Catching Fire: Movie Review

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

It's not often when a movie, in many ways, is actually better then the book.  The movie is Catching Fire, the followup to the wildly successful Hunger Games, based on the books by Suzanne Collins.

This movie starts off soon after the end of The Hunger Games, with Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, dealing with the emotional trauma of The Truman like death Show, where she was pitted against 23 other teenagers in a fight to stay alive, trying to become the lone victor.  Due to her cunning wits she manages to not only survive but save fellow competitor Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) in the process.  This act, threatening to eat poisoned barriers, was not seen so much as an act of love, but as an act of rebellion, and this rebellion is spreading like wild fire through the 12 districts.  A fire sparked by the girl known as the Girl on Fire.  She is, without wanting, the rebellions leader.  Her life is once again in danger as President Snow (Donald Sutherland) keeps a manipulative, controlling eye on her.

We see the districts, the struggle, the lavish Capitol, a more challenging Hunger Games.

Everything in the first movie is improved upon in the second.  What was wrong in the first has been righted, and director Francis Lawrence is to thank for that.

The annoying, shaky hand held camera used in the first movie has been replaced.  That was my biggest complaint in Hunger Games.  The shakiness, though I understand the symbolism Gary Ross was going for, had so much movement the movie became unwatchable.

Thanks to a smoother camera I was able to enjoy the performance of the actors.  Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely breathtaking and gripping as Katniss, completely in tune with her character.  You feel the horror right along with her as she opens the door and lets you in.  She shines.

Another fault I had with the first movie that was repaired in the second was the portrayal of the Capitol.  In the books the Capitol is over-the-top crazy, died skin and wigs, fashion and indulgence all the rage.  They tried to pull that off in The Hunger Games, mainly reflecting that through the character Effie (Elizabeth Banks), but in Catching Fire we see it with the extras as well, though Effie Trinket is still the Queen.

Catching Fire is smart and sophisticated.  Comparing the movies to Twilight is an insult.  The love triangles are not about a listless girl with her vampire and werewolf.  Katniss has substance.  She stands for and is something.  And the love triangle she finds herself in is intelligent and interesting, not selfesh.  She's a girl on the verge of changing the world, and love was never meant to be easy or simplistic.

I've seen this movie twice now, each time I was enthralled through the whole 146 minutes.  You don't feel the time pass.  No scene fills like an add in or throw away.  Everything is calculated and perfectly timed.  What's changed from the book adds to the story instead of takes away.  And the added scenes between Snow and the new game maker Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are fascinating, adding even more tension to the film.

And there's a lot of tension in this movie.  I cried both times.   

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language.