2012’s The Hunger Games was a bold adaptation to tackle for YA audiences, one that paid off narratively but stumbled technically due to the heavy handed shaky-cam work. 2013’s Catching Fire tackles the technical issues head on with a larger production value and a new director, but also raises the stakes significantly from what we saw in the first film to flesh out the world of Panem in significant and meaningful ways. It is in almost every sense the perfect sequel.
Picking up a few months after the end of the first film. Katniss and Peeta live in an area of District 12 build for victors of the games, the only other inhabitant that lives there is Haymitch understandably. Katniss and Gale are wanting to pursue a relationship together, however Katniss is unsure how to do so as she must keep up the image of her & Peeta as an item for the media. Gale is also not exactly keen on sharing the woman he loves with another man and as a result tensions grow between them.
Katniss & Peeta have barely spoken to each other since the games. Peeta is grateful to Katniss for saving his life but is angry that she made him believe that she was in love with him and has ghosted him ever since. When the time rolls around to gear up for the 75th Hunger Games, President Snow visits Katniss and informs her that he is well aware of the fact that she doesn’t love Peeta but she must continue that narrative for the camera or he will have the people Katniss cares about killed. Katniss & Peeta’s defiance to kill each other at the end of the previous games has in some Districts begun rumbling of an uprising against The Captiol, and so Katniss must do everything in her power to make The Captiol look like the good guys in the hops of squashing a rebellion before it ever gets a chance to start.
The 75th Hunger Games bring with them a new ruleset, as is the tradition every 25 years, and this time those entering the arena will be chosen from the existing pool of victors. This means that Katniss & Peeta must enter the arena again to fight for their lives, but this time they will be fighting against other winners.
That’s about as much as I can give away without spoiling the excellent narrative twists that Catching Fire pulls off but rest assured that this is by no means a re-tread of the first film. Whilst it shares the same basic structure of handling the build-up to the games and then entering the games themselves, it is a much more dialogue heavy affair with significantly more big players involved. It culminates in a series of reveals that expertly pull of one hell of a cliffhanger ending and elevate the film to a completely different league to the original and even its sequels.
Where The Hunger Games largely dealt with the idea of killing children for entertainment, and to keep people in line. Catching Fire deals much more with the politics of a broken society. The events that transpired in the previous film left a sour taste in the mouths of many of the Districts as they became awoken to the poisonous nature of the games. Now seeing many of their favourite victors whom they have grown attached to over the years being brought back for the slaughter, and all of whom are angry, upset, and try to stop the event from going ahead. It only stokes the fires of rebellion even further and it’s fantastic watching how the situation is handled by both the victors, and those responsible for ensuring the games go ahead.
Picking up a few months after the end of the first film. Katniss and Peeta live in an area of District 12 build for victors of the games, the only other inhabitant that lives there is Haymitch understandably. Katniss and Gale are wanting to pursue a relationship together, however Katniss is unsure how to do so as she must keep up the image of her & Peeta as an item for the media. Gale is also not exactly keen on sharing the woman he loves with another man and as a result tensions grow between them.
Katniss & Peeta have barely spoken to each other since the games. Peeta is grateful to Katniss for saving his life but is angry that she made him believe that she was in love with him and has ghosted him ever since. When the time rolls around to gear up for the 75th Hunger Games, President Snow visits Katniss and informs her that he is well aware of the fact that she doesn’t love Peeta but she must continue that narrative for the camera or he will have the people Katniss cares about killed. Katniss & Peeta’s defiance to kill each other at the end of the previous games has in some Districts begun rumbling of an uprising against The Captiol, and so Katniss must do everything in her power to make The Captiol look like the good guys in the hops of squashing a rebellion before it ever gets a chance to start.
The 75th Hunger Games bring with them a new ruleset, as is the tradition every 25 years, and this time those entering the arena will be chosen from the existing pool of victors. This means that Katniss & Peeta must enter the arena again to fight for their lives, but this time they will be fighting against other winners.
That’s about as much as I can give away without spoiling the excellent narrative twists that Catching Fire pulls off but rest assured that this is by no means a re-tread of the first film. Whilst it shares the same basic structure of handling the build-up to the games and then entering the games themselves, it is a much more dialogue heavy affair with significantly more big players involved. It culminates in a series of reveals that expertly pull of one hell of a cliffhanger ending and elevate the film to a completely different league to the original and even its sequels.
Where The Hunger Games largely dealt with the idea of killing children for entertainment, and to keep people in line. Catching Fire deals much more with the politics of a broken society. The events that transpired in the previous film left a sour taste in the mouths of many of the Districts as they became awoken to the poisonous nature of the games. Now seeing many of their favourite victors whom they have grown attached to over the years being brought back for the slaughter, and all of whom are angry, upset, and try to stop the event from going ahead. It only stokes the fires of rebellion even further and it’s fantastic watching how the situation is handled by both the victors, and those responsible for ensuring the games go ahead.
Jennifer Lawrence & Josh Hutcherson return as Katniss & Peeta, and both provide much better and consistent performances this time around. Katniss is dealing with PTSD after her time in the games and the consequences of her actions in that arena weigh heavy on her character. Peeta begins the film as a man scorned by the woman he loves, the only person who understood him, but grows into a man who will do anything to have her survive the arena knowing that they will not both survive this time around.
Gale, played by Liam Hemsworth, had a relatively small role in the first film but is fleshed out much more in this one. Whilst Hemsworth’s performance isn’t necessarily bad, the character of Gale is downright awful. For a character that supposedly has Katniss’ best interests at heart and loves her, a character we are supposed to root for, he gaslights her so much and I feel like the script is undecided as to whether it wants the audience to root for the guy or hate him.
Sam Claflin has a pretty big role in the film as a tribute from another district, Finnick Odair, and he does a pretty great job of playing a charismatic and cocky know-it-all on the surface, whilst also providing this air of being unsure whether to trust him and a tortured past.
The show stealers yet again though are Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks as Caesar Flickerman and Effie Trinket respectively. Tucci’s character doesn’t really change a lot from the first film, but he arguably has some of the best scenes in Catching Fire. The shift in tone from smiley TV presenter who is eager to show off all the new tributes to the world, to a much more sombre and sorrowful character is interesting and he pulls it off extremely well whilst not losing the heart of the character.
Banks’ character Effie undergoes a significant character arc in Catching Fire though. Due to Katniss & Peeta being her first survivors of the games, she has grown quite attached to them and them to her in the months following the games. She is excited to continue working with them over the years that will follow, and then they are called back to the arena. It is here that she realises that nobody really wins these games and how cruel they actually are. So, despite still being the bubbly personality on the District 12 team, she is much more complex this time around as she is now not going to lose some bratty kid she doesn’t know or understand, but instead she will lose two of her closest friends. She sees the error in her ways for so many years and will do what she can to atone for those mistakes.
The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman also does an excellent job as the new ‘Gamemaker’ Plutarch Heavensbee. There’s not much I can say about him without ruining his characters intentions, but he manages to tiptoe the line between villain and just untrustworthy very nicely.
The film is shot so much better too. New director Francis Ross ditches the frantic shaky-cam style of the first film for a stable and more traditional camera with better choreographed fight sequences to compensate for actually being able to see the action this time. The fights are less brutal than in the first film as a result, but it’s a small price to pay for an overall massive improvement.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is an all-round improvement over the already impressive first film. Almost everything is better, and the things that aren’t have been sacrificed in order to make other areas of the film better (e.g. less brutal fight scenes for better cinematography). Catching Fire is one of the best YA film adaptations around and it is well worth checking out if you haven’t already.
Gale, played by Liam Hemsworth, had a relatively small role in the first film but is fleshed out much more in this one. Whilst Hemsworth’s performance isn’t necessarily bad, the character of Gale is downright awful. For a character that supposedly has Katniss’ best interests at heart and loves her, a character we are supposed to root for, he gaslights her so much and I feel like the script is undecided as to whether it wants the audience to root for the guy or hate him.
Sam Claflin has a pretty big role in the film as a tribute from another district, Finnick Odair, and he does a pretty great job of playing a charismatic and cocky know-it-all on the surface, whilst also providing this air of being unsure whether to trust him and a tortured past.
The show stealers yet again though are Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks as Caesar Flickerman and Effie Trinket respectively. Tucci’s character doesn’t really change a lot from the first film, but he arguably has some of the best scenes in Catching Fire. The shift in tone from smiley TV presenter who is eager to show off all the new tributes to the world, to a much more sombre and sorrowful character is interesting and he pulls it off extremely well whilst not losing the heart of the character.
Banks’ character Effie undergoes a significant character arc in Catching Fire though. Due to Katniss & Peeta being her first survivors of the games, she has grown quite attached to them and them to her in the months following the games. She is excited to continue working with them over the years that will follow, and then they are called back to the arena. It is here that she realises that nobody really wins these games and how cruel they actually are. So, despite still being the bubbly personality on the District 12 team, she is much more complex this time around as she is now not going to lose some bratty kid she doesn’t know or understand, but instead she will lose two of her closest friends. She sees the error in her ways for so many years and will do what she can to atone for those mistakes.
The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman also does an excellent job as the new ‘Gamemaker’ Plutarch Heavensbee. There’s not much I can say about him without ruining his characters intentions, but he manages to tiptoe the line between villain and just untrustworthy very nicely.
The film is shot so much better too. New director Francis Ross ditches the frantic shaky-cam style of the first film for a stable and more traditional camera with better choreographed fight sequences to compensate for actually being able to see the action this time. The fights are less brutal than in the first film as a result, but it’s a small price to pay for an overall massive improvement.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is an all-round improvement over the already impressive first film. Almost everything is better, and the things that aren’t have been sacrificed in order to make other areas of the film better (e.g. less brutal fight scenes for better cinematography). Catching Fire is one of the best YA film adaptations around and it is well worth checking out if you haven’t already.