Friday, November 22, 2013

Movie Review: Hunger Games: Catching Fire

More than two years ago I saw the first trailer for the original movie and thought, this seems interesting.  While I never understood the hype around star Jennifer Lawrence, less so after seeing Silver Linings Playbook, the story had a great draw to it.  In a bleak world, Katniss lives in District 12, a place that is known for coal and little else.  The world had been ravaged after a failed attempt to overthrow the reigning powers and each year the Districts must offer up two kids to play in a last man standing battle, to the death.  As luck would have it, on Katniss’ little sisters first attempt, her name is chosen, with nothing else to do, Katniss volunteers to replace her.  Wackiness ensues.  Seriously though, the fight in the arena and on the way to are more stirring because of Lawrence’s prefect timing and annoying lead character.  Katniss thinks she is making all the right calls, and while she does the ‘right’ thing most of the time, it isn’t always the ‘smart’ thing.

In the sequel, the story picks up where we left off and Katniss and her companion victor Peeta are being sucked back into the intrigues of the world when they are forced to go to the Games a second time.  Unbeknownst to Katniss, as in the book, more is occurring than she is aware of and she does her best to sabotage her own best efforts without realizing it.

I want to steer clear of spoilers if I can.  I will say this, from what I recall, the movie seemed very true to what the book had written.  For me, this is when I want to get off of this ride, but I don’t.  I didn’t care for how Suzanne Collins wrote the second or third books and find myself wondering if Hollywood will change any of it given the tone.  I may be in the minority, but the books made me hate Katniss more and more, instead of less and less.  The acting was pretty spot on throughout and the story stayed true to the source, for good or for ill, you decide.

1 comment:

  1. Not as good as the first, but still a worthy addition to a franchise that seems like it's on the brink of breaking some mighty fine box-office records. Good review Hina.

    ReplyDelete