Hunger games: a post peak oil movie

[careinke]

I saw the movie yesterday and enjoyed it. Like Avatar, I think it is best watched on a big screen. I may actually go watch it again on IMAX. For all of you Nitpicking the reality of the premise, let me remind you it is FICTION. That is what FICTION does, suspends reality, to tell a good story. It is a good story.

For those of you who don't like fiction as a genre, you can always go back to watching the Bachelor, or Biggest Loser, or even Dancing with the Stars. Who am I to judge what you believe is entertainment.

[Pretorian]

I wonder though, will the popcorn eating masses "get it?"

Does it matter?

[Revi]

Here in Maine we live in a bit of a resource based economy. The big companies own all the land and most of us work for them or try to eke a living on the margins of society. My wife said when she saw the Hunger Games that it wasn't that different from reality.

[rangerone314]

The energy-nerd in me finds the level of technology posessed by the capitol to be just a little far fetched considering their energy base seems to consist entirely of the dregs of Appalachian coal. I'm with Beery on the quality of the writing, but that's what I was expecting from a pulp page turner aimed at young adults.

I think the population is supposed to be greatly reduced? I think before one battle in the books they got 800 people out of District 12 before it got bombed and I think that was supposed to be 10% of that district.

They probably use coal-to-liquids technology to get vehicle fuel.

[The Practician]

I think the population is supposed to be greatly reduced? I think before one battle in the books they got 800 people out of District 12 before it got bombed and I think that was supposed to be 10% of that district.

They probably use coal-to-liquids technology to get vehicle fuel.

(bold mine)


Yeah, Exactly. I'm not buying the idea of a technotopian capitol with invisible hover crafts, skyscrapers, and high speed rail, supported by a population of only about 100 000, or even ten times that number, Fischer-Tropsch or not.

For the record this is just nerding out for it's own sake, not a serious criticism of the book.

[Revi]

It's an old story. The people who fight our wars are increasingly from the "districts". A lot of people sign up in the Philippines and other colonies to fight and die for the empire. How is that different from people fighting it out in an arena for the capitol's amusement. We live in a world not too different from that presented in the Hunger Games.

[davep]

I watched it last night. It was better than I expected for a teen film.

But as mentioned above, how do the people in the shiny capital live so well without value add industries? Where's the ipod and other gadget zone?

[Repent]

We live in a world not too different from that presented in the Hunger Games.

This is what struck a chord with me seeing the film. This isn't fiction, this is our world right now. The advanced first world using technology to supress and dominate everyone else.

I won't be surprised when the occupy movement starts using the 3 fingers held high in the air as a show of solidarity and revulsion at the powers that be. If enough people see this film the 1% is going down!

[DomusAlbion]

I downloaded a sample of the Kindle edition of the first book. I found the writing mediocre at best and the world view so simplistic that I decided that reading the full book is not worth my time or the $5 to pay for the full download.

Excusing this rather low level of writing by saying that there were critics of Dickens' writing in his time is a completely false comparison. Dickens was a master of the English language and he knew how to write to both inform and entertain. Collins' writing is flat, simple and two-dimensional and geared to less than an eighth grade comprehension level. Bah Humbug!

Having said that, I will probably still rent the DVD when it comes out.

[pstarr]

Those cops in the white starched uniforms looked an awful lot like Imperial Storm Troopers?



Have the forces of Evi-el finally prevailed?

Looks like a stupid movie. I'm going to John Carter 3D instead.

[rangerone314]

Meh. Only movies I'm going to for sure are Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, and Total Recall.

[pstarr]

Meh. Only movies I'm going to for sure are Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, and Total Recall.

Ridley Scott and Charlize Theron is a freakishly hot combination. I remember Total Recall is an old Schwartzenberggger/Sharon Stone hotness flick. I believe it came from a Phillip Dick novel? I hate anything to do with the Batman Franchise.

[rangerone314]

Said the heck with it, and took my teenager to see "Hunger Games"; good movie & we both liked it.

[careinke]

Said the heck with it, and took my teenager to see "Hunger Games"; good movie & we both liked it.

Gotta like a person not afraid to change his mind.

[Cog]

I read the three book Hunger Game series a while back and then watched the movie with my daughter. I was not impressed with the movie. I much preferred the dystopian movies of The Road and the Book of Eli.

[SeaGypsy]

As far as prophetic vision goes, the concept of lateral warfare, never ending geurilla warfare; anti state skirmish after transit attack after infrastructure disruption/ these are much more likely to be dominant preoccupations in a post collapse world. Folks making a damn nuisance of themselves, a never ending pain in the behind and cause for lack of sleep. Yeah, you can hunt them like pigs using stealth drones, even in your own country, legally. But realistically how many? Ever watched the history of Laos? We all heard about Vietnam, but Laos was the US first full blown sustained air bombing campaign with not a boot on the ground. Every attempt was made to obliterate the human population over a 9 month period. It didn't work. In a post cheap energy, cheap airflight, explosives and high tech operating sytems, metals, capable individuals to lead the necessary micro civilizations needing to emerge... It still won't work. The world is not somebody's oyster, it is a vast macrocosm of life, capable of regenerating to an unbelievable extent, given time and lack of interference. There are always limits to control and compromises must be made by those wanting loyalty from their subjects. Writing truly solid prophetic vision would be a sure money spinner industry to get into, were there one...

[SeaGypsy]

A bone dry desert for all but 6 of the last hundred years, the entire Diamantina Basin is flooding, for an unprecedented 3rd year running. There are untold millions of breeding birds, a huge recovery for many species struggling for space and food to breed for decades since the last big floods in the mid 1980's. Nature is awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsoy6PrkX9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3StZkIixzU
(my point is that, you get down anywhere near those numbers of people across such vast areas, next nice 3 breeding cycles, you are having roast pelican or Swan or pig or crocodile, every night, until it's time to follow the rain, or for a general climate base die off.) The world is not the yuppies farm post oil, it is more like a feralized, hybridized wilderness capable of well screwing us up. As in all of us. Also capable of easily sustaining a lot more of us than the sort of numbers aluded to)

[Pretorian]

I've read about 100 pages of the first book, the story is ok, but I thought it was written for foreign kids that try to learn English. I guess nothing else can be sold to a modern reader. I liked the movie though.

[Serial_Worrier]

Oh I'd definitely be an elite in the Capitol watching the grubby Districteers dying in the arena for my amusement!!!!