‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Review
The Young Adult novel and movie genre has been overrunning Hollywood ever since Twilight. However, most other YA movies have failed as franchise builders, while the Twilight series was mocked and scorned by most outside its fandom. Perhaps the only YA film to make big bucks and get respect from audiences and critics was The Hunger Games – yet Catching Fire is where the series actually begins to show its teeth.
Winning the 74’th annual Hunger Games, and pretending to be star crossed lovers, has turned Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark into symbols. For the oppressed people across the 12 districts of Panem, Katniss has become a symbol of hope – yet President Snow and new game maker Plutarch Heavensbee seek to co-op her image to quell the seeds of rebellion. For the sake of her family and her actual quasi-boyfriend Gale, Katniss has no choice but to obey, although she cannot keep up appearances for long. This leads the Capitol to put Katniss, Peeta and 22 other past victors back in the arena for the 75’th annual Hunger Games – but even that may not control the spark lit by the Girl On Fire.
The original Hunger Games became the biggest franchise launcher since Twilight , on the strength of its much darker saga and its tougher heroine. With an acclaimed director in Gary Ross, and a star in Jennifer Lawrence that would soon take over the pop culture world, it gave the series the legitimacy Twilight struggled to achieve. However, the actual movie was hampered by Ross’s shaky-cam action and by being a mere origin story.
It takes another Lawrence, albeit a less acclaimed one, to help Catching Fire go deeper. Francis Lawrence was a step down from Ross on paper, with Constantine, I Am Legend and Water for Elephants on his resume. But from the first wide angle shot of the District 12 woods, Lawrence expands the scope and scale of this world in a way that Ross couldn’t, or wasn’t able to. Other than that, the best thing Lawrence can do is stay focused and let the other Lawrence, Suzanne Collins’ story, and Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt’s adaptation take it from there.
Catching Fire may test some viewers patience, since the actual Hunger Games don’t start until 90 minutes in. Yet while the slow, deliberate pace isn’t action packed, it is racked with tension as the weight of Panem and Katniss’s unrest grows stronger. When even fashionista Effie starts struggling to put on a happy face, and a Caesar Flickerman TV special is subject to unrest, one knows things are really spinning out of control now.
Most sequels these days assume that bigger will be better and call it a day. While Catching Fire is certainly bigger and eventually better, it isn’t due to more CGI or larger explosions. In a way, it is the textbook case of what a sequel should be, even if it’s not always four-star material.
Catching Fire expands the landscape built upon in the original and makes it come to greater life, deepens the stakes for the world and its main character, gives the action a more substantial impact, and sets the stage for greater fireworks to come. These are all the best things a sequel and a middle chapter of a saga can do, and The Hunger Games is lucky to have that in its favor.
All of the undercooked and half-formed elements of the original pay off in the sequel, or at least most of them do. As for the elements that did work last time, director Lawrence keeps them humming and working on a deeper level. And when it comes to the Hunger Games themselves, Lawrence uses his action chops to make them land much harder than the original. While the violence may remain sanitized from the books, Catching Fire still uses the likes of poison smoke, monkeys, birds and natural elements to make Katniss’s battles more physically and psychologically brutal.
Katniss herself is the major drawing power of this series, and not just due to Jennifer Lawrence’s drawing power. Just as Katniss is a symbol for various forces in Panem, she has become a symbol for how women can lead blockbusters and do more than fall in love. Yet even in Catching Fire, Katniss is more of a traumatized pawn than a full fledged rebel, with her path manipulated in ways even she doesn’t realize until it’s too late.
Nevertheless, Katniss is a true hero because she’s more of an ordinary girl than a warrior – her extraordinary archery and protection skills aside. She is hardly out to lead a revolution or be a rebel at all, as she just wants to avoid any further risk to her loved ones. Yet when push comes to shove time and again, Katniss still instinctively leaps forward with acts of compassion and defiance – the same impulse that made her volunteer for the Hunger Games in her sister’s place to begin with. And while she may not fully embrace being a rebel force yet, two climactic scenes show that her transformation is truly close at hand – if not already here.
With Katniss struggling to cope and contain herself, it puts her at odds with what we’ve associated from Jennifer Lawrence lately. Since the last Hunger Games, Lawrence has become one of the biggest forces of nature in the business, thanks to all her interviews and her work with David O. Russell. But while it’s harder to picture a repressed Lawrence these days, she can still captivate and excel even while holding back all 1,000 watts of her personality. In fact, her raw, haunted emotional moments make Katniss’s displays of strength resonate even more – especially in the final minutes.
Despite its differences from other YA series, the Hunger Games saga still partly revolves around a love triangle. The original poked some fun at that trend, with Katniss and Peeta faking an epic young love, but Catching Fire inches towards more serious steps. Yet like in the original, Josh Hutcherson gets most of the good stuff as the gentle yet resourceful Peeta, while Liam Hemsworth is again lost in the shuffle as the more rebellious Gale. Ironically, Katniss seems to set off more sparks – albeit antagonistic ones – with cocky tribute Finnick at times.
An added strength of Catching Fire, and the Hunger Games portion of the film, is a wider variety of memorable competitors and allies in the arena. As Finnick, Sam Claflin thankfully shows far more charisma than in Pirates 4 and Snow White and the Huntsman. Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Plummer are live wires in their own right, although Lynn Cohen also stands out as the Games’ oldest tribute without a word.
There’s also a big upgrade in game maker, as Wes Bentley and his crazy beard are replaced by Philip Seymour Hoffman. His crafty schemes and tests balance out the more blunt force, icy tyranny of Donald Sutherland’s aptly named President Snow. But amidst all the upgrades, there’s still room for the usual scenery chewing from Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks as well.
The Hunger Games movie got the ball rolling for the series, yet Catching Fire exploits its full potential. By the time the final scene is finished, audiences should be more than ready to fast forward to 2014 and the revolution to come. Of course, this leaves aside how the now two-part finale of Mockingjay is being stretched out into 2015, and how not every Hunger Games reader considered the book a grand finale.
Still, the last image of Catching Fire may make outsiders too impatient to avoid reading ahead. Whether Collins made the book version of the ending pay off or not, the two Lawrences have racked up enough house money to earn some trust with the two movie finales.
