'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' review by Captain Raptor

'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' review by Captain Raptor

If you've been reading these rambling scrawls I portend to be 'reviews' for a while, you'll have noticed by now that I have a thing for dystopias, teen dramas, and action. So, obviously, I thoroughly enjoyed the first Hunger Games movie, and it ended up being one of my favourite films of the year. The second instalment had quite a high bar set for it, but on the whole it's a been a good year for blockbuster sequels. 

The hardest thing about writing this review is trying to praise all the deserving performances with any degree of brevity. I want to write paragraphs and paragraphs about the sublime way that Elizabeth Banks blends subtlety and exaggeration, about how Woody Harrelson delivers every line with a confidence that transcends mortal bounds, and most of all about Jennifer Lawrence. I don't even know if there's any point going into detail, it's practically a universally accepted fact that she's amazing. The first film was more emotionally restrained, especially when it came to Katniss, but the reigns have been loosened this time around and Lawrence gets to give an excellent demonstration as to why she's one of the biggest and best stars around. Bad guys Donald Sutherland and Philip Seymour Hoffman are really quite bland, despite being the most experienced and acclaimed performers involved in the film, and I still don't really get the fuss about Liam Hemsworth, but apart from that it's top-notch performances across the board, even from people with less than ten seconds of screen time. There's less focus on Katniss and more attention to detail, which serves the fantastic dual purposes of making the film's created world feel bigger and more realised and allowing Lawrence to shine even more when the focus actually is on her.

The tension and the inventiveness of the Hunger Games themselves are just as good as they were before, perhaps slightly less interesting now that we're more familiar with the concept. The plot's increased concentration on socio-political issues is cleverly done, and provides some great contrast with the brutality of later scenes. The only area I can really think of that could have been improved to any great degree was dialogue - it wasn't a major issue, and there were some clever lines worked in at various places, but a lot of the dialogue just seems to exist to fill space. There were some great moments of silence, where it was recognised that nothing needed to be said or explained and the audience could just concentrate on the immediate emotion of a situation, but maybe Catching Fire could have been a little bolder with how often it played this trick.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is subtle, tense and intelligent without sacrificing on entertainment or spectacle, and there's very little else you could want from a blockbuster. It would have been enough of a success for it to have merely equalled the first film, but in most ways the sequel has surpassed it (although not by a huge degree). It's dark and it's moody, so don't go in for popcorn flick, but other than I think that not only is this is a great film, but one that will appeal to most cinemagoers.