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The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire

3.5 Waffles!

Chapter 2 picks up not too long after Chapter 1 has ended. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is back home in District 12 getting ready to hit the road with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) for a massive publicity tour, but President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is trying to reestablish some sort of control over the new heroine of the people.

Since Katniss’s performance at The Hunger Games, revolution is in the air and people in other districts are rebelling against the rich and powerful who inhabit The Capitol, so Snow has made it clear to Katniss that everyone and everything she loves is in danger if she doesn’t play ball. Of course, it’s pretty difficult for her to keep her true feelings hidden, and, as violence is breaking out all over Panem, Snow decides to call for a new kind of Hunger Games to prove resistance is futile.

An All Star edition of sorts has been organized, and new game master, Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), has a plan to kill off Katniss once and for all.

Check out my interview with Willow Shields (Primrose Everdeen) on DC50tv.com

The strength of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire lies in the action and story outside of the games. Led by the novel by Suzanne Collins, director Francis Lawrence and writers Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt dive head first into the political and revolutionary intrigue of Panem with fantastic results.

The Hunger Games was about the brutality of the games and establishing the resolution and cunning of Katniss, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is about putting those skills to real world use as Katniss and her team of supporters face intrigue, rebellion and danger beyond anything they might be able to overcome.

That danger is on so many levels you can’t close your eyes for a moment. The audience is enraptured as Katniss has to worry about her own personal safety, that of her family, the future of her home and, not in an overexaggeration, she has to worry about all of Panem. This is big stuff we’re dealing with here!

Luckily, we have Lawrence on hand to bring it all to the screen. She has to show the conflict within Katniss as she knows the fight will have to continue, but she would rather run away with her loverboy Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and leave all of this responsibility and danger behind. She helps add to the feeling Katniss is a reluctant symbol who wants and reminisces over a more simple life and time.

Plus, Lawrence is fantastic as we see the emotional damage The Hunger Games has wrought on her and the immense fear and resentment she faces when it looks like she has to go back in there and do it all again. The actress brings so many shades and textures to her acting in every scene that you can’t imagine any other actress her age could even come close to achieving this kind of brilliance.

The rest of the cast also joins in on that theme of shame and the haunting the victors feel as we meet other Hunger Games “winners.” Woody Harrelson, Jeffrey Wright and Jena Malone help their characters embody that mixed emotion they feel for achieving greatness and comfort based on the atrocities they committed, which makes the ultimate reaction from all of the victors make so much sense as the movie progresses to the new games and conclusion of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

And, you have to love the addition of Sam Clafin as the cocky competitor Finnick, who embodies the perfect attitude of a vain winner. Yet, without giving too much away, you better appreciate Clafin as the character becomes so much more throughout the movie. He’s a very welcome addition to the team.

Then, I can’t ignore the great performance by Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket. The most cotton candy, vapid character in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire starts to see her entire world for what it really is, and Banks so shockingly and amazingly transforms Effie’s heart and soul. Through this character, the audience gets to see how the hearts and minds of Panem are being changed as the thrill and romance of The Hunger Games is all gone, and the brutality is first and foremost on their minds, especially the sadness.

Sadly, the big love triangle is the weakest aspect of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Which boy she wants to kiss becomes a trivial question in the face of everything else happening in the world, and director Lawrence can’t dedicate the kind of time and resources needed to make it more important or reveal the deeper complexities and conflicts emerging in Katniss when it comes to her feelings for these two guys.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is everything you need a good movie to be, and you will walk out wanting more after that fantastic climax and final scene.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language.