Well this was a long time in the making x3

This review took wayyyyyy too long to make. In between attending MFF, detoxing after MFF, working on commissions, christmas shopping, general work and 'slaying' dragons, I've found very little time to work on reviews. Still I'm gonna see through it and I really wanted to talk about this movie, even if no one cares anymore :P

Leave your thoughts about this movie and review in the comments section below! :)

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
***½

Between the gap of the release of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire I have come across a lot of unwarranted criticism against the first movie. First off the shaky cam is not that bad; yes I know many hack directors use it as a means to look more creative and intimate without putting any real effort into their craft, but there it actually seemed to make sense. The hand held camera helped to communicate the situation from Katniss’s perspective, in which the books are written in the first person, and the camera evens out when it needs to. Sure it made the action a bit hard to see, but that only made it more frightening. Secondly the game itself is not too long. It perfectly captures the intense and continuous fear and isolated struggle of being in that situation. Thirdly, if people had a longer attention span than a narcoleptic with a blanket over their head they would realize that many of the film’s appearing plot holes are addressed before they even happen. I bring these points up because while I think that The Hunger Games ended up with a lot of underserved reputation its sequel will end up being over praised for what it is. The entire film acts like a checklist of angry fanboy demands to fix the original and we end up with a movie that appears like a rehash of the first instalment that greatly improves on the original’s supposed mistakes but forgets what made the first one so great. Therefore we end up with two movies, opposite in strength and flaws, but similar in overall enjoyment, which is pretty damn enjoyable.

Almost a year has passed since the last annual Hunger Games and underdogs Katniss and Peeta became the first two winners to leave the Survivor Truman Show arena and it seems that it wasn’t just irritable film critics that didn’t believe Katniss’s young love rouse. Peeta, the capitol’s President Snow and a good hand of the game’s spectators become aware of her indifference and both Katniss and Peeta are force to continue their celebrity relationship while on tour through the 12 districts to mourn the 22 deceased Hunger Game Players and to promote the oppressive Capitol all the while creating some much needed and seamless world building. The people of the districts though are still roused by the events of last year’s games and the smell of rebellion begins wafting into the Capitol’s nostrils. Soon the Capitol gets the idea that to put the districts back in their place is to cut off the head where they’ve shown the littlest bit of mercy, my marking the coming 75th Hunger Games with having all the previous winners being up for being thrown back into the ring for an ALL-STAR RUMBLE! NO MORE ROOKIES THIS YEAR! THESE ARE COLD BLOODED WINNERS AND THEY’RE NOT ABOUT TO LOSE! THESE TITANS INCLUDE, THE WONDER TWINS, SHARPTOOTH, A YODA BACKPACK AND THE FAAAAAACE!!!

I find it a shame that this new director is terrified to show the slightest bit of stumble in the camerawork because the unique cinematography is what helped set it apart from all the other young adult tripe being released (aside from it being, you know, good), but as I’ve mentioned before he makes it up in other areas of the film. Catching Fire now creates a more focused central theme of the struggles and exploitation of celebrity leading into the pre-mentioned tour which is by far the most powerful scenes in the entire film and finally someone shares my discomfort of those Harry Potter athlete profile videos. Always staring, never blinking and repeating over and over and over. Desperately seeking my approval, I’M SORRY I CAN’T SAVE YOU FROM THIS ENDLESS TRAP! Even this kind of out of nowhere discomfort is made all the more real by the real world girl on fire Jenifer Lawrence’s performance, able to juggle over 8 different motivations and torments seamlessly. It also helps that the entire supporting cast bring out some of their more memorable work with special regards to Elizabeth Banks playing the personal favorite crossroad Nicki Minaj, except better dressed; she can cry all she wants and she still looks fabulous! The most personally entertaining though is the near parody like jab at the young adult’s required love triangles by obviously forcing our two mains into this equilateral death trap. All of these elements and more contribute to the film’s theme of celebrity that pretty much make the first half of Catching Fire pretty damn near flawless.

It’s the second half of the film, where they begin preparing for the annual slaughter, does the movie slip onto its own combat knife. Unlike most people, I loved the first games in the first movie, especially the slow, intense and despairing realism of it all so it’s a shame when these next games are so... silly. Now that’s saying something, considering the first games had both fireballs and manbearpig. These new games have overblown events that range from raging fan metaphors, Shyamalan fog and a carousel for the kiddies that all come in quick successions to leave little room for development, tension or to be actually hungry in these Hunger Games! Also while Peeta shows great support for Katniss in the first half he becomes just useless and in the way whilst in the games, great painter though, which I can respect enough. More so the film and its previews build up these awesome and colourful in-game villains and don’t even have the courtesy to kill them on screen. I know they set up these games to have the tributes be lambs to the slaughter, but don’t show me the menu if you’re not offering over half the items. Complaints aside though the film remains just as enjoyable as the first and better yet gets me incredibly jacked up for its next chapter.