***WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Title: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Directed By: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin
This movie is the second installment in The Hunger Games trilogy, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson.
It is set, obviously, after the first movie and deals with the trials Katniss and Peeta face now that the games are over. Be that dealing with the fact that it is now painfully obvious that Katniss has little to no actual romantic feelings for Peeta or trying to keep the President from brutally murdering their families (who elected that guy?), it was all rather interesting to watch.
The first Hunger Games movie exceeded my expectations by actually being good and featuring brutal violence not because it looked cool or because the directors and producers thought people would like it, but because it was realistic. The tone of that movie was dark, bleak, and overall, horrifying. I mean, what kind of people would allow this sort of tragedy -- what was Europe doing about all this or Asia? Did they even exist anymore, and if so, why weren't they trying to stop this atrocity known as The Hunger Games from taking place?
The tone in this movie was more sickly sweet and upbeat simply because Katniss had already won the Games once before. Sure, she was now suffering through a mild case of PTSD (not a laughing matter, I know) and an incredibly awkward, somewhat forced love triangle because of it, but she had survived. A good portion of this movie revolved around Katniss awkwardly posing as Peeta's girlfriend who had saved his life in the last Games, while always thinking of Gale in the back of her mind (mostly). Not only that but I could literally feel how arrogant Katniss had become since the last Games, even in the face of the Quarter Quell. I suppose it was a good thing that that arrogance only permeated the atmosphere of the movie during the Quarter Quell, but still, I had thought she was a smarter character than that and smart characters do not, IMO, get wrapped up in their own arrogance.
Setting the romantic drama aside, I have to say that the story was definitely more interesting this time around. There were a lot of unexpected twists that I did not see coming because I didn't read the books (tried to, but couldn't -- sorry, Hunger Games fans). The obstacles and enemies the characters faced in this movie were a lot more interesting than last time around, though some of the obstacles were a lot less realistic, but, hey, they get points for trying. I think my favorite battle scene would be the one involving the mandrills. Always knew I was right to be afraid of those things. So I would also that the writing was pretty decent for this movie.
The special effects in this movie were amazing. There is no point in trying to deny that the movie makers did an excellent job with that, and the costumes and make were quite good as well. They were less costumey, and over the top this time around, and more high fashion, but in a way that I could see the clothes the characters wore actually existing in real life. Which they probably do. I imagine Katniss's white dress or a dress similar to it will be selling out everywhere as summer approaches.
I felt like there wasn't a whole lot of character development in this movie. At least not from Katniss or any of the main characters. I actually felt like Effie and Haymitch went through more character developement than anyone else in the movie.
Overall, though, I'm going to have to give this movie a six out of ten simply because I did not enjoy this movie as much as the last one for a number of reasons: The forced love triangle, the fact that this movie was less about rebelling against a tyrannical government and more about just surviving. I also did not enjoy the fact that the violence in this movie was toned down a lot and that the movie less realistic, less believable for me because there is simply going to be violence in a situation like the Hunger Games or the Quarter Quell, and it will be brutal. And the directors and producers, I feel like, they tried to ignore that fact and it did not work well for this movie.
The last thing I did not enjoy about this movie was that Katniss felt, to me, a lot more arrogant than she had been in the last movie and this isn't me attacking a strong, independent, confident heroine. I'm actually a humanitarian and I have no problem with strong heroines. I just feel like one must be confident in order to be arrogant and sometimes those things are one and the same. I feel like that was the situation for Katniss during the Quarter Quell, for whatever reason. Probably just because she's young and stupid, but it is my interpretation of her personality during that time of the movie and I, personally, did not enjoy it.
I did, however, enjoy seeing Effie and Haymitch grow as characters, and learning more about Katniss's sister, Primrose. I also enjoyed the costumes and the special effects more, but above all I did actually love the story because of all the plot twists and such. It was really, really enjoyable.
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