Review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) by Doctor S — 19 Sep 2014

The structure is exactly the same as the first movie: a wilderness scene between Katniss and Gale, a reaping, a train ride, hobnobbing in the capitol, sugarcoated televised interviews, training, and finally the Games themselves. While the over-familiarity cannot be ignored, I enjoyed this sequel more because the actual Games are much more exciting and includes a wrinkle element of "who do you trust?" We meet fewer of the contestants but they are more interesting, like Nuts and Volts the brainy pair of past champions. The story is stronger as seeds of rebellion are being sown, but as the source material novels are basically kids' stuff, the political element plays out like Insurrection For Idiots. As in the first movie plot points that seem important are dropped (e.g. Katniss' initial meeting with new gamesmaster Plutarch never develops further), and the reasoning for keeping her in the dark doesn't make ANY sense, especially in light that she nearly kills herself several times!

I realize I'm probably expecting too much from an adaptation of teen fiction, but the lack of complexity is what keeps me from really celebrating THG: CF as more than escapist fare. I really like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss (although she's asked to go into histrionics too often this time) and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, plus both the opening & closing shots and those burning dresses are pretty cool. Adding a star to each of my ratings would be an accurate adjustment for fans of the books .