Catching Fire

A couple days ago, I went to see Catching Fire and I'm just going to say it now: this was one of the top ten best movies I have ever seen. Everything from the closeness to the book, the production value, the acting, the style, and the script itself showed meticulous attention to detail. 

Despite the amount of shaky camera action, the first movie was great, especially the acting. Jennifer Lawrence is without a doubt one of the best actors of this generation. After that movie, there was some fear that the second movie wouldn't be able to live up to the first. And after seeing this, I can say that you can throw that fear entirely aside. Catching Fire takes everything that worked with the original and expands on it, while abandoning a few aspects of the first film that didn't work.

The movie begins shortly after the first movie left off. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are back in District 12, now champions from the previous Hunger Games tournament. While the duo professed love to each other for them to survive the games, they are barely speaking to each other now, because of the awkwardness of Katniss' not being genuine. The two are about to be taken away again, this time to tour the different districts as celebrities from their win. But before leaving, Katniss is visited by the cruel President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and is warned that he is seeing straight through her faked affection for Peeta. He recognizes that it was all for show and is concerned that their actions, from the acting to the berry-eating finale of the Hunger Games, might spark an uprising from the Districts. The pair try to convince President Snow, their efforts are futile. Uprisings begin, and a new Hunger Games tournament known as the Quarter Quell begins. It's essentially an all-star tournament and winners from previous tournaments are selected to face off against each other, leaving only one survivor.

One of the greatest aspects of this movie was its closeness to the book. There were several scenes that they directly quoted from the book and the plot followed almost the exact same order. It was clearly very well written and planned out, much more than many movies made from books. But the thing that really makes this movie stand out is the acting. The always excellent Jennifer Lawrence, of course, was flawless as were supporting actors Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Liam Hemsworth. Hemsworth and Banks especially brought out emotional aspects that weren't as displayed in the book and made the characters more realistic and likeable. Despite some trepidation about the casting, Sam Clafin and Jena Malone were fabulous as their roles. Clafin's charisma and charm makes him a perfect Finnick.

Catching Fire works on pretty much every level. Despite its two and a half hour run time, the movie never drags, even though we don't get to the tournament until almost 90 minutes into the film. It perfectly sets up and prefaces what is to come. There isn't a dull moment in this movie (and that's coming from me and my goldfish attention span) and it is highly recommended. Now, we sit and wait with our fingers crossed for the first part of Mockingjay.

~Simone