I took my son to see The Hunger Games this weekend. I will start that I have not read the books. My son is a huge fan of the novels and has been waiting on this to come out.

We went to a Saturday, late morning showing (movie was scheduled to start at 11:15). We pre-paid for our tickets and got to the theater about 10:15 expecting parking or other line issues. The first showing was for 10:15 so we were hoping to get in between the rush. When we got there, there was no line and hardly anyone there. We picked up our tickets and made our way to the theater with no rush. We were not the first ones in the theater, but we were able to pick just about where ever we wanted to sit.

Anyhow, the previews start and they start with the TV show stuff. Nothing new here until they get to the "behind the scenes" for "That B* in Apt. 23". I ask myself "is this really appropriate for a kids movie? As the preview continues, the answer to that is no, no, and hell no. The language is questionable, the content is not appropriate, and the nudity (for a few min there was one of the main characters running around topless but blurred) really had me questioning if we were in the correct theater. There was one scene were one of the main girls set up her 20-something roommate with her dad. She comes into their apartment with them practically screwing on the couch, the roommate is wearing a skirt sitting on his lap grinding on him as the main character enters the scene, then the main character says "hi dad" and starts talking to them. Really, before a kids' movie. Yes it was PG-13 but the book are for the pre-teen to teen age group. My daughter (she is 15) went to the movie the night before with her friends and I asked her about the previews. She said that she thought the B* preview was totally not appropriate.

I won't start on "Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter" here. I am looking forward to seeing Snow White and the Huntsman.

Again, I know I am at a disadvantage because I have not read the books. Maybe they will go in more detail later. But can we please get away from the non-focused shake-camera scenes that last several moments. I understand that the character is running through the woods. I hope that character can see better than what is presented on the screen because there is no way a person can run seeing their surroundings like that. Now when they do it once, ok, twice is too much, so over and over again resulted in me having a headache.

Trying not to have any spoilers so I am going to use the tag

Again, I didn't think the move was OMGBEST MOVE EVAH! It wasn't horrible either. I guess I liked it better when it was "The Running Man"

The books aren't especially good, but they have a broad appeal in the current "everything is a franchise" climate. The movie is a relatively faithful adaptation, toned down significantly for a PG-13 rating, and it cuts out a lot of the crap that makes the books not especially good. So the movie is fine. It's nothing great, and I certainly won't defend the way it tells the story or its existence, but it accomplishes its goal of adapting a popular book that isn't that good to begin with in a way that is accessible to people like me, who don't particularly care for the young adult novel of the moment.

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Me and Topher tend not to go to the movies much, but every friend of ours has stated its worth seeing in the theatres.

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It's a decent, relatively engaging story, with zero subtlety. It's written for teenagers, and does an adequate job of capturing a dystopian society where the author can make her commentary with fairly broad strokes.

The movie mainly just leaves out a lot of details. It's alright.

I'd planned on seeing it, but it's not likely that I'll actually get out to the theater. Chelsea has no interest, and I don't go to movies by myself.

Abraham Lincoln- Vampire Hunter sounds like the movie to pwn all other movies!

Meh. Last time I went to watch a Vampire Killer movie on purpose, I got to watch a vapid cheerleader playing a vapid cheerleader get out-acted by Pee-Wee Herman.