Did I see the same movie as everyone else?
Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie. Especially compared to the first Hunger Games, which I wasn't a huge fan of. Who thought the shaky cam was a good idea? And does anyone else just see Mystique from X-Men when they see Lawrence? Honestly, that's all I can see when I look at her. I keep thinking to myself, "Why is Mystique in the Hunger Games?" But I digress. The fact is, I don't consider Catching Fire to be an earth shattering movie. Let's get to the details.
The Good
I thought it could never happen, but it did. A movie was better than the book it was based on. My hats off to everyone involved on this accomplishment. Now to be completely fair, the book it was based on wasn't anything great and was easily the weakest of The Hunger Games trilogy in my opinion. Still, it's always impressive to see a movie surpass its source material.
The movie also stayed very loyal to the book, and many of the scenes played out exactly as I pictured them in my head. Notably, the District 11 scene on the Victory Tour and Joanna's strip scene in the elevator were both very true to form and very powerful. Powerful in different ways, but powerful none the less. Also, the actual arena itself was exactly how I pictured it from the novel, unlike the arena in the original movie.
Of course, the acting in this movie was spot on. We knew from the previous installment that Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Effie, Haymitch and President Snow were all perfectly portrayed by their respective actors. And the new additions didn't disappoint. Finnick and Joanna were especially on point. Also how hilarious was the Caesar Flickerman segment? That might have been the highlight of the movie for me.
And there was no shaky cam!
The Bad
I understand that Madge isn't a character in the movies and she doesn't necessarily need to be. But in order to make up for her absence, they needed to come up with a way for Katniss to find out about the uprisings in the districts. So what they decide to do is have the peacekeepers constantly leave the door of their security room open just enough for Katniss to peak into and see what's going on.
Why do the peacekeepers always keep that door open one inch? Do they just keep forgetting to close it? Do they need fresh air? Are they actually on Katniss's side and want her to see what's going on? Is there something wrong with the door?
Also, I don't like how Katniss appeared to completely forget about Cinna once the games started. I know she needed to focus on the task at hand and not worry about Cinna getting his head bashed in, but the fact that she didn't mention it the rest of the movie seemed a little heartless. At least in the book, Katniss had a couple random thoughts about him during the games so we knew she hadn't completely forgotten about him.
The Ugly
Okay, so here's my biggest issue with not only Catching Fire, but the entire movie franchise in general.
So much of the book happens inside Katniss's head, especially when she struggles with her feeling for Peeta and Gale. And despite the writers and producers best efforts, this just doesn't come across on the big screen. It's hard to see what her feelings are for both Gale and Peeta. In the movie, it seems like she just randomly goes from pretending to have feelings for Peeta in order to play for the cameras to actually deeply caring about him. It was very random and sudden. The love triangle just doesn't translate well to the big screen in my opinion. Without getting the gritty details that are only available in Katniss's head, it appears she is merely choosing between a moody, brooding miner or a whining bread baker. Not very compelling, in my opinion.
Overall though, Catching Fire is a good movie that accurately draws on, and even surpasses its source material. The only problem is that the source material wasn't anything special to begin with.
Verdict: 7.5 out of 10
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