Movie Review: Catching Fire

By Sarah Jackson | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Released last Friday, Catching Fire is the second movie in the Hunger Games trilogy.

The movie is an adaptation of the book by Suzanne Collins and is clearly more mature than the first movie, “The Hunger Games.” In fact, filmmakers kept a lot of the dialogue and scenes from the books, which was refreshing, especially for audience members who are sticklers for accurate book-to-movie adaptations.

Jennifer Lawrence’s acting has stepped up a notch and her character, Katniss, has far more depth and emotion than she did in the first movie.

It’s clear that Katniss is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder from her ordeal in the Hunger Games, and she continues to experience emotional trauma in Catching Fire.

The previous tributes are reaped once again, and Katniss and Peeta are thrown into a life or death battle all over again. However, none of the other past tributes want to be there either and many decide to form an alliance with Katniss and Peeta.

My favorite alliances—and I’m sure they’ll be everyone else’s favorites—were Finnick Odair, Johanna Mason, and Mags. The great thing about this movie is that it brought a certain depth to those characters, a depth that for some reason wasn’t really in the book.

Mags ended up being my favorite, and it’s hard to not like a tough yet sweet old lady, who became a tribute in one of the previous Hunger Games when she volunteered to take the place of a young girl. The captivating thing about Mags is, even though she doesn’t speak in the movie, she conveys so much warmth and you can’t help but fall in love with her. Her relationship with Finnick, who she raised, is so loving, and the relationship adds some depth to Finnick’s character.

Johanna is such a great, sassy character, and once again, I like her far more than I liked her in the book. At one point, she gives a verbal middle-finger to President Snow and the rest of the citizens of the capital to show that she won’t put up with being put into another life or death situation and she won’t be controlled for their entertainment.

Catching Fire is filled with emotion, and for a movie aimed towards a younger crowd, actually deals with some heavy issues, including political and societal issues, corruption, poverty and death. But ultimately, it’s a movie about hope, the hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The light in this movie would be the impending uprising and the fact that people in Panem are fighting back against the government and showing that they won’t be taken down.

Of course, the ending is a great segway into the third and final movie, Mockingjay. I highly recommend Catching Fire, even if you haven’t read the book series, because the film adaptation is just that good.