Review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) by Jameson K — 17 Dec 2014

Smart, Grittier, More intense, thrilling and exhilarating than its predecessor The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a major improvement over its predecessor and it is the best in The Hunger Games films. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire takes place after the events of the first film where Katniss Everdeen and her fellow tribute Peeta Mellark return home from the 74th Annual Hunger Games.

But soon President Snow is planning to destroy all the people they love as every district is about to start a rebellion against the Capitol. President Snow now announces the 75th Annual Hunger Games which leads Katniss and Peeta to survive again the Hunger Games as the two are chosen to join the games again.

I love this movie and in my opinion it is way better than the first film and I would say that this is one of 2013's best films to date and it is also the best in The Hunger Games films even though I still need to read the book.

One of the best things about The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is that the film is extremely different in terms of its tone, themes and execution and when I said that this film is a major improvement over the first Hunger Games I seriously mean it because this movie managed to do something unexpected that the first one didn't have.

If the first one is a dark, gritty, intense and brutal survival film. Then the second one is darker, more serious, more mature, grittier and smarter than the first one because the tones and themes this time are a lot more complicated than the first one.

One of the film's highlights is that the pacing is even better than in the first one. I like how the movie starts out with a dramatic flow and it goes into a suspenceful and intense direction on the next half until the shocking climax.

The other highlights of this film is that the movie never gets boring and if you picture Francis Lawrence's smooth directing along with the smart political subtext, the myths being expanded in The Hunger Games universe and the performances of the casts along with a lot of unexpected plot twists and turns and of course intense dialogue and combine them into one movie, you get a very dark, political and gritty film that raises the bar for not only fans of Suzanne Collins' outstanding books but also for film goers, film critics and of course Young Adult adaptation buffs and that is what this movie did.

The other highlights of this film is that the movie has loads of scenes that are full of unexpected plot twists and turns, extremely suspenceful, more intense and thrilling sequences than in the first Hunger Games (The brutal and intense whip torture of Gale, The dramatic opening scene, The execution of the old man in District 11, The poison fog sequence, The suspenceful and thrilling Monkey scene, the crazy spinning island sequence and the shocking and intense climax of the film) plus the arena is one of the film's best settings.

I love the way the arena looks like in the film and the design of it is just marvelous and gorgeous and I love that the arena is like a clock like when it reaches 12:00 lightning strikes, then when it starts to reach the next hours it goes into a crazier direction like the poison fog or the monkey attack scene.

But one of the true main highlights of this film is James Newton Howard's score which is even better than what he composed for the first film and also the performances of the casts. Speaking of the casts all of the actors and actresses did an amazing job with their performances in the film both the old and new ones.

Jennifer Lawrence managed to exceed her performance in the film as the lovely protagonist Katniss Everdeen and I love her performance and bewildered look in the last part of the film which will start the events of Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2 the same can be said to Josh Hutcherson as the amazing Peeta Mellark, Donald Sutherland delivers a darker, more complex and sinister performance as President Snow in this film than its predecessor.

Woody Harrelson is still fun to watch as the hilarious drunk and mentor Haymitch the same can be said to Elizabeth Banks as the funny Effie Trinket, even Stanley Tucci is better with his performance as the comical Caesar Flickerman.

From the newcomers Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best in the new comers and he delivers a much more memorable performance than in his early films I also love that in the first half of the film people think he's the bad guy at first until in the climax we get to discover that he's another person part of the rebellion against President Snow and not a Capitol member.

I even enjoy also Sam Claflin's performance as Finnick Odair even Jena Malone's performance as Johanna Mason is amazing and I love that she shows her aggressive side in this film when she portrayed the character of Johanna Mason.

Director Francis Lawrence did an amazing job with his work on this film and he even did a better job than Gary Ross and I love that he didn't use any shaky cam within the scenes in the arena and his directing is so smooth, smart and outstanding as well and the movie looks more polished than the original all thanks to Francis Lawrence along with screenwriters Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt and Michael DeBruyn they created a film that is enriched and very organic at the same time.

Overall The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a major improvement over the original that will entertain anyone either fans of the books or film goers and film critics like me. This movie gets an 11/10 this film rocks and it is way better than the original.