Review: Catching Fire (film)
By Christine Petralia





Image courtesy of Lionsgate
November 24, 2013
I call it the Twilight curse. The first films adapted from young adult novels are usually bad, but the directors, screenwriters and actors nail it by the second film. This is the case with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Not only did it not skip important parts, as the first did, it didn’t sidetrack with storylines not in the book. And the CG was much better, so that makes it 10 times better by default.
The film picks up where the first left off, as does the book. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) have moved into the Victors Village and are about to embark on the Victory Tour. Katniss is torn between her weird love for Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and her place as a victor and Peeta’s ‘lover.’ A day before the tour starts, Katniss is visited by President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who informs her that he’s basically on to her little scam with Peeta. He tells her that she better keep up the charade, as riots are starting around the other districts. He fears a full-on rebellion is in the near-future because of her behavior in the Hunger Games.
Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Effie (Elizabeth Banks) join Peeta and Katniss on the tour to guide them, as they did during the Games. However, in District 11, Katniss and Peeta go off script, causing a small disruption and Katniss realizes just how much people are looking to them to ‘change’ something. In an effort to smooth things over, Peeta proposes to Katniss during the tour.
Once they get to the capital, they are disgusted with how rich everything is there and the whole idea of the capital in general. Katniss also meets the new game master, Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
Snow, not really falling for anything Katniss has done and still fearing a rebellion, discusses ways to keep order with Heavensbee. At first, they send Peace Keepers into District 12, shutting down the markets and instituting a curfew. Gale tries to intervene with some of the Keepers actions and gets lashed in the town’s square. Acting on emotion, Katniss stops the lashing and the commander threatens to kill her. Both Haymitch and Peeta come to the rescue, which of course displeases Snow.
Snow and Heavensbee come up with the ultimate plan to get ‘rid’ of Katniss. Since it’s the 75th annual Hunger Games, a quarter quell, Snow announces that at the Reaping this year, only male and female victors will be chosen for the Games. Of course, no one is happy about this and during the interviews with the chosen ones, all of the victors try to convince the capital to cancel the games. Even Peeta joins in and makes an announcement that Katniss is pregnant. Doesn’t work.
During the brief training, Haymitch urges the pair to make allies with the other tributes. Once the games begin, which center around a saltwater lake and forest, they make allies with Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Maggs (Lynn Cohen) from District 4. Later on, they also pair up with Johanna (Jenna Malone) from District 7, as well as Wiress (Amanda Plummer) and Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) from District 3. While in the forest, the tributes are forced to deal with killer apes, poisonous gas, tidal waves, raining blood, as well as each other. When Wiress starts mumbling ‘tick tock,’ Katniss realizes that every hour they are faced with a new obstacle. At midnight and noon, lightning strikes a tree in the forest.
Soon, Beetee comes up with a plan to kill the other tributes by running wire from the tree to the beach to electrocute them. While Peeta and Katniss go along with the plan, they do fear what will happen when the allies are left standing. However, it doesn’t get to that point, as during the execution of the plan, the wire breaks and the group is separated. Johanna knocks Katniss out and slices her before running off. When she comes to, Katniss runs back to the tree before the lightning strikes. Just as it does, she wraps the wire around her arrow and shoots it into the sky, which is actually just a dome around the arena. It breaks the dome and the walls come crumbling down. A hovercraft comes and rescues Katniss from the destroyed arena.
When she comes to, she overhears Finnick, Haymitch and Heavensbee discussing what happened. Haymitch explains how it was a plan all along and all the tributes were in on it, some sacrificing themselves. They inform her that Johanna and Peeta, though, were captured by the capital. Haymitch gives her a sedative and when she comes to again, Gale informs her that there is a full on rebellion and they are seeking refuge in the once desolate District 13.
I really enjoyed this film. I was hesitant at first to see it, as I really didn’t like the first one. But I had faith that my favorite book in the series would translate better on screen. Not only did the film touch upon each of the scenes from the book, but it played out exactly how I imagined. I thought the acting was better. You could really feel for the tributes when they are chosen once again to head into the Games. You can see the emotions flowing through them.
While I thought it was slightly long, I did think it was necessary to really build up the storyline. This book really sets up the rest of the series and book three, where it’s all about Katniss. I also really liked the foreshadowing throughout the film about what was the come. The one thing I didn’t like was the Twilight-esque ending with Katniss just staring into the camera. This was exactly how the third Twlight film ended when Bella became a vamp. Oh well, as I mentioned, at least it stuck to the book. I hope that Mockingjay is just as good, even though they are splitting it into two films.
Katniss, Peeta and other teens fight to the death for their districts in this first installment of The Hunger Games trilogy.
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