The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Down and Dirty: Must See Sequel

Director: Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine, Water for Elephants)

Big Names: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson

What are the best sequels you can think of off the top of your head? A few come to mind for me: LOTR: The Two Towers, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Knight. All of those films succeeded in carrying on the essence of their franchise while changing the feel completely. Many take on a more serious tone. The foundation has been laid, now everything gets real. Catching Fire aligns with this trend and belongs on that list without a single doubt in my mind. It is the bridge between the casual child slaughtering ritual and the reality of class warfare.

The premise of this series is a subversive one. Collins wrote the novels hoping to showcase two ideas: we, as a society, have become extraordinarily numb to brutality and violence; and we knowingly embrace an incredibly damaging caste system. This first idea is illustrated well in the first film. The visceral deaths in the games are not glorified, nor are they dwelled on, they simply occur. It catches the audience off guard how seemingly banal it all feels. This notion is shown in the second film, but not nearly as much. Instead, Catching Fire serves as the walkway between the two major ideas that Collins perpetuates. As Katniss Everdeen travels, disillusioned districts start vocalizing their concerns as class warfare rears its ugly head. The games still take place, but only as a necessary transition to the real war that lies on the horizon.

From a plot standpoint, it is a rather simple track. It mirrors the first film, while tracking the political atmosphere in the greater state of Panem. But it is the characters that make this second entry so fantastic. My brother made a rather perceptive insight when he explained to me that what made the first book so much better than the movie is that it allows you inside Katniss’ head. No matter how good of an actress Jennifer Lawrence is, you lose out on those mental notes in the film. However, in Catching Fire, Katniss spends much more time interacting with people than she did previously. We don’t need the mental notes because she is so impulsive and vocal that she's constantly expressing these things outwardly. All we need to see are the key moments of dialogue that best illustrate such notions, the killing we’ve grown numb to, and the lack of emotional commitment that fuels the fire of the love triangle. J-Law knows this and runs with it. She is utterly captivating as the reluctant/ignorant savior of the working class, caught between two young men who care for her very dearly. She owns the role. Lawrence’s recent success as a film star has undoubtedly given her the confidence to carry the weight of the franchise and all of Panem. I believe her when she can’t decide who to trust, who to love, or who to kill. We’ve all been there right?

But in all seriousness, the cast of characters really carries the story. Why should you care about the fictional working class people of fantasy-land District 12? For two reasons. One, it tends to parallel our current nation state and hypothesizes about the very real dangers of class distinction. Two, you know the characters (Katniss, Prim, Gale, Peeta, Haymitch) who call it home; and each of the actors representing those characters make you care. They sell it. The melodrama doesn’t even feel like melodrama. It feels genuine. This is the kind of sequel that gets you so invested in each of the characters that when it ends you yell, “What the hell! We need more!” Director Francis Lawrence knows this. He draws you in with enticing action sequences and touching moments and then leaves you salivating. His previous work is criminally underrated. I thought I was going to hate Water for Elephants. This was another film that had melodrama written all over it with the guy from Twilight; and yet, it was a captivating, emotional tale of love and what we will do on its behalf. I Am Legend had some of the most visually exciting CGI I’d ever seen. Francis Lawrence made sure to showcase Will Smith killing zombies and made it look extra badass. In my opinion, both of those films gave him very different elements that he then blended together to develop the perfect cinematic tone for Catching Fire.

This is one of those rare sequels that surpass the first film. Go see it.