Just some personal thoughts before diving right in to the movie review. You can jump right in at the Movie Review below :P
I have been going to movie premieres for some time now so I pretty much know what happens. So imagine my surprise when I saw the large number of people lined up to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire it was unlike any other movie premiere I have ever attended and there were at least 3 cinemas having the premieres and all of them had long lines! Talk about being the anticipated movie of the year!
The firsts didn't stop there though since another first encounter for a movie premiere was the fact that ALL phones and gadgets with cameras were collected before the movie. While I know and understand that this was all for the fight against piracy it was a pain in the ass.
Can you imagine collecting every phone and gadget in a theater full of people? Yeah you do the math, especially in this day and age where everyone has at least one cellphone or gadget. Collecting the phones may not have been much of a problem but everyone claiming their phones after the movie all at the same time - well that's another story.
And since I didn't have a watch I couldn't tell what time it is or update my mom and my husband how I was doing, I was with my baby brother for the movie so my mom really wanted updates. We came in the movie house around 7:00PM and left at past 11:50PM. It was an inconvenience but you know what? The movie really made up for it and all of that was worth it in the end :P
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| Me at around 12:00 AM with our movie premiere tickets. :P |
On to the movie review!
So for everyone's reference I actually read the books - the whole trilogy about three years ago so I pretty much had an idea of what the story was about. Now even if I have read the books and am a fan of the franchise I was not going to go 'Oh it was a great movie!' blindly since I actually did not enjoy (the first movie) - Hunger Games last year. I was really disappointed at the last part in the movie since it failed to capture the hanging by a moment, nail biter ending in the book. With that being said I can critically say that the second installment Catching Fire - was AMAZING!
From the beginning of the movie until the end you find yourself in an emotional and political arena (pun intended) where you have to deal with the dynamic of a rebellion unfolding and of course all the emotional baggage that the characters carry.
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| The Odds are never in your favor. Scene from Catching Fire. |
When The Hunger Games came out last year I had to roll my eyes so many times and bite my tongue since people thought the movie was all about a battle to the death of children (which is why it was compared a lot to Battle Royale) when in fact the whole battle to the death was just the tip of the ice burg and that the story actually deals with a more complicated political dynamic. I was glad that this was touched on in the second movie and I was really glad that they included (SPOILER ALERT) the scene in the Presidential Ball where Peeta is offered a purple elixir to drink so that he can throw up what he ate - just so he can eat some more and try everything was very important to me at least and I really felt strongly about this scene (also when I read it in the book) because as Peeta put it: "People in District 12 have nothing to eat while in the Capitol people where gorging themselves sick from eating too much food" and surprisingly this is something that we don't just read in books and watch in movies because it actually happens in real life!
Some people have so much and too much while others have nothing at all. I was really glad that they included this scene in the movie, although it was really short it was really powerful for me and really spoke a hundred words. I hope that the people who come to watch the movie catch it also. It's really important to understand especially to get an idea of what the rebellion is all about.
Amazing cast and amazing acting
In case you guys didn't know Jennifer Lawrence is actually an Academy Award Winner for her role as Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook. She isn't just some actress known for being the lead in a well known franchise but she also has the acting chops to back it up.Which is a good thing since the character of Katniss Everdeen is very complicated as she becomes the reluctant symbol of a rebellion and is torn between the love of a long time friend and the love of a fellow tribute. Some things that people don't realize or maybe forget is that unlike the Careers who spend their lives training and wanting to be part of The Hunger Games and winning at all cost, Katniss is a great archer and hunter because she had to be, she had to learn how to hunt in order to provide food for her family. She didn't pick up the bow and arrow to learn how to make pin cushions out of other tributes but she picked it up (and became good at it) so her family can eat. There is a lot of ugly crying and ugly shouting that Katniss does throughout the movie but Jennifer Lawrence delivers it in a convincing way and that is real acting.
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| Smile for the cameras. Oddly enough the victors' celebrity status and Katniss and Peeta's on-screen romance so that people would 'forget' the real problems is eerily familiar to how we follow and poke into the lives of real celebrities for our own pleasure and amusement. |
Of course the great acting does not only fall on Jennifer Lawrence's shoulders since she has a great cast of actors bringing great characters to life:
For instance, the new Game Master taking the reins from a deceased Seneca Crane, Plutarch Heavensbee is actually played by award winning actor (I mean just many awards) Philip Seymour Hoffman. While a lot of people were surprised he agreed to play the role, new director Francis Lawrence actually beefed up the role and gave Plutarch more screen time, as seen plotting with President Snow, Donald Sutherland (another award winning actor I might add) he's also been acting since 1960!
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| Cut from the same cloth. Award winning actors Donald Sutherland and Philip Seymour Hoffman plot together as President Snow and Game Master Plutarch Heavensbee. |
Crowd Favorites
Of course the new and old cast did not only contribute to a strong ensemble of characters but there were some crowd favorites as well.
Axe-wielding bad-ass and potty mouth Johanna Mason played by Jenna Malone (Sucker Punch) became a surprising crowd favorite with her head strong, no holds barred attitude.
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| Axe-wielding bad ass Johanna Mason. You wouldn't want to mess with her. |
Casting a drop dead gorgeous character based on a best selling novel is always hard since you have to meet the expectations of thousands and thousands of fans who have already envisioned this Adonis in their own minds and for them casting any actor won't do and that was the case for the casting of Finnick Odair for Catching Fire and all the pressure to be 'the Finnick that the fans wanted' fell on the shoulders of British actor Sam Claiflin.
The actor says that a lot of work was put into so that he can be the Finnick that the fans wanted and this was due to the fact that he and Finnick are entire opposites from the skin tone, to the hair color and the six-pack abs. So as soon as he got the role Sam really worked hard and I must say that the results were pretty good, I mean the chiseled face, the perfect features, the smile and damn! those dimples!
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| Sugar cube anyone? |
I will have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the Sugar Cube scene since Finnick was supposed to wearing a "fishing net" of sorts strategically placed just to keep the ratings PG. I just think that it was a bit too high for me since it was covering his stomach - ahahaha! Minor detail though that we can let pass. :)
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| Another crowd favorite? The beautiful relationship between Finnick Odair (Sam Claiflin) and his 80 year old mentor Mags (Lynn Cohen). |
So yeah -pretty pleased with Sam Claiflin's casting and his portrayal of Finnick Odair. So rabid fans of the franchise you can relax. :)
There was a lot of raw emotions in the movie, ten minutes in and I was already balling my eyes out. Definitely deeper and darker than the first movie, Catching Fire also tackles issues like the guilt Katniss feels (another take on the term Survivor's guilt) and the nightmares that they have to face. As Haymich puts it, 'no one ever wins the games'.
Speaking of Haymich there was more to the drunken mentor that Woody Harelson portrays in this movie and the dynamic that they have with Effie (Elizabeth Banks) and the rest of the District 12 team just gives a more realistic feel to their team and family.
When the first movie came out there was a lot of talk on Effie Trinket's Capitol couture outfits and what actress Elizabeth Banks had to go through for each change, well for the second movie the costume and make up department did not disappoint as every time Effie came out in one outlandish and over the top costume after the other, the audience applauded and laughed in humor and amusement. I just hope that they also connected the dots that this was also another social and political statement since people in the other districts wore very grey and drab outfits while people in the Capitol literally wore the whole rainbow in their ensembles. A fun fact is that Effie's Yellow butterfly dress is actually an Alexander Mc Queen creation.
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| Pretty in Pink. Effie Trinket in Capitol Couture. |
Surprisingly there was a lot of kissing in the movie and not just between Katnniss-Peeta but other characters as well so make sure to keep an eye out on that.
Speaking of kissing in the movie, Catching Fire also shed more light into the Bizarre Love Triangle that is Katniss-Peeta and Gale. I mean do you classify the Katniss-Peeta on screen romance as cheating? Because when they get off screen she's all over Gale and can we just give 'The most adorable award' to Peeta? I mean he is just the perfect guy to take home to the parents and he doesn't even give Gale the dirty look. So let's see how that love triangle unfolds.
Aside from that love triangle unfolding we also get a glimpse of Prim (Katniss' dear sister, you know the one whose place she took in the original reaping) and her blooming medical skills which will all have a place in the third installment The Mockingjay. Oh and in case you guys did not know yet, following the steps of its fellow Young Adult novels turned into movies, Mockingjay will be having two installments! Yehey!
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| The Lethal Love Team - Katniss and Peeta. |
Would definitely love to watch it again as it was a real treat and can I just say that the last scene was just the nail biter I hoped it would be so now I just can't wait for the third installment!
Make sure to catch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in Cinemas with friends even if you haven't read the book you would definitely enjoy it.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is distributed by Pioneer Films.
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