Movie Review: The Hunger Games Catching Fire

The Hunger Games Catching Fire

 Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks and Stanley Tucci.  

The Hunger Games Catching Fire is directed by Francis Lawrence.

This is one of those rare films where the characters, the actors and the movie treatment all develop together in tandem to signify a maturing that meager words won't do. Devoid of both the adrenalin-fuelled exploit of the 1^st  film as well as the pleasure of a climax, this second part of the successful Hunger Games trilogy controls to carve itself a prominent space.

A large part of it has to again do with Jennifer Lawrence. Though more than a few years older than the heroine of the books, Katniss Everdeen, she has that air of wounded innocence that one would expect from someone in her shoes. In addition now that the Games and their horror/rush are behind her, Lawrence is really in her elements as a reluctant rebel and fleeting celebrity caught between some very difficult choices. The fact is that in real life too she has seen her career graph swerve in quite the same direction perhaps helps.

Suzanne Collins's series with its apparent political overtones, starting from the name of the land, Panem Latin, assigning superficial appeasements - also does not have to try very hard to establish its dystopian documentations here.

Catching Fire so has an easier, less strident progression where it captures well the simmering under currents of rebellion against the Capitol here -- often going beyond the book. Led by the ridiculing President Snow (Sutherland), the Capitol persists to rule Panem and its impoverished 12 districts with an iron hand.

Francis Lawrence, who charted similar ground while directing I Am Legend and salubrious romance while helming Water for Elephants, particularly impresses in how he suggests the effect of two diverse worlds cohabiting in the singular form of Effie Trinket (Banks). Her outlandish clothes (the costumes overall justify a special mention), her elaborate get-ups, her argument, her seeming attention to non-essentials, her anxiety on "We are a team, is not it?" are revealed to a whole new meaning here. The screenplay has been co-written by Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and The Full Monty fame.