Review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) by Shari F — 29 Nov 2014

For a project so heavily inspired (ahem) by better material, this franchise does an amazing job of introducing whole new questions and then failing to answer them. Why is everyone so concerned about building alliances in a last-man-standing fight to the death? Why does the film persist with the grafted on allegories of reality TV and manufactured celebrity when they stick out like dog's balls? And why, oh why, are people stupid enough to watch this shit? Some of the action in the second half kind of satisfies (thought it inspires "huh?" more than once), Jennifer Lawrence continues to be as stoic as ever, and the closest thing the film has to a bright point - Jena Malone's performance -is curtailed in the most unsatisfying way possible.

Watching this is probably preferable to taking part in your own involuntary televised bloodsports, but there are times you'll start to doubt that.