First of all, I have to say that I enjoyed the first part of this four-part trilogy (yes, they are turning the last book of the novel-trilogy into two separate movies - a trend that I don't really like btw) and that I couldn't wait to finally see the second part.
The first part introduced us into this post-apocalyptic world, where children are forced to kill each other in an arena - with the slaughter made into a big television event, watched by thousands of people similar to popular reality competition shows of our times.
Before watching the first part I was kind of hesitant, because I heard that it's yet another movie of the so-called Twilight-generation, but since I found Twilight trashy and cheesy enough to actually enjoy it in the end, I thought - why not give The Hunger Games the same chance?
Ok, but this is about Catching Fire... The beginning of the movie came in a bit too quickly, which made me regret not rewatching the first movie before, but after five minutes I got used to the characters and to the new situation and some memories of the first movie were refreshed in the first part of the film anyways.
Let me say, I really like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She is a very talented and beautiful actress and her heartfelt performance of the first installment was only exceeded by the emotional rollercoaster-ride she showed us in this sequel.
Plus, whoever designed those costumes has done a marvelous job (once again), her "wedding"-dress was one of the best things in this movie.
The story was quite simple: The two main characters had to do the Hunger Games again, because the evil Capitol felt that Katniss shouldn't become the symbol (Mockingjay) of freedom to the rebels, but this time the winners from all the previous games were in the running.
The games itself were located in a fake-tropical paradise with various dangers like thunderbolts, waves, aggressive monkeys and creepy skin-cauterizing fog. Compared to the first movie the dangers of the arena were a bit more intimidating, but the adversaries were simply mundane. As a viewer I did not feel like Katniss was in immediate danger from any of the other tributes at any time. The ending conveniently told me why, though, which kind of satisfied me. However a bit more action and brutality wouldn't have hurt the movie. But since the books aim to a teenaged audience, the script had to adapt to that target group.
In conclusion, the movie has its ups and downs. When the two main protagonists spend some time in the capitol - that's when the real story happens. The rest, of course is pure action and entertainment, but the real, creepy, compelling part of the movie is the scheming and manipulating of the government. It shows the audience how much power media has over them and sometimes even makes the viewer wonder how much he is controlled by TV, Internet and all those "modern" things himself...
In a hypothetical way, this vision about the future comes quite close to what our fate might really look like. However the whole fiction lacks in depth. We don't get a lot of back information in the movies. I haven't read the books (yet) but I know, that even those won't answer questions like "What happens to the rest of the world? Does every country have the same system? Are there any other countries?"
Ok. If you liked the first movie, you will also like the second one. It's not an epic, must-see classic, but it's fun and inspiring - at least for some of us. And Jennifer Lawrence is doing a magnificent job!
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