Catching Fire review: No Winners, Only Survivors
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire exploded onto the big screen with a Thursday night release to sold-out audience everywhere. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Catching Fire made more than 161 million dollars according to Entertainment Weekly. While the movie is filled with big name actors, expensive special effects, and eccentric costumes, Catching Fire captures attentive audiences everywhere with something much simpler, a great story. Much like the second book in the series by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire leaves very few places to catch your breath.
Unlike many movies these days, the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire does not incorporate the use of 3D imaging. Over the past few years, this eye popping technology has been used increasingly for world building, not just a cheesy gimmick to scare the audience as we saw in 1980’s horror movies. With the dystopian settings of the 12 Districts and the sharp juxtaposition of the obscenely wealthy Capitol, an argument could easily have been made in favor of using the 3D technology to immerse the audience into the two societies. However, unlike past blockbuster hits Catching Fire successfully chose not to use 3D. Instead, the sequel successfully relies upon the story and characters to captivate the audience.
Highlights of Catching Fire definitely include a deeper look into the Capitol, and how jaded the residents inside the gilded walls are. Particularly, on the last stop of the train tour which leads Katniss and Peeta to a lavish party at the Capitol, they come face to face with the obscenely excessive lifestyle of the residents, while so many people in the Districts starve every day. With the huge divide between the have and have nots, we also begin to see the rebellion begin to gather and form as the victors make their way throughout each district.
The movie also captures the post-traumatic stress on the victors that follows winning the games. While it was not as fully portrayed as it was in the book, the resonating emotions and images seared into the memories of Katniss and Peeta are revealed. As verbalized by Haymitch, no one truly wins the Hunger Games, they just survive, which is deeply rooted throughout the story in many ways.
If you have read the book you might be tempted to draw comparisons between the page and screen. It’s only natural to do when you first fall in love with the original source material. However, due to the tight time restraints of a motion picture, not everything made the final cut, not even when that movie runs for nearly two and a half hours. Other details were tweaked from the original story line, but that did not compromise the integrity of the story.
However, while everything may not have translated to the movie, they certainly hit on most of the major points connecting the storyline together. Arguably just as important, many of the smaller details have also been incorporated. It is these details that endear the supporting characters to our hearts. It is also because of these smaller scenes that we begin to form relationships with characters outside of the main three victors of District 12, and root for their survival.
It’s not uncommon for audiences to be skeptical when a book has been announced to be made into a movie. There are so many places it can stumble along the way and lose those things we love so much about the story and characters. However, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire translates from page to screen beautifully. The development of the supporting characters was extremely successful, shifting the main emphasis off of Katniss and Peeta. Following the trend past literary works have set including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows as well as Twilight Breaking Dawn, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay is destined to be made into two separate movies. They are slated to be released in November 2014 and November 2015. Furthermore, it was announced earlier this month Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence will be directing the last two movies in the series, which will surely contribute to the continued success of the series.
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November 27 2013