The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Overall rating: 4.5 stars
With a pitch-perfect cast, surprisingly dramatic direction and strong source material at its heart, the second installment in the popular franchise is even better than the first, packing plenty of thrills and a surprisingly hefty emotional wallop.
Let me make myself clear: I've read the books, yes, but I'm not an obsessive fan of the books; I'm not biased in the films favour. Don't scorn the high rating I've given the film: it genuinely is brilliant.
Catching Fire sees Katniss Everdeen return with all the other familiar faces, as well as some new ones. I won't go into too much detail, but the stakes are much higher this year, with old victors returning to the arena, as it's the Quarter Quell, 75 years of the Hunger Games and they celebrate by upping the ante in their sick games. It's similar to the first movie location wise: District 12 - The Capitol - The Arena, but the entire affair feels a lot more defined as a whole. More detail goes into the creations of the districts, more detail goes into the inner workings of Katniss and Peetas bizarre relationship as well as the fantastic Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks getting an awful lot more screen time. In fact, the entire movie gets a lot more screen time. I've seen many criticise the film's length, but I don't see it as an issue. Plenty of movies have been longer this year (we've still got the phenomenally lengthy affair of The Hobbit to come) and I never felt bored by this film, even if it took a bit too long to get into the arena. This could be attributed to the book, which takes far too long to get going.
Catching Fire sees Katniss Everdeen return with all the other familiar faces, as well as some new ones. I won't go into too much detail, but the stakes are much higher this year, with old victors returning to the arena, as it's the Quarter Quell, 75 years of the Hunger Games and they celebrate by upping the ante in their sick games. It's similar to the first movie location wise: District 12 - The Capitol - The Arena, but the entire affair feels a lot more defined as a whole. More detail goes into the creations of the districts, more detail goes into the inner workings of Katniss and Peetas bizarre relationship as well as the fantastic Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks getting an awful lot more screen time. In fact, the entire movie gets a lot more screen time. I've seen many criticise the film's length, but I don't see it as an issue. Plenty of movies have been longer this year (we've still got the phenomenally lengthy affair of The Hobbit to come) and I never felt bored by this film, even if it took a bit too long to get into the arena. This could be attributed to the book, which takes far too long to get going.
I'd like to take a moment to congratulate the casting team for their fantastic work. The actors, both aesthetically and characteristically, resemble the description in the book, with particular credit going to Jennifer Lawrence (as always), Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone and Stanley Tucci. There's nothing Oscar winning there, but it's nice to see strong performances accompany fleshed out characters (not naming any names...). Of course, part of the credit should go to Suzanne Collins for creating these characters in the first place, but equally, Francis Lawrence had a part in bringing them to life on the big screen (sorry for the cliché).It never feels like a bridge between two installments (that's what Mockingjay Part 1 will be) and the change of director is fresh. Gone are the days of Gary Ross's shaky-cam (which I didn't even mind) and Lawrence's heavy breathing. The world is richly realised with real passion going into it. The villains (Donald Sutherland's cryptic President Snow) feel more threatening, the district scenes grittier and the capitol scenes even more surreal.
Many will probably feel that the second installment improves on the first, as I do, and it shows. Katniss is the new Harry, bold, confident and strong, willing to carry the burden some daren't bear. Bring on the next part.
Tick tock Katniss Everdeen, tick tock.
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