JOPLIN, Mo. — I'll be the first to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of the first "Hunger Games" movie. While it was capably executed, well-acted and certainly exciting, the entire premise of child-on-child violence left me feeling uneasy. Because of this, I approached the sequel with a small amount of trepidation.
However, the original succeeded in stoking my curiosity for the continued saga of Katniss Everdeen, and after experiencing "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," I was certainly not let down.
The second film picks up shortly after the first one left off. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are on a tour of Panem after their joint victory in the first Hunger Games.
They are meant to be a distraction from the poverty and oppression that is being felt across the country, but instead, Katniss finds herself a symbol of a gestating uprising. As the people look to her as a hero, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) realizes that he must eliminate her in order to maintain his power and keep the people down.
But rather than kill her outright, which would ignite the revolution, he opts to draft her back into the 75th annual Hunger Games, along with another 23 combatants who had previously survived the games and were promised a life of leisure as a result. Katniss, along with Peeta, must once again survive the unsurvivable, only this time with the promise that they can't both win.
"Catching Fire" marks a solid second outing in what is now the newest big movie series. The action is intense, the actors do a fine job of mining the material for emotional impact, and Ñ as a bonus Ñ there are no kids in these particular games.
The success of the film can be attributed not only to the return of its solid cast, but also to a change of director, as Francis Lawrence takes over the helm from previous director Gary Ross. And it is the two Lawrences who allow the film to rise above what could have been merely ordinary.
Director Lawrence is a refreshing change from Ross. Whereas Ross relied far too heavily on the shaky camera style that tends to define the modern blockbuster, most often for the worse, Lawrence apparently invested in a tripod, something that is much appreciated.
Lawrence made the entertaining popcorn flick "I Am Legend," and though he had a misfire with the awful "Water for Elephants," he returns to a more action-oriented film and again shows where his skills lie. It is often a negative when a franchise changes directors, but this franchise looks like it will be better for it.
The other Lawrence continues to impress in what is still a nascent career. After winning Best Actress for her role in "Silver Linings Playbook," she has been making smart career decisions, balancing the mainstream films such as "Fire" with more critical work such as the upcoming "American Hustle." She is proving herself to be one of the few actresses left who can offer both commercial and skilled performances, yet even in the less serious films she manages to excel.
She has infused her Katniss with the burdens the previous year has brought. Her conflicted performance as a woman who is grateful to have survived, yet who must pretend to be someone she is not while witnessing the suffering of the people who love her, is very compelling. She is an unlikely hero, forced to deal with the aftermath of a situation she didn't create and wanted no part of, and this makes her all the more human.
Also good is the returning cast, though each isn't given nearly the opportunity to shine. Hutcherson makes a sympathetic Peeta, undyingly loyal to a woman he can't be certain will ever love him back. Sutherland comes across as maliciously evil and is compelling every time he's on screen.
Elizabeth Banks and Lenny Kravitz both seem to be enjoying their return to Panem, and it's nice to see Woody Harrelson having fun with his career again. The weakest member of the cast is Liam Hemsworth as Gale. He is Katniss' supposed love interest, but he is such a bland character that it is hard to imagine him inspiring love in anyone.
The movie isn't without its faults, but fortunately they are limited. First, the run time is oppressively long. At almost two and a half hours (before the endless previews), it lags at certain points before picking back up.
The other negative is the lack of depth in the supporting characters. We've gotten to know Katniss, Peeta and the rest of the returning crew, but so little time is spent developing the new characters that there is no emotional investment in them. It's hard to feel moved about a character's death when they are given just the broadest of generic descriptions before being offered up as fodder.
"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" is not only a worthy successor to the original film, but it manages to exceed the reputation of the first movie. It leaves the viewer excited for the continuation of the story and offers one of the strongest heroines seen on screen in a long while. Whereas the "Twilight" films, also based on young adult novels, were a franchise begging to be skipped, this is setting itself up as a film series that won't be ignored.
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