"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" Review

In a world where fans are constantly disappointed by movie adaptations, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is a film that stays very true to its source material.

In the future, what was once the United States of America is now the country Panem, which is run by a dictatorship. It is split into 12 districts, and every year the government chooses two minors from each -- one boy and one girl -- to fight each other to the death in what is known as the Hunger Games. This event is televised throughout the country.

In the first movie, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, “The Silver Linings Playbook”) volunteers to be in the Games so her younger sister does not have to. She is not a particularly charismatic person, but her attitude and actions show a sense of humanity, which inspires citizens in Panem to rebel.

The boy from District 12 chosen to be in the Hunger Games is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, “The Bridge to Terabithia). As a means of survival, Katniss pretends to be in love with him so sponsors -- rich people who can give her what she needs -- sympathize with her.

At the end of the first movie, Katniss and Peeta are the final two alive and are forced to kill each other. To avoid this, they threaten to eat lethal, poisonous berries at the same time. Because there has to be a winner, the one who runs the games lets them both live.

In this movie, Katniss is under scrutiny of President Snow (Donald Sutherland, “The Italian Job”), the ruler of Panem. He knows that Katniss is not really in love with Peeta. In fact, she kisses another boy named Gale (Liam Hemsworth, “The Expendables 2”), and Snow caught it on camera.

Snow tells Katniss that her threatening to take the berries was seen as an act of defiance by many people throughout Panem, and it has inspired them to rebel. Because of this, Snow wants the citizens to believe Katniss and Peeta were motivated because they could not bear to live without one another.

The president threatens to cause harm to Katniss and her family unless she convinces the world, including him, that her and Peeta are in love.

For the first part of the movie, Katniss and Peeta visit every district as the new victors. Their very presence stirs people up, and the officers -- known as Peacekeepers -- use force to silence them.

President Snow knows he needs to kill Katniss. However, the man in charge of the Hunger Games, Plutarch Hevensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, “Mission: Impossible III”), convinces him that if she is killed, it has to be the right way at the right time.

Snow wants everyone to hate Katniss so she does not become a martyr. He replaces the Peacekeepers currently in the districts with newer, more ruthless officers who are strict and abusive. If anyone does something out of line, these Peacekeepers will resort to torture.

Snow realizes this is not enough, so he figures out a different way to kill Katniss.

The upcoming Hunger Games is a special event called the Quarter Quell. Every 25 years, the Hunger Games have a specific twist to them. Snow decides to make this year’s Hunger Games a competition between tributes who have won in the past. Katniss and Peeta are now forced to fight in the Hunger Games again

In some ways, this movie is better than the novel it is based on. Author Suzanne Collins wrote the series from Katniss’s point of view. While it is still interesting to see Panem this way, the world is experienced narrowly by readers. We do not get to see anything else besides what is happening around Katniss.

This is where both “The Hunger Games” and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” succeeds as films. Rather than being shown through Katniss’s point of view, the audience gets to see reactions from people throughout Panem as well as the decision-making process of President Snow.

Where the movie does not succeed as well is in its explanation of Panem. For people who have read the books, everything in both movies is logical. However, in the movies there are things that are either not explained at all or are talked about in one sentence of easy-to-miss exposition. Those who have not read it may be confused.

An example is the concept of the Quarter Quell. I only understood what this was because I had read the novel previously. Though the name “Quarter Quell” is mentioned, it is never explicitly described.

Those who have never read the books can still understand what is going, but there are various important details that may be confusing.

This film -- based on a young adult novel featuring an angsty girl in the middle of a love triangle -- had the potential to be cheesy and stupid. That is not the case with this movie. The filmmakers seemed to have learned from the “Twilight” series that in order to not be made fun of, they need to get a good cast.

Jennifer Lawrence does a very good job as Katniss. The events of this film place her in some complicated situations. She seems to love Gale more than Peeta, but in order to keep peace, she has to pretend to love the latter on camera. Lawrence does a great job playing a girl who is trying to live a lie.

Donald Sutherland is perfect for the role as President Snow. He plays a politician who will say one thing, but mean something quite different. People who like him do not understand this, but his enemies see his threats when he issues them.

Because this movie is about the tributes who won previous Hunger Games, there are some very interesting characters that are introduced.

In particular, Jena Malone (“Pride & Prejudice”) steals every scene she is in as Johanna Mason. She is a lot like Katniss in her hatred towards the government. However, where Katniss is more reserved, she is outgoing, flirtatious and talkative. She is also hilarious and interesting. I looked forward to every scene she was in.

The first half of the movie is ironically the more interesting and evenly paced section. Once the Hunger Games start, the film actually slows down a little. However, after a few minutes it picks up again. There are some intense scenes that I found to be scarier than many horror movies in the second half.

I give this movie five out of five stars. Though some things are not very well explained, the performances are great, and it stays very true to the source material, often building upon it.

Content: Rated PG-13. There is some blood in a few parts. There are also some stabbings, but they are very brief. Very mild language, and one part features a character saying the F-word twice, but since it is aired on television, it is bleeped out. Scary images may frighten younger viewers.

A version of this review was published in The Utah Statesman, a student run newspaper at Utah State University on November 26, 2013.