The Odds are Never in your Favor
Katniss Everdeen is back for the Hunger Games sequel - Catching Fire and the odds don't look to be in her favor. The main plot continues exactly where the first film ended. Katniss and Peeta deal with the fallout of their unexpected victory in the 74 annual Hunger Games. Hours before the victory tour we get to see Katniss in her daily schedule and revisit all the people in her life: Haymitch, Prim, Gail and Peeta. As Katniss and Peeta start their victory tour. Katniss starts grasping the affects of her defiance in the 74th Hunger Games, and understand why president Snow visited her right before she started the victory tour. |
| Catching Fire - Victory tour Katniss and Peeta |
The scene in district 11 was the most emotional scenes in the film, just like in the first Hunger Games 2012 everything that had to do with Rue made us shed a tear for the youngest tribute from district 11. The first half of the film was dedicated to build up for the 75th Quarter Quell games and Katniss’s actions during the victory tour had direct impact on the form that the 75th Quarter Quell Hunger Games will shape to be. Some will say that the game was lost even before the tour began but according to the events that were presented in the film Katniss and her defines brought the catastrophic results on herself.
The film was relatively long, almost 2 and a half hours but the beauty about good films is that you do not feel the essence of time and The Hunger Games Catching Fire was a good film that swept the viewer into the Panem world of districts to feel exactly what our district 12 heroes felt during the daily life in this post apocalyptic world. We felt contempt towards President Snow and the problems he created for our champions and finally the most expected thing about the film the Quarter Quell games.
Catching fire was divided to two. The daily life in the district + the victory tour that build up towards the twist in the Quarter Quell Hunger Games - was part one. While the annual 75th Hunger Games themselves were the second part of the film. Both parts of the film were well done and served their purpose by bringing the audience to the mid film climax and holding the tension and excitement during the Hunger Games themselves.
One of the greatest things about Catching fire and the Hunger Games 2012 film is that its creators stick to the books as much as possible. We didn’t see any drastic changes in the films compared to the books and in the case of a successful book series like the Hunger Games that is always a great thing, why change something that worked so well in the books.
The only two problems Catching Fire had:
- The other tributes that were supposed to be the best from the best were not showcased enough. Most of them were pretty important but were not presented as they should have. If you take out one of the most intriguing characters that I wanted to see - Finnick from the group of the new tributes. Rest of the tributes where a vague memory, that was forgotten the moment the movie ended. Sure Johanna Mason was made to look important but what about the rest? I understand that there was not much time but still they should have introduced the rest of the characters better. at least make Enobaria more important than the crazy lady with the sharp teeth.
- The second problem was the ending. I myself read all 3 books one after the other so I had this "WTF" moment in the end of book 2 (Catching Fire), which was resolved immediately when I started book 3 (Mockingjay) but whoever watched Catching Fire without reading the Hunger Games books will not understand this sort of an ending because it just doesn't work well on screen. You get this strange ending that has nothing to do practically with anything you have seen prior to it in the film. That just frustrates you and now you need to wait year just to figure things out. In my opinion the film should have ended with the scene where Katniss is picked up by the District 13 ship and on that scene Catching Fire should have ended.
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire DVD's from Amazon
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (DVD / Blu-ray Combo + UltraViolet Digital Copy)
The Hunger Games [2-Disc Blu-ray + Ultra-Violet Digital Copy]
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games Book Trilogy From Amazon
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set (The Hunger Games)
photo credit: JoeInSouthernCA via photopin cc
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