The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Year:  2013

Filming:  Color

Length:  146 minutes

Genre:  Action/Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi

Maturity:  PG-13 (for intense themes, strong violence, and some language)

Cast:  Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark), Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne), Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy),  Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket), Lenny Kravitz (Cinna), Alan Ritchson (Gloss),

Willow Shields (Primrose Everdeen), Paula Malcomson (Katniss’s Mother), Stanley Tuccman (Caesar Flickerman), Jenna Malone (Johanna Mason), Donald Sutherland (Pres. Snow),
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch Heavensbee), Jeffrey Wright (Beetee)
         

Director:  Francis Lawrence

Personal Rating:  3 Stars

***

    It’s a sad fact, but sequels are usually never quite as good as the originals. That having been said, Catching Fire hasn’t done horribly following up the massive success of The Hunger Games. There still was the haunting music that accompanies the unfolding events. There is still Jennifer Lawrence, with her moving acting and facial expressions. But I’m afraid there were times when I felt like it was just a re-run of the first film, especially in the area of violence, which is one of my biggest qualms in the whole franchise.

    The story opens in the aftermath of the 74^th Hunger Games, when victors Katniss Everdeen and Peek Mellark are finally allowed to return to their home in District 12. But Katniss finds it impossible to simply return to the way things were before; she is emotionally scarred from the Games, and cannot even hunt without fearing her potential to kill. To make matters worse, Katniss and Peeta are forced to embark on a victory tour through the districts of Panem, playing up their make-believe romance for the cameras and acting as propaganda symbols for The Capital.

    But unbeknownst to her, Katniss has actually become a symbol of resistance to the people because of her refusal to kill Peeta in the Games. A revolt is fermenting beneath the surface, and when Katniss visits District 2 and gives a heartfelt speech in memory of her fellow tribute, Rue, who was killed in the Games, the crowd erupts in fury against the Capital authorities, and Katniss can do nothing but watch as an old man is shot before her eyes by the soldiers dispersing the mob. She is warned by her sponsor Effie Trinket and mentor Haymitch Abernathy to “stick to the script” as the darling of the Capital, and she and Peeta struggle to suppress their own emotions and do as they are told. Meanwhile, their own relationship grows closer as they mutually comfort one another.

    At their victory reception at the Capital, in which they insist that they are engaged to be married, Katniss dances with Plutarch Heavensbee, the new official “game-maker” who plans to launch several special for the 75^th Annual Hunger Games the next year. She suspects something unusual in his character, but cannot put her finger on it, but continues to observe him cautiously. Upon her return to District 12, it is announced that a “Quarter Quell” version of the Games will be held, in which all past winners will be forced to fight against each other. Since she is the only female tribute ever to win from her district, Katniss knows she will be chosen.

    Determined that Peeta should be kept out of the Games, Katniss begs Haymitch to take his place should Peeta be picked as the male tribute. Haymitch agrees, but when he is picked instead, Peeta nobly takes his place, and he and Katniss are sent back to the Capital to prepare for another fight to the death in the arena. But this time, there is a note of serious discontent among the chosen tributes, who had been promised a peaceful life after winning their first Hunger Games competitions. Now, as the vicious fighting in the arena begins, Katniss struggles to keep Peeta alive at all costs. But beyond the arena, there are other forces at work conspiring to save her life and make her a symbol of rebellion.

    For HG fans, getting the chance to return to Panem for the sequel was a long-awaited treat, complete with commemorative poster-stuffed magazines at every grocery store counter nation-wide. For me personally, it at least gave me something to sink my teeth into after just getting beginning to appreciate that the story has amazing sticking power. My mind was vibrating: “What’s going to happen to Katniss? Will there finally be a rising? And why the heck hasn’t there been one already, if these Games have been going on for 74 years??” For one who has never read the books, these questions really were pressing.

     Unfortunately, I can’t say I was totally satisfied with the continuation. I’ll admit that after just watching movie one, I really, really did not want to see another Hunger Games competition, and held out hope that this film would be focused on a popular uprising. For half of the movie, I believed it was indeed going this way, and that the Quarter Quell would never actually take place, especially after the wonderful scene in which the tributes all held hands in a show on support on Live TV. Plus, Peeta even went the extra mile by claiming that he and Katniss had been secretly married and that she was with child, causing even the hardened Capital crowd to raise their voices in protest. 

     But the Games went on anyway, even more disturbing than the first round with new forms of torment inflicted on the tributes in a clock-shaped arena. There were genetically altered birds and baboons to attack them, poisonous gas to suffocate them, and the blood rains to drench them. As a result of these horrors, you naturally had people going crazy...eek! Honestly, I couldn’t help but think that these new additives to go above-and-beyond in the realm of gruesomeness were stuck in not so much for plot purposes as for selling purposes. It’s perverse that these things should make people want to indulge, but I think there’s something terribly perverse when people try to tap into the dark side of the human consciousness through books and films, especially when they are meant for young adults. Why, we wonder, do people wind up desensitized, just like in The Capital? It’s because they come to view horror as fun, and death as a game.   

   I also thought some of the acting quality in the sequel lessened (not with regards to Jennifer Lawrence, but some of the others) and there were more "suggestive" scenes that spoiled the clean record (sexually, at least) of the first film. Johanna Mason was a really annoying character, and the part where she strips of her clothing in the elevator was totally unnecessary and vulgar. Evidently, according to the book, she is supposed to be mocking Katniss for being “pure”, but this doesn’t translate well into film. Also, I have to say I found Gloss to be rather…creepy? I mean, he had his good points and all, but he seemed he was making a pass at Katniss in the beginning!

    That having been said, I agree there was more hope that the People were finally rising up to throw off their oppressors, and there were some really moving scenes of heart-felt defiance. Probably two of my favorite scenes are (1. when she gives Rue's eulogy and is saluted by the old man in the crowd and (2. when she is saluted by her sister and mother after being selected for the Games again. Katniss definitely does shine through as a strong female lead, mixing toughness with vulnerability. To her credit, she is obviously suffering from psychological trauma in the aftermath of the first Games, even though she is trying her hardest to hold together for her family’s sake. She starts to turn in on herself, and wants nothing more than to be left alone. 

   One scene that really highlights this is at the beginning of the movie when Katniss is out hunting with Gale, and has a panic attack after envisioning that the turkey she just shot was a tribute from the Games. Another powerful scene demonstrating her shattered nerves is when he is about to be transported to the arena via a tube-elevator, and is forced to watch helplessly from inside the enclosure as her fashion-designer + friend, Cinna, is beaten by Capital soldiers for making Katniss a Mockingjay costume (a symbol of resistance) for her TV interview the night before. Panting with anger and frustration, she emerges in the arena with the realization that Haymitch was right: the real enemy is not the tributes she must fight, but the game-makers themselves.  

    Her destiny is calling her to become a symbol of hope for the people, and her sister Prim encourages her to answer that call, assuring her that her family is behind her. The deciding moment is towards the end of the film, when Katniss refuses to kill a fellow tribute, Gloss, but rather shoots an arrow into the control panel, short-circuiting the arena. Knocked unconscious by the election shock, she winds up being rescued by rebels who had infiltrated the Games, and is urged to officially take up their standard. Now that she has become “Mockingjay”, it will be interesting to see how she handles the intense pressures of her newfound position.  

   Of course, the love triangle is roped around the plot as well, which really bored me to death at times. I mean, come on Katniss, will you make up your mind already? She’s kissing Gale and Peeta alternately, and not just with a sense of passing affection! She even sleeps with Peeta, although I’m happy to report that this is just a matter of Peeta comforting Katniss who is having nightmares, and is not sexual. But at any rate, things are really being dragged out her with regards to her feelings, the one major hand-me-down from teeny-bopper-romances left in this otherwise frightfully adult flick. While we’re on the subject of cheesiness, there is a pretty hokey sequence in which Gale starts to be flogged by Capital soldiers, and Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch all have to come to his rescue. I just thought the officer guy was a really over-the-top villain (who reminded me strongly of an ork from LotR), and the emotional desperation just looked way too much like acting and a vain attempt to make us really feel the pull of the love triangle!  

   One character who becomes more sympathetic in this film is Effie Trinket, who finally begins to realize just how much suffering the Hunger Games really inflict on the people of Panem. She has obviously come to have more than a passing affection for Katniss, Peeta, and even the scruffy Haymitch, and is furious that the Capital would ever force any of them to return to the arena after they had already won against the odds.  She tries pathetically to make some gesture of solidarity with her doomed tributes, insisting that they all should wear something gold to show their unity of spirit saying "we're still a team, aren't we?" I’m hoping her character will be even more fully explored in the next installment.

    It’s interesting to ponder the affect that Hunger Games Fandom is having on our world. Aside from the tee-shirts and archery classes, people really are taking the story-line to heart. Liberals and Conservatives alike have painted it as an allegory for the ills in American society, and some rebels against regimes they deem to be tyrannical have even adopted the three-finger salute of defiance. It does serve as a demonstration of how well-written literature really can enlighten the mind, inspire the heart, and rouse the blood.

    That having been said, I must include a note of warning here. Not all revolutions and independence movements are justified, and governments should not always be stereotyped as the bad guys. Just because one group or another shouts “we are being tyrannized”, it doesn’t necessitate it’s true. Good judgment is vital in determining what causes are worthy of fighting. Also, not all problems within society can be reasonably compared to the extreme situation in Panem, nor do they require a revolution to solve! Sorry, just the British bit of me advocating moderation unless all else fails (see: William Wilberforce in Amazing Grace)! 

    So I suppose my summary of Catching Fire is that it is meant to make us think, and think hard. I wish that more of the film was focused on exploring more of the issues presented instead of barbarically extended “action” sequences. I am sometimes concerned that the sensationalism surrounding the stories is taking away from that very important exercise, and that it is becoming more of a play-thing for the masses. And yet from a Catholic perspective, there is still much to be taken away about how society can either be a life-sustaining, love-affirming safeguard of our liberties, or can be nothing more than a means of channeling all the avarice and vanity of Man into a structure which can do more harm than imagined. These are the ultimate alternatives that we as society-builders must always keep in mind.    

Ceasar Flickerman (Stanley Tuccman) interviews Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence)