Catching Fire: Remember Who the Enemy Is

Visually spectacular. That is how I would describe Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games movies.  From the “ruins” of the districts to the Capital parties to the 75^th Hunger Games arena the movie was visually a masterpiece.  Everything was just as I had pictured in the book.

Catching Fire picks up a few months after the 74^th Hunger Games where Peeta and Katniss won in the first time 2 people became victors.  Katniss is finding it hard to keep her thoughts together and questions everything, especially her relationship with Gale and Peeta.  After a disturbing visit from President Snow, Katniss tries to make the best of the Victory Tour and convince everyone that she and Peeta are madly and happily in love.  It doesn’t work and for that the 75^th Hunger Games – the Quarter Quell – will reap (choose) from the existing pool of victors. By process of elimination, Katniss will go back into the arena as she is the only female victor from District 12.  But this Hunger Games isn’t all that it seems and Katniss will have to decide who and what to trust.

The movie was very true to the book. It hit all the main points and removed what needed to be.  The movie flowed without filling it with unnecessary plot that would confuse the people who just see the movies and not read the book.  However the one item that I was still not 100% pleased with was the relationship between Peeta and Katniss.  The relationship was subtle, not overtly stated.  To the film only audience the ending might confuse them if the writers for the screenplay don’t do a better job in the 3^rd and 4^th movies of building that relationship and making them understand that it is genuine. But perhaps the film only viewers will understand the relationship because it isn’t complicated. These are 2 people who are trying to survive together in a world that is unlike anything they have known before. They only have each other to rely on and trust.  That isn’t complicated.  And maybe the relationship isn’t defined because Katniss herself doesn’t know what she wants or doesn’t think she deserves what she wants.

Side note: After reading the book again, I realized that in the book the relationship was subtle as well as my anger towards the films comes from knowing the end of the series and the outcome. 

Despite not being 100% please with the Katniss and Peeta relationship storyline, towards the end of the movie the relationship does seem more genuine than the first movie.  Katniss was worried about Peeta and the kiss was not for the cameras like when they were in the first arena. It was real.

During the course of the movie, Peeta seemed weak and needed help with almost everything yet in the book he was portrayed as strong with his own voice.  It was almost a reversal of roles with the male lead being the weakest of the pair.  It was invigorating and disturbing at the same time simply because that is not how Suzanne Collins portrayed Peeta. 

In all, this movie is a favorite of mine not because of the story but because of the cinematography, the scenery and the mechanics of the movie. This movie certainly does not fall into the middle child syndrome that so many trilogies do.