I’m getting rich avoiding all these movies

I really like her commentary. Very straightforward.

Truth be told most movies in the last 15 years has relied heavily on cgi over acting. And now audiences want to see better acting and dialog.

There are probably a whole lot of mothers right now after seeing movie reviews for the last few years are thinking, I told my son not to become a movie director, be a dentist instead. But did he listen?

I've had the argument with several YA fans over the years that the character development and relationships in the HG novels was not well written and that the best part was the action and political intrigue. I think people take the romantic parts they have in their head and insert them into the writing. Good analysis!

I did not expect the titular snakes to play such a pivotal role in this movie. Now it makes sense why the title is so long.

We appreciate how well you've articulated your own insights. We will support you no matter what.

Saw it last night, couldn’t care less about any of these characters.

Happy Friday Alachia. Have you seen the trailer for Imaginary? If so what are your thoughts?

No movie couple will ever match the cringe chemistry of Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman in "Clone Wars." If this film can rival that awkwardness, I might see it out of pure curiousity.

I'd love your take on Netflix's Blue Eye Samurai. Imagine of Kill Bill and Ninja Scroll (classic Manga) had a baby together.

I'll check Alachia's channel before going to watch another of these very long movies, just to save hours of my life that would be wasted otherwise.

"When Coriolanus Snow transforms into Eminem..." - LOL! So accurate🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I hunger for more new Alachia Queen reviews. I can't get enough.😊

Worth mentioning Suzanne Collins is also very good at stealing properties from other writers and creators (i.e. Battle Royale) and then pretending she had no idea they existed. That in itself is quite an art.

You are great and I like your reviews. This one seemed like you would have rather been cleaning out all the drains in the house instead of talking about this movie. What a trooper you are Pew Pew

I really liked the booked. But, agree there was no chemistry between Lucy and Snow. And I also really didn't like Lucy Gray didn't find her charming or particularly nice. Unlike, Katniss who you do route for from the start. The games just felt really awful, horrible and pointless. Left the cinema so disappointed. Even the one super tragic death near the end (don't want to spoil,) didn't really affect me that much. I thought I'd cry but it was done in such a fast way. I was like ohhh okay.

You are the third reviewer I have watched and you opinions are so divergent from the others. They said the chemistry was good. And that it was just the third act that was underwhelming. I don't know what to make of this because I really love this world and I want to get back into it so bad. I will watch it to make my own mind honestly.

I haven't hit play yet, about to watch your review. I've been loving your unfiltered, sometimes hilarious takes.

This sounds so much like Fantastic Beasts. An attempt to revive a completed franchise with a prequel with less interesting characters and plot. I liked the Hunger Games, but I never had the desire to know what happened before the first movie. A question authors should ask themselves is "Is this the most interesting part of your character's life? If not, you should be writing about the part that is." This is why most prequels are a waste of time. If this prequel time period was the most interesting, the author would have started with it. There's also less tension because we know how the world will eventually end up. I wish franchises would quit making prequels. Thanks for the review I probably won't watch this even when it comes to streaming.

Good review. I've never actually seen any Hunger Games movie. I've always meant to get around to it some day. But, if I do, I'll start at the beginning. That puts this one on the backburner, for at least 20 years (there are alot of Hunger Games films).

I understand so many things have romance and love triangles now-a days that we just expect that to happen in whatever we’re watching but there was never supposed to be an actual romance between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray as in the book they are both using each other to get ahead and any chemistry they have is supposed to be fake, especially Coriolanus. Like him “Taking every situation and making the best opportunity for himself” in your words, is literally one of his main character traits in the book. He never actually loved Lucy Gray, he just wanted to get ahead no matter what it took. It’s not supposed to be this whole love story like it was with Peeta and Katniss in the original trilogy. He sent his best friend to the noose so he wouldn’t get caught for crying out loud. (I feel it also makes sense for Coriolanus to have more chemistry with Tigris because, even though he also eventually ends up using her as a way to get ahead, he’s also known her his entire life and they helped each other during the dark days of the war whereas he only knew Lucy Gray for a very short period of time. And you can’t expect Lucky Flickermans hosting to be as entertaining and captivating as Caesar Flickermans as this is the first time they’ve hosted the games and they’re still working so many things out whereas in the original trilogy the games and hosting are fully and completely fleshed out. Also your not liking the games in this movie being gross and barbaric…it’s children being forced to kill each other…it’s supposed to be uncomfortable?? Personally I feel like this was the danger of having the prequel after the original trilogy because people are now comparing the flashiness and hi-techness and whatnot of the original trilogy to the prequel where things are not flashy or hi tech or fleshed out in terms of the games. I feel it would’ve been better had Susanne Collins come up with the idea for the prequel before the original trilogy.

Couldn't wait for this review!

So, the IP was vacant to begin with?

Great review Alachia! Saved me another $25! Thank you!

Hey, Alachia! I wasn't into the Hunger Games when their popularity was at a fever pitch since it seemed a "Battle Royale" knock-off to me but I was intrigued by the world that was hinted at. I wanted more detail on the conflict that created that society, on the science that created the creatures, on the different districts of Panem and on the world beyond Panem. What was the state of international affairs? Were other nations aspiring to Panem's decadence or opposed to the Games? Were the Games internationally broadcast? Having not read the books, I have no idea if any of this was explored in their pages. The various possibilities you proposed for the star-crossed relationship at the core of this movie all sound much more fascinating than what the film apparently delivers. There is a Tuber called Prism who extensively rewrote the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy restricting himself almost entirely to the elements from the screenplays save for two Expanded Universe concessions. It's presented with AI backgrounds in voiceover called "What If Episodes VII, VIII and IX Were Awesome?". Personally, I think he spun gold from straw but I would love to hear the Alachia perspective on all three of them. Please consider.

Its crazy how hot the YA dystopian film adaptation got hot and fizzled out so fast. HG easily being the best one.

my fav review. Love when you take a movie apart and saying how bad it is

lol Now I can explain why I read the whole Harry Potter series and stopped cold book 1 of Hunger Games. Rowling > Collins.

If people want to tell these stories, start from the beginning. Very few people have made "prequels" work.

Not many prequels that do well.

So there are reasons to avoid this movie besides Rachel Zegler in general?

I always thought it was a shame that the Hunger Games series wasn’t four books. The third should have been Katniss having to mentor two young ppl from district 12 the next year and having to navigate the world of the capital and failing. Then the fourth could have been the finale. Oh well. Thanks for the review!👍🙃

your reviews are very convincing. you got a new sub. greetings from germany.

Thank you for saving my Christmas cash.

I love how you sound completely exhausted and irritated that you have to give these reviews. Crazy brilliant!

Thank you 🙏 You are the only person I've seen say what seems crystal clear about this film. Liked and subscribed 💜

How come I know each of these movies is shit before the review even comes out. Artefact of the last few years.

I didn't like this movie either but did enjoy the book and think it deserved a better adaptation. However I think the HGpart SHOULD be uncomfortable, ever more than they were in the movie and they shouldn't have made Coral a murderous bully like Cato. They should have kept as much complexity as possible. I think the story is not "how Snow became evil" but at it's core about why people like Coryo see such a need for control of people or else caos will ensue and what that mindset will lead to.

The answer to your question is...... no.

Kinda missing your nerdy backdrop with toys. But yeah, my 14 yo daughter who read the 3st trilogy books and watched the 4.movies is not interested, like at all!!

I agree with your assertion that this movie was just a way of telling the masses there is more book material to put on screen. Without that, there is no purpose for this movie. Also, I never got the impression that he fell in love with Lucy Grey. Every step he took was a calculated move for his own interests. Although I've never read the book, I have been told that Lucy Grey's disappearance in the woods was just as ambiguous as in the book. After seeing the movie, I felt this was an odd choice and should have been more understandable since this and other events facilitate his "descent into evil".

It was okay but it's not necessary

“Not charming or noble, a performer, snarky, not compassionate” Sounds like Zegler’s playing herself. Good review. If there’s no spectacle or nobility or value in death, it’s just YA torture porn

You people keep thinking you're supposed to enjoy films. When will you learn?

So based on that description did Rachel Ziegler get a script that said "Just be you" ?

Rachel was so good in West Side Story…never liked Hunger Games, especially the shaky cam action scenes where the camera is trying to do all the acting… Thanks for the review!

I found the Hunger Games series (films) were a complete & utter waste of time.

Check out the Thanksgiving from Eli Roth

Thanks alachia

It's shocking this franchise exists. What letter grade would you give the original Hunger Games? I'd say it's a C+.

The trailers seemed to make the movie out to be just a focus on Rachel Zieglers journey through the original Hunger Games and the other characters are sidelined to her and are there to help her. I just knew from the trailer when the arena was inside kind of a metal roof soccer stadium and how it all in all looked cheaply throw together confirmed in my head that I did not need to see this movie to understand why the hunger games even existed or the origins of the main bad guy President Snow. Just seemed like a overall cash grab or like you said, just something to remind people The Hunger Games is a thing that still exists.

The evolving story of Alachia having different backgrounds is more interesting than the Hunger Games

This book is just bad. So if the movie is just like that book I’m not shocked by your feelings on it

Rachel zegler doesnt have chemistry with other characters

The plot was idiotic even in battle royal where it was done better

You articulated everything I felt watching this. It just didnt work. They were checking boxes instead of making something interesting I felt. Like they re-did Rue's death 😅and I just laughed because it meant nothing. It was derivative but also like it was trying to be the First Hunger Games film. My scores is 5.9, Blythe carried the film and yes he had more chemistry with his cousin than ... Hannah Montana 😅

It’s seems like you don’t really like anything. This might be my 4th review and sheesh. It’s not perfect but it was entertaining. Why would Lucy be Katniss when we have 4 movies of that. The juxtaposition of where the first movie was with training the tributes and how scaled down it was in the beginning was jarring. This unlike the other movies was about making the capitol the bad guy. Viola’s character as game master made it clear she didn’t care about either. That was chilling. Lucy is why snow is so mean. That was clear by the end as well.

November 2023 movies without men

The Hunger Ganes Is Back

Surprised you haven't reviewed PREY yet given that you did for the Predator.

I think this was such an amazing film. The book is amazing and this film is an amazing adaptation. I basically disagree with everything you have said. The actors had amazing chemistry, characters were great, and I love Lucy gray. The games were amazing and I felt really interested in the story. I dont think I can watch anymore of your reviews after this, just such bad takes. sorry

Alachia, thanks for sucking on the lemon so we don't have to.👍

LoL.. " Not a lot there" lol.

This like the Star Wars PREQUELS. Did we need it? No. It’s stupid and begins the process of diluting the STAR WARS brand. The original trilogy stands on its own. As with this film, it only exists because WB gave the author a big check that necessitated payment in kind 😀 That’s why we have this film.

I'm sorry but as I have said before aside from the actual games and whatever flimsy romance is presented this series has a point. That point is that this a post nuclear war totalitarian society, admittedly with elements of the somewhat superior Battle Royale. Ruled by elitists who have in alot of ways reverted the world if not what once was America back to the time of ancient Rome, specifically when it comes to things like the games. Who have embraced Nazi (Weimer Republic) era symbolism and obviously government. Ruling the lower classes through a combination of intimidation and pacification through the promise of an annual bloodsport in which children fight to the death. It's a society that obviously after such a dramatic event as the the nuclear holocaust forms most likely because the ruling class has erased history pre war at least Manipulating the peasants into thinking their system of scarcity and brutality is the only way to survive. Also let's face it if our Tik Tok and social media culture along with seemingly bibilical prophecies coming true. As well as just a lack of common sense, appreciation of merit and even logic in actual reality is appearing to fade from this generations consciousness is not an indication that Hunger Games may be Collins way of trying to give us a cautionary tale! Of a possible very bleak future! We'll like I said, the point of this universe is lost on alot of, young adults and probably young women like Alachia it's biggest fan base and that's very unfortunate. The budding teen romance aspect is secondary if not further on the backburner! Also in addition to Zegler kind of turning me off with the Snow White comments and Dinklage complaining about dwarf actors being exploited too! This whole 8 Mile/Eminem comparison thing with Tom Blythe/Cornelius is one of the reasons now I'll wait to see the movie. I hate that whole connection, don't get it and also despise that bandwagon jumping TDS suffering, highly overrated asshole, bad actor/rapper. Its a shame that talented kid playing Snow is reminding people of the putz. So many other movies and stories could have been used in comparison to Snow's rise to power/prominence then the that horrible 8 Mile piece of garbage.

Your mention of this movie essentially being "uncomfortable violence for the sake of it" is why I haven't even bothered to watch the new Hunger Games movie. And especially after what's been happening in Israel with all the violence there, I refuse to watch such brutal, realistic violence depicted on screen. I know the real world Middle East events aren't related to the Hunger Games movie. My point is there's been enough violence in the world (especially as of lately), and I don't need to see that in escapism.

Respectfully disagree. But you made your points very well.

I usually agree with your reviews, but I feel like with this movie you just didn’t really get it. The fact you don’t even know the main character’s name is kind of telling. Coriolanus, not Cornelius. The whole point of the “love story” angle between Coriolanus and Lucy is that Coriolanus doesn’t actually see Lucy as a person. He sees her as a means to his ends of uplifting his family’s status. It’s telling by the way he speaks to her throughout the movie especially trying to command her as an object towards the end. And on the point you made of the “children dying being meaningless and valueless” that is ALSO the point- the bloodshed is senseless and disgusting, it’s supposed to be gross and barbaric. For the “rooting for the kids” this movie literally works to establish why people in the Capitol need a reason to care about them- the kids are being objectified because they are from the districts. Lucky is the relative of Caesar, but I feel like it’s unfair to expect Lucky to be as much of a spectacle and personality as Caesar when we can literally see that this is the first year they’ve ever had an announcer for the games; Lucky himself is uncomfortable and just doing his job that he is likely being forced to do. We also can see with his character his passion isn’t even in reporting, it’s in doing magic tricks. I feel like this was kind of an unfair review

The Hunger Games did not catch my interest when the first movie came out, so I did not see it or the sequels, now, years later, a prequel? The premise and the experience sound awful now. I wish there were more stand-alone movies these days. The word. "franchise", makes me think of fast-food chain restaurants, and I wish the film industry would give us better fare than that.

Ruining a good villain, a novel written with greed in mind to only suck the last drop of green in that franchise; to become a soulless flick for the sake of mindless melodrama.

I feel like these "stories" will only accelerate the use of AI for storytelling, sadly... The one time i used chat GPT i asked it to write me a story in the vein of "Alice in Wonderland" using Robert Greene's concept of "The Shadow"... it wasn't perfect, but it took a second or two, and it sure as hell was far better than most thing that get made into movies nowadays as part of "franchises"... And this isn't me defending AI, but calling out human creators in privileged positions where their half baked ideas get millions of $ thrown at, to end up becoming forgettable movies... I feel people cannot write characters smarter than themselves... Old writers had more life experiences on average, some had been to wars, big social and cultural shifts, came from hardships we couldn't even begin to imagine... I feel a lot of current creative endeavors are helmed by "hipsters" with comfy lives and their biggest struggles are that "someone called them a bad word on twitter". Then again this Collins lady is no child, and i would lie if i said i've have the chance (or interest) to read any of her books, so i don't know how much is her fault, and how much gets lost in translation from the books to the films, but most franchises just feel shallow, and stale nowadays. Maybe we just have an oversaturation of franchise based films... Anyways, I ramble...

Coriolanus*

Subtitles please 🙏

when you said, opportunistic people are just opportunistic, you were so so close in understanding in which mindset tbosas was created 😅 i feel like you probably lack a certain political context and thg attachment that's why you were in it for the spectacle and the romance when it's really not all that along 😅

This movie was boring😂

HAUNT >>> Hunger Games

Remember that Rachel Zegler's goal isn't about romance or romantized to movie audiences. Its more of being superior over male gender counterparts, evidently soooooooo! 😂

This is like every movie the last 5 yrs is shot out of focus, grey/brown, desaturated, ugly, colorless, depressing, with brash, tactless, unlikeable women chars and weak, pathetic male chars. They please no one. In fact, movies now seem to be made *purposefully* to make us angry, demoralize us, and destroy society. Time to stop watching. What else can we do? The *whole industry* is on board with this agenda. They are *all* like this now. No pt watching *any* of them.

Is Chris Stuckman becoming woke or a sellout because he said Rachel Zegler and the other guy did well in this film. Other reviewers said that the chemistry was poor as well.

I disagree and think you missed out on many unique themes. These hunger games needed to be "boring". To point out the flash and pomp of the later games is just fluff around the rotten core of the hunger games: children killing children. If you think there needs to be more to "the show" than that...yikes. If you are watching the Hunger Games franchise for the hunger games competition...yikes. That is the main point of the entire series. It also provided an opportunity for Coriolanus to rise to power through his ideas on how to "improve" the hunger games, setting up how on earth this deranged competition managed to continue for 75 years. Why have yet another star-crossed lovers story-line? Coriolanus was always using Lucy, even when he was banished to District 12. I think it is smart and unique to show a relationship where it appears to be love or trauma bonding, but it is really just Coriolanus trying to manipulate every situation to his benefit. It might help people identify the snakes in their life. It is also a contrast to Katniss' and Peeta's relationship later where they ask each other "real or fake" and why Coriolanus knew Katniss was acting about their romance early in the series. I don't think there needs to be someone you "root for" in a villain origin story, though I was rooting for Lucy to, as the Dean put it, "survive Snow". It was interesting to see some discussion on "nature vs nurture" and choice with Coriolanus' character. There were hints of humanity and innocence that disappeared by the end of the movie, but were still colored by Coriolanus' self-interest, making the audience wonder "real or fake"? And Lucy made it very clear in the woods that despite Coriolanus growing up in a dog-eat-dog world (experiencing starvation and witnessing cannibalism as a child, a classmate stealing his work then being attacked somewhere she should have been safe, the Dean being against him for no apparent reason at the time), he had the choice to "stand on the right side" and not always act in self-interest.

Finally an Honest Review!! Waste of my money, horrible movie.

I don’t think we saw the same movie cause it was a great one lol

... but what about for the intellectually shallow audience, they'll love this film, right? Character development is for ppl w empathy, intuition, and genuine curiosity about other's perspectives and motives. And who makes movies created for ppl like that anymore? Smh

I'm sorry but Viola Davis is severely overrated as an actress.

Movie was trash.....damn the fans of this what are they on to call this good

This review is weird, weird

As an old time fan of the Japanese legacy of BattleRoyal I never liked hunger games as its a 3rd rate denigrated n plagurized sopping job that pales in comparsion to Koushin Takami's classic novel and Kinji Fukusaku's original movie adaptation which had plenty raw & brutal well choreographed action, method acting, emotional depth of fear, loss, greed, anger, revenge, love, joy and hope and a lot of hard morality dilemmas. What I loved about the original 2001 movie is how the director improved on the Teacher's character cus in the original novel he was just a one dimensional evil pos, but in the movie he was given a humanity conveyed through the unforgettable performance of the magnanimous film actor Beat Takeshi. In fact the female actress who played cool girl Chigusa got Quentin Tarantino's attention when searching for a young actress who could play Yoyo in Kill Bill Volume 1. Even the second film which at the time was considered 2nd rate to the 1st was mega tonne better than hunger games could ever wish to be in this life time.

We most certainly needed this. Stay mad.