I recently watched catching fire, the newest installment of the hunger games trilogy in theaters. The movie series is based on 3 books by Suzanne Collins. They are set in a future dystopia where the united stated has divided into various districts based on the major industries of their geographical areas. Each year one girl and one boy are randomly chosen from each district to fight to the death on national television to remind them of their debt, subservience, to the capital. For the most part I really enjoyed the movie. The filming style, acting, story line, costumes, loyalty to the novel, sets, and sense of emotion made it the best of the year for me and far better than the first movie, The Hunger Games. I have very few complaints for the film but the view flaws I did see include the slow pace and lack of explanation.


I really can go on and on about the good points of this film, I preferred the stable filming as opposed to the shaky, almost blurry feeling of the way the first movie was filmed. The story line very closely followed the book, another huge improvement from the first. Jenifer Lawrence (katniss) and Josh Huchersons’ (peeta) acting blew me away and really gave the movie the emotion one felt while reading the book. The costumes were beyond fabulous, the exotic dress of the capital citizens was a tall order for any costume designer but Trish Summerville pulled it off like no one else could. Set designer Larry Dias did just as well with the indoor sets, the outdoor scenes were shot in beautiful O’ahu Hawaii. It was the raw emotion that the film portrayed that really drew me in to the movie.


I have few complaints for Catching Fire. The pace was very slow for the first 30 minutes, it didn’t bother me, or anyone that I talked to that had read the books. For those who didn’t, the movie moved a bit too slow until the fight scenes came up. Another issue for those who didn’t read the books; they were almost completely lost. The movie didn’t give any back story that was crucial to understand the movie. If you saw the first movie you would make it along ok. But it’s almost as if the directors were purposely punishing those who hadn’t done their reading.


Catching Fire was an exquisite movie that surpassed its predecessor in every way. Defiantly my top pick of the year and it’s a must see although I do recommend you read up first, or at least re-watch the Hunger Games.