Official Synopsis
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as, against all odds, Katniss and her fellow tribute Peeta have returned home after surviving The Hunger Games. Winning means they must turn around, leaving their loved ones behind and embark on a “Victory Tour” through the districts. Along the way, Katniss senses a rebellion simmering – one that she and Peeta may have sparked. At the end of the Victory Tour, President Snow announces a deadly 75th Hunger Games that could change Panem forever.
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DISCLAIMER: Please understand that I have not read any of these books. To be honest, reading books generally leads to disappointment when the story is translated to film (minus Blade Runner — which made a helluva lot more sense to me than the short story written by Philip K. Dick). I wanted to go into this series with no expectations and treat it like a set of movies rather than a set of novels. It works out better that way in my opinion, especially when you understand that you cannot make a movie perfectly from a book. Books can add hours and hours to film (see Dune for example) that just can’t happen due to budgetary and sanity constraints. As you read this review please understand that I am looking at these stories from a film perspective, which is a self-contained, two-hour world.
With that said, let’s talk about this film.
I begrudgingly saw the first HG movie with my wife and came away overall satisfied with the results. It didn’t overly impress, other than Jennifer Lawrence’s performance, but it certainly was more than I thought it would be, which was just another stupid teen action flick (those seem to be popular these days). It had a good balance of plot points, though the first part of the film seemed to rely a lot on Katniss’ setup and less about the action that eventually drives the entire piece. By the end of the first film, I wanted to see where everything was going and what eventually would happen to Katniss and Peeta’s mini-revolution against the system.
Going into the second film I suspected that director Francis Lawrence would immediately hit the ground running with action sequences, as I stated above were the driving point of the first film. Well, that didn’t happen, but I’m very glad it didn’t. Catching Fire starts out with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) trying to balance out her love for District 12 (and for Gale (Liam Hemsworth)) and her duty as a victor/pseudo lover to Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). Katniss wants to do the right thing for her people and for others, but can’t seem to balance out the load. The new found fame and glory has her really torn apart, as her and Peeta must go out on a tour to each district and say something nice about people who died in their game or they had to kill. Peeta has no problem playing by the rules (initially) when it comes to President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and his quest to keep the masses under control. Katniss on the other hand can’t seem to maintain that sort of personality as people are dying around her and she can’t just sit back and watch it happen. Her passion for peace and freedom makes her a threat to Snow’s kingdom. The end result is that Snow has to get rid of Katniss, and to do so he hires a new games creator named Plutarch Heavensbee (played by the late/great Philip Seymour Hoffman) to develop a special Hunger Games for Katniss to either die in or to ruin her own name.
You see where this is going, right?
Yet again, Katniss and Peeta are put into a ‘must survive’ situation that will either make them immortal in the eyes of the districts or have them dead by the hands of the most ruthless killers from other Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a more balanced piece of material than the first. You can tell by the writing and acting that there is growing confidence with the direction everything is heading towards. There’s a more cohesive setup outside of the action sequences that bring out Katniss and crew better than the first. There’s a more sense of urgency with her plight and everyone involved shows their hand at what they have at stake with it. The action sequences aren’t relied on to drive the film, even though they should be, considering what’s at stake in the overall arc of the story. Everything seems a helluva lot more believable and it all creates a restless, shaky world that is nothing short of an uncomfortable experience for the audience. Added to all of that is the portion of the story where Snow is pretty darn ruthless towards Katniss and shows on more than one occasion how much he wants to keep the status quo amongst the people he rules. All of these things are put together in proper order, given enough time to grow and executed beautifully. A quarter of the way through the film you understand that this movie has turned into somewhat a political thriller, where Katniss and Snow are playing a game of chess to control the masses in their world. Again, the story is woven beautifully.
The only downer? I wish there was a bit more beef to the actual Hunger Games in the movie. I think that maybe there was a bit too much time spent on ally relationships and not enough with putting together pieces of action that played out the way they should have played out. In short, it seems a bit jumpy once the fighting begins, but it all comes back together by the end and firmly relies on the third film to make it all work. That’s not a bad thing, but they better get the third one right to preserve the good setup in the second film.
Anyway, by the end of the film you’re just dying to see the next one, which is a mark of a great film. It also proves that the bridge from story two to three is a strong one. Although, I’m anxious to see how Lionsgate plays the third film without Philip Seymour Hoffman. I know he’ll be replaced (as he should be), but he did a great job with owning the role of Heavensbee, even though he was onscreen briefly.
If you haven’t yet dived into The Hunger Games then please start with the first. You will appreciate the second a helluva lot better.
(Reviewed on a 240hz LG)
Now, something that should be highly commended with this Blu-ray release is the Blu-ray transfer. Not a single flaw in the picture folks. There aren’t any grainy moments, no artifacts, no imperfections, no blurs — nothing is wrong with it. Lionsgate is a studio that appreciates its HD experiences (see The Crow for proof) and does a fantastic job with transferring its films to the Blu-ray format. You get some spectacular colors in Catching Fire, including some sweet looking blues, reds, whites, yellows, purples and blacks. The interview scene with Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) is something to behold in HD. It’s gorgeous to the point of obnoxious. Anyway, this is one of the finest Blu-ray releases I’ve seen in 2014, so you won’t be disappointed if you pay a bit more for that HD luxury.
As for the audio, you get it in 7.1 DTS-HD and the aspect ratio fluctuates from 2.40:1 and 1.78:1 (IMAX). The action sequences are shot in the IMAX ratio, while the story elements are done in 2.40:1. You’ll get wonderful black bars for the 2.40 and none for the 1.78. Kind of like what you get with Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Finally, here’s what to expect from the features portion of this release:
– Audio Commentary from director and producer
– Surviving the Game: Making Catching Fire
– Deleted Scenes
I wish there was a bit more to this, maybe some commentary from the actors or possibly even a gag reel, but this is what you get. Th ‘Making of’ featurette is the strongest of the bunch, though the commentary comes in a very close second. The deleted scenes are nice, but will be appreciated more by the book fanatics than the movie goers.
Overall, these aren’t bad features, but I wanted a bit more from the release. I’m sure somewhere down the road when the third film is put out on Blu-ray that we’ll get an ultimate edition of these with more perks. Until then, this is what you get.