The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (review)

Director- Francis Lawrence
Running time- 146 minutes

A sublime and worthy sequel, with a superb performance by the leading lady

The Hunger Games was a surprising film because the hype justified the high praise, I myself gave it a score of 4.5 out of 5. The highest I have ever awarded any film that I have reviewed.

Catching Fire while following very similar plot narrative to the first, for me is deeper and it has a certain cutting edge compared with the first.

A year after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) go on a victory tour of all the twelve districts of Panem. Now that they are both surviving members of the games they bring hope to the people of all the districts, which brings about the beginnings of an uprising. To destroy the image of Katniss, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) enacts the Quarter Quell, a Hunger Games that involves all living winners of the previous games.

With a bigger budget it looks and feels much bigger for it, and thankfully not for one minute does this make it overblown. I liked the fact that the training scenes are a lot more detailed, and the later action scenes at the end of the film are a lot more frantic compared with the first.

While the first film was about the Hunger Games within itself, this one is more to do with the greater ramifications of the games, and the affects it has on Panem. We are shown more of the world in which the Hunger Games are set in, and the way in which they function. And the social implications these have in the world of Panem, and will have in future sequels.

With the build up to the games taking up a little more than half of the film, the final part is centred on the games themselves. While the violence may have been toned down a little compared with the first, the map in which it is set in is far more imaginative, requiring the contestants to work closer with one another until the end. And to add to the intensity it isn't only other contestants that the characters have to kill to survive.

For all of its greatness the centre of the film shines through from an impeccable performance from the lead, Jennifer Lawrence, in the first she was a girl who put herself in a cruel situation to save her sister, in this one she comes across as more mature and fearless, unable to come to terms with the cruelty of the world she lives in. The character of Katniss Everdeen has become her own

The only slight let down is the abrupt ending, it doesn't really conclude but just acts as a lead up to 'Mockingjay', the next sequel in the series, which will now be split into two parts. I would have also liked a bit more screen time to do with the uprising, which seems to only play a bit part role in the background. But I'm guessing that this will be resolved in the sequels.

5/5- Unmissable