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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Review
Friday 22nd November 2013 | Lauren
I was initially very reluctant to read The Hunger Games series. Too many people had compared it to Twilight, and I simply wasn’t going to let myself go through all that again. But, after bowing to peer pressure, I bought the first book and was hooked. I hadn’t read something in such a long time where I literally lost hours of my day without realising, just because I was so engrossed (and it's nothing like Twilight). So I am aware that I might not be the most impartial person to review The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and although I really like the first film of the franchise, there were some things that they needed to improve on (it all felt a bit rushed I’d say). Oh have they improved them for Catching Fire! There was a sequence where I honestly don’t think I took a breath for at least two whole minutes.
The film once again opens up with Katniss hunting in the woods, only this time she’s scarred by flashbacks to the first games. This film is certainly crueler than the first - we see the real destruction that the Capitol has let run through the 12 districts, and what the real cost of ‘winning’ The Hunger Games actually is. Rebellion and resistance against the Capitol is running through the districts and something must be done to keep this pesky uprising squashed down. So what should be done but create a special Hunger Games, with all the contestants as the previous victors? Great in theory - but it doesn’t seem to sit well with the districts, the residents of the Capitol, or (surprisingly) the victors.
Compared to the first film this one explains itself much better - you don’t have to have read the books to fully understand what is going on (which may be why it’s nearly two and a half hours long). Jennifer Lawrence manages to make Katniss much more likable this time round, (although maybe I am just saying this so she’ll be my best friend...) and we get to see much more from the characters - what they’ll do to survive, what they have done and what escaping from The Hunger Games with their lives has cost them.
Although the film is not without its faults - certain plot points are mentioned, and then swiftly forgotten - but this is definitely the film of the moment to see.
Lauren Floodgate (@lmfloodgate)
