Review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) by Akash S — 16 Dec 2014

The second part of The Hunger Games series is at a higher level, in terms of production scale as well as the exploration of the themes. It can no longer be called an average interpretation of 'Battle Royale'; character-development-wise as well as politically, this story gives more depth to the entire premise of the 13 slave districts of The Capitol. It is the start of the rebellion.

The acting by everyone involved is as good as the first one, especially our Mockingjay, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) who is the flame of the series, and Josh Hutcherson's Peeta shows interesting shades in this part rather than the injured lovestruck puppy of a character he had in the first part The new list of actors added are interesting, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amanda Plummer, Jeffrey Tambor and Jena Malone.

The event of Hunger Games in this sequel has much more fierce players since it involves winners of past Hunger Games events, so the competition is quite thrilling to watch. But amidst the games, there's something else happening as well (one should watch the movie to find that out) which makes this event more than just the games. Even the arena is more fascinating this time.

Francis Lawrence ('Constantine', 'I Am Legend') takes the baton from the first part's director, Gary Ross, and steers the series in the right direction. His vision works well for the theme.

The ending is thrilling, shocking and inspiring at the same moment. It ends with an intriguing twist, and creates substantial interest for the upcoming parts.