinied to play this role she even helped me understand katniss's character better than colins did (no kidding) josh was so amazing haymitch was badass johanna so hillarious...and hot....finnick was pretty good and snow was so evil.... in general i loved every single character and the actors really outdid theirselves 5.the effects : way better than the first film !!! the team is to be congratulated they gave us a lovely panem and a very reallistic arena
Only letdowns: it was a bit fast-paced and there was not enough blood as i expected
i'm definately seeing this again i just feel the need to do it !!!
wow i missed a lot of those lol i need to see it again....like now. i'm going to the movies tonight but my friends insisted that we see frozen so i guess ill just have to wait to see it a second time
"The sun persists in rising so I make myself stand."
Because the Academy are full of dumb old farts. Even though Catching Fire proofs that the franchise is not your typical YA franchise (the use of cursing, the expanded degree of violence, vet actors who actually are involved with the message of the films and the books), I don't think that the Academy will nominate the film for anything.
Especially after how they barely nominated The Hobbit.
Comments
thewire.com/entertainment/2013/11/open-letter-jena-malone/355496/
1. The Dark Knight Rises - $160,887,295
2. The Dark Knight - $158,411,483
3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - $158,074,286
4. The Hunger Games - $152,535,747
5. Spider-Man 3 - $151,116,516
Every old actor (from the first movie) stepped up their game -- Jennifer, Josh and Woody were amazing! -- and the new ones especially Finnick, Johanna and Plutarch were excellent.
9.5/10 -- Fantastic adaptation of my favorite book in the series.
Top 5 Favorite scenes (not in particular order)
1. Katniss' reaction to Cinna's death
2. The first battle on the Cornucopia.
3. Peeta announcing Katniss is "pregnant". Favorite scene in the book, great job in the movie.
4. Johanna! Her "naked elevator" scene, Cursing during the whole interview thing. Yelling at the dome after the Jabberjays.
5. Katniss being lifted out of the arena as it is being destroyed.
Honorable mention: Katniss splashing Haymitch with the water (?), and Haymitch standing up to that Peacekeeper dude.
Quaalude fight: because drunk fight is too mainstream.
Lord Stafford.
fxguide.com/featured/catching-fire-meet-the-real-gamemaker/
reddit.com/r/iama
FL: There's a few moments in the book where the baby gets brought up again, usually in a sarcastic manner and usually by Finnick. And it was scripted, but it was cut, usually during rehearsals, because we found that when approaching a scene and trying a scene that is scary and where the stakes are life and death, it was hard to work in humor in those moments and maintain any sense of reality. So some of those moments were cut.
FL: There's a very easy reason. We shot the watch, we tried the watch in the cut, and we took it out. Because we don't have the option of having Katniss wonder and doubt the meaning of the watch in the film, it becomes way too clear what the watch means in the movie, and that would have been a mistake.
Just wondering why there was no other mention of 'the baby' during the games. In the books Peeta was suppposed to play up the whole 'star crossed lovers....with a baby'. Other than that, the movie was spot on! Totally impressed!
FL: There's a few moments in the book where the baby gets brought up again, usually in a sarcastic manner and usually by Finnick. And it was scripted, but it was cut, usually during rehearsals, because we found that when approaching a scene and trying a scene that is scary and where the stakes are life and death, it was hard to work in humor in those moments and maintain any sense of reality. So some of those moments were cut.
How has it been working with Ms. Collins, and how has she influenced the movies?
FL: Suzanne is amazing. The source material is the thing that drew me to the projects in the first place. When I got the job, the first thing that I did was fly to New York, initially to sit with her for a couple of hours and pick her brain about the world of the Hunger Games, just to immerse myself in the world as much as possible. But what ended up happening was that we ended up sitting in an office in her publisher's office for three days straight, going through the book and creating a beat-by-beat outline of what we thought the screenplay should be. Nina Jacobson (the producer) would pop in and out, and we would pitch her our ideas, and at the end of those 3 days we gave that outline to the writer, and let him get started.
Big fan of the trilogy. Saw Catching Fire yesterday. My question is do have any plans for the white lizard mutts in Mockingjay yet? Thanks and great job so far.
FL: I do have plans! I do have a design. And I think they're going to be really scary.
Where is district 13 going to be set?
FL: We've already shot 5 weeks inside of District 13. We're shooting most of the movie in Atlanta, and a lot of it is sets.
Why is Mockingjay being split into two parts, if you know?
FL: The decision to split the book into two parts was made before I signed on to do the films, but I liked the idea. Whenever one adapts a 400+ page novel down to a 2 hour-ish movie, there's a lot of loss. By splitting this into two movies, more of the book can be maintained and more world growth can be added, so more surprises for the fans of the book.
Lord Stafford.
1. let's start with the direction: Francis Lawrence is a pure artist !!! i loved almost every little shot of the film (especially the final one
2. the cinematography: dark,atmospheric and trully beautiful
3. the adaption : i was so surprised and impressed with how good this adaption is. one of the best ones ever seriously !!! in my opinion it told the story even better than the book. the spirit of the trilogy and particularly the cf book was so obvious and it was more developed !!! so many emotional scenes i could barely take it.
4. the performances : jen is now my favourite actress period !!! she was destinied to play this role she even helped me understand katniss's character better than colins did (no kidding)
josh was so amazing haymitch was badass johanna so hillarious...and hot....finnick was pretty good and snow was so evil.... in general i loved every single character and the actors really outdid theirselves
5.the effects : way better than the first film !!! the team is to be congratulated they gave us a lovely panem and a very reallistic arena
Only letdowns: it was a bit fast-paced and there was not enough blood as i expected
i'm definately seeing this again i just feel the need to do it !!!
Rating 9/10
"The sun persists in rising so I make myself stand."
Lord Stafford.
http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2013/11/27/updated-photos-from-the-hunger-games-mockingjay-set-contruction-in-griffin-ga/
You... are an excellent critic. Those photoshop skills need work, but as a critic... two thumbs up!
Lord Stafford.
Hope you like it!
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford,
Theres no hope for us
Hope you like it!
Especially after how they barely nominated The Hobbit.