Directed by Francis Lawrence
"Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem." - IMDB
PLEASE BE WARNED, CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS
After waiting like a year and a half for the second installment of The Hunger Games (2012) I could not wait for Catching Fire! I had my tickets book and was counting down the days.
I have to say that I was not disappointed! I loved it! I loved it more than the first film and I just want to go and watch it over and over again!
I know that when novels are adapted into films, the book it always better. And in The Hunger Games, this was definitely true. I was really annoyed that they left so much out of the film as it was all important little bits that you needed for the tension to follow. I heard people who hadn't read the books say it was confusing, and I can understand why.
With Catching Fire, I didn't feel like this was the case at all. I don't know whether or not it was because I read the books ages ago, or because there wasn't as much needed in this as the first, but it really didn't disappoint me at all!
I thought that the casting for the other tributes was fab! I thought that Sam Claflin (Finnick), Jeffrey Wright (Beetee) and Jena Melone (Johanna) (to name a few) played the existing victors amazingly!
The only character I wasn't too impressed with was Mags (Lynn Cohen). They made her character not speak and I'm sure in the book she does, correct me if I'm wrong! I was actually looking forward to meeting Mags, and I think that the casting was done well, but the way they portrayed her character was not.
The arena of the games was done really well too. Not what I imagined it, but it worked. I don't think I had a clear image of what the arena was like from the book anyway, but they adapted it well and it worked as a film.
I was really happy with the games as a whole. It was really thrilling and interesting, which I found in the book anyway. I love the idea of the arena being a clock with different threats every hour and it was interesting to watch on screen.
The film isn't particularly slow either. I remember the book taking forever to get into the games and then the actual 75th Hunger Games didn't last very long at all. They paced it really well in the film. They showed what they needed to, although I would like to have seen more from the victory tour, and Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peter's (Josh Hutcherson) visits to the other districts.
So now I can't wait to see Mockingjay Part 1 which is going to be released in November 2014, so that's another year to wait! (Tooooo long!) Will just have to watch The Hunger Games and Catching Fire over and over until then!
