Matthew’s ProFan Review: The Hunger Games - Catching Fire
Hey, ProFans! I’m here with a review of Catching Fire, the much anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games. Catching Fire stars Liam Hemsworth; Donald Southerland; Woody Harrelson; Josh Hutcherson; and America’s sweetheart, Jennifer Lawrance. With the returning cast is Philip Seymour Hoffman as the new Game Maker.
The movie picks up a short time after Katniss returns from the Games. She’s hunting with Gale, trying to ease back into a normal life as best as she can. But when she takes aim at a turkey and lets an arrow fly she sees the career tribute she took down back in the arena. The psychological scars run deep. To make things worse Katniss is in the thick of a love triangle with Gale and Peeta, with her igniting the spark of a revolution, when all she wanted was to survive.
This movie is similar to the first in that it does a great job in cutting out a lot of the unnecessary narrative a.k.a bullshit. We know the score; we know what’s going on, what happened in the last movie. While lacking Katniss’ narrative from the books, the scenes with President Snow and Plutarch Heavensby more than make up for it. What I enjoyed from this movie is how much darker it got. And that’s what makes it stand out from the first. All the tributes that sacrificed it all find themselves back in the thick of it. To say I enjoyed it is an understatement. But there is one major detail that was pointed out to me after the shock and awe was done.
No highlight reel for the tributes from the previous games. They had that in the book and why it was a bummer not to have it was we don’t get to see how Haymitch won the year that he was in the games. I’m hoping we’ll get to see that on the Blu-Ray/DVD combo as a deleted scene or its own featurette. Smaller detractions from this film included the feeling of it being rushed; almost like they were just trying to get to the games and get to the end.
I recommend seeing it. The acting is better, the action gripping, and at risk of sounding like a psychopath, a fun time. This movie’s pros outweigh the slight cons, but it’s expected when you make a movie out of a book series.
