When winning a game means really losing at it for the rest of your life, every victory is hollow.
What They Say:
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.
The Review:
After the strong success of Hunger Games, it was good to see a film that was drawing young women in flocks for a strong character in the non-traditional strong sense. Jennifer Lawrence pulled off the first film as the weight of it was largely on her to make it succeed, especially for the fans who had so much attachment to the character of Katniss Everdeen. I had read the trilogy prior to the film so I had a good idea what to expect and largely enjoyed the movie, as did my kids, but I could also understand why so many had a problem with watching kids fight to the death. Thankfully, the film made sure that there was some real heart to it and something that kids could connect with so it wasn’t just a gratuitous exploitation film. It could have easily gone there, but even the easy to compare to Battle Royal was an absolute splatterfest and that had some significant meaning to it as well.
The second installment here works in a very straightforward manner for its plot, one where it manages to actually repeat the first in a big way without really making it feel like a repeat. With the “victory” done and over with, Katniss and her family have moved into the Victor’s Square in District 12 where Haymitch has lived for years and Peeta is now across the street. She’s struggling with what happened in the games, the killing she had to do and the loss of people that meant something to her. While she is very self involved for good reason, and the District largely seems at peace, the rest of Panem isn’t doing so well. We get to see smatterings of this in the first half of the film, especially since it is the driving motivator for the second half. Katniss’ and Peeta’s victory, a first that shook things up, was viewed as a sign of rebellion in a lot of the outlying districts while those closer to the capital saw it as just a grand love story. She’s become a symbol, always a dangerous thing, and events are set into motion by President Snow to eliminate her.
But where it gets interesting is that through the use of the new Gamesmaster, Plutarch Heavensbee, Snow realizes that what Katniss has done has also caused some of the previous victors to realize that they could potentially inspire as well. So with the victory tour throwing the problems of the country in front of Katniss and Peeta and realizing that anything they do could inflame it more and cause more innocents to die, they retreat a bit. But Snow knows that their being a symbol is the real problem and they use the 75th Hunger Games and its special Quarter Quell status to do a reaping of previous victors that are still alive. Pitting victors against each other changes the dynamic as they are obviously all killers on some level and know what to expect going in. And a lot of them are older than the usual under eighteen crowd that populates the normal games that puts the citizens under the thumb of the capital. That change in dynamic makes it a far more threatening piece, one with a few layers to it as the second half is all about the game itself.
Most of the basics of the plot you can get from the commercials and largely it executes it well. What I want to talk about is less the story, which I did enjoy, but more so how the film was put together and some of the performances. One of the areas that this film could have potentially had was the change in director after Gary Ross dropped out after the first one hit. Francis Lawrence coming on certainly isn’t a name director in popular culture media, but he’s a solid director based on past works. And after viewing this film, he was utterly the right choice for it. I like Gary Ross, but I found his style for the first film to not be forward looking enough in design and the handyshake cam stuff drove me nuts. The film had a gritty look that it needed, but it was like he didn’t have the proper scale for it when it came to the capital. His infusion of character worked and he had all the right actors and it’s a decent film overall, but Catching Fire with Francis Lawrence now has me excited for his work on the two part sequel for Mockingjay.
Though it would seem the wrong thing to say, this film has a greater sense of polish about it. Not in that District 12 now looks all shiny, but in that it feels far more professional and real, more lived in and nuanced than before. It’s also important because as we get back to the capital itself, it takes on an even larger than life feeling that really drives home the disconnect from there to the other districts and what they experience. We still get plenty of flashy costumes from the people there and the style is certainly all over the map in a surprisingly cohesive way, but it doesn’t dominate. Instead, it feels like something that exists and is separate, as it should be. Lawrence manages to make this an engaging film to watch visually when we get to the game itself as well, which has a far different design overall from what we had before. With that dominating the second half, it’s fast moving, distinct and it feels like he captured the sense of the book well, which feels like it was far more complicated in that form than here because of the clockwork nature of it and the number of characters running around. It does get pared down in screen time here of course, but to the advantage of focusing on those that we need to.
The script for the film feels sharper as well. The first movie brought in Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins along with Billy Ray to do it. Here, we get Simon Beaufoy – certainly not a writer of action movies overall – and Michael Arndt, who similarly aren’t strong in that are based on past works. But they take the concepts, adapt them very well and make it human and accessible, partially helped by the fact that we know the two main leads already and we’re on an extended journey with them now. The dialogue doesn’t feel as cliched and there’s more reliance on emotions and understanding through facial expressions rather than just saying it. It’s not hugely elevated – the original work truly only goes so far, though better than the first novel – but it’s very compelling here as you see more of the fear underlying Katniss and the way her world is out of control alongside the seemingly rock steady Peeta. Arndt and Beaufoy definitely worked well in conjunction with Francis Lawrence to bring it all together.
Which, obviously, requires good actors. I’ve long been a fan of Jennifer Lawrence in a lot of ways, on screen and off, and she pulls the film off once again. This time it’s not entirely about her doing that though and she can rely on others. Peeta comes across stronger this time around and with the other tributes all being victors that are either the same age as her or older – and much older – there’s more for the actor to chew on for it. Lynn Cohen absolutely delights as Mags, who has no real lines of dialogue and does everything through her face. Jena Malone stole a lot of the film for me when she was on screen as Johanna, through her mannerisms and the sarcasm she brought to it. And while I normally don’t care for her, Amanda Plummer really hit some good bits as Wiress when she was on screen. A lot of the new tributes you can easily give a casual nod towards as so many die quickly, but some do really well.
The big one of course that’s getting all the attention is Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair. A fan favorite from the books to be sure, Claflin really owns this character and with only the thinnest bits of material to support him, makes him truly empathetic. So much of his time early on has him dealing with Mags, his mentor when he won before at the tender age of fourteen, that it’s a great relationship to watch unfold as you know it can only end in one way. When he’s scoping out Katniss and assessing her in his own way, the two have a chemistry that really is fun to see since she hasn’t been exposed to someone so openly flirtatious like him in the way he is. He pulls of the physicality well and he has the right look, but I also found myself watching his performance and thinking that he really needs this to be a breakout film for him as he will make a great leading man.
Unfortunately, the one actor that left me cold was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee. It’s not exactly the meatiest of characters to work with in this installment, but Hoffman is just playing Hoffman here, at least for me. You could pluck him from a number of his existing films and you wouldn’t have a difference here, which is unfortunate since Heavensbee could be a bit of a different character with more personality and charm slid in here and there. He’s largely playing off of Donald Sutherland as President Snow, who does more of the same from the first here with a limited role, but Hoffman gets to play off of Katniss in one main scene as well. There’s a reason for the way it is, but it really just felt like he was walking onto the set, saying his lines, and walking off. Which is not what I wanted or expected out of the performance.
In Summary:
I had a lot of hope for this film after seeing the first trailers for it and what kind of visual approach it was going to take and the payoff is definitely there. While I had liked the novels well enough (problems aside with the overly long Mockingjay) but I wasn’t fanatical about them. I did get to see that experience through my kids who loved them and felt an affinity with the characters. With Catching Fire, the franchise is definitely elevated and Lionsgate made a great choice in Francis Lawrence. The film may not feel like it’s truly moving until it gets to the game itself, but the full on character material and empathy we feel for so many of them is set up in the first half that you don’t even notice. Clocking in at just under two and a half hours, the film never feels like it’s dull or uninteresting, especially when it wants to slow down to really say the important character pieces – often just through expression. Jennifer Lawrence continues to cement herself as being an actress that can do all sorts of works (which in turn can draw her fans to new things they might not see otherwise) and Sam Claflin really should have a good future ahead of him based on this. The cast as a whole is spot on and really leaves you wanting to dig more into a number of the tributes. This film was going to be huge no matter what, but it’s great to see they didn’t coast on it and just phone it in. It’s all here and the fans should love it.
Grade: B+
