The Hunger Games : Catching Fire (2013)

I hate Katniss in this Sequel, Fickle Katniss

Stars   :  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Score  :  6.5 / 10

 

The Hunger Games' fans surely have been waiting this movie, including me. The film which based a novel by Suzanne Collins, titled The Hunger Games, had three sequels. Catching Fire is second sequel, while the first one is The Hunger Games has been released in 2012. The third sequel will split into two parts, in 2014 and 2015 because it has a long duration. A little flash back from the previous, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) is the winner of 74th Hunger Games competition. Hunger Games is a competition organized by Panem for 12 districts. Each district must send two participants to compete with other district participants to death. The winner is a participant who lived until the game ends.

Katniss and Peeta are participants from last district, District 12. Peeta loved Katniss since they were kids. Because they wanted to stay alive, they tried to take sympathy of sponsor by creating a love story between them. They were succeeded, many sponsors sympathize and help them during the game. Katniss and Peeta are participants who survived until the end of game. They must kill each other to get a winner. They did not want to surrender to Panem, they were determined to die together by eating poisonous fruit. The leader of Panem, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) became worried made people of Panem dissapointed because of their sympathy to Katniss and Peeta. He finally let them go and assume that they were the winner of 74th Hunger Games competition. The review of The Hunger Games, can be read in http://www.reviewcinema.com/2013/01/the-hunger-games.html. 

At this sequel, Katniss and Peeta back to district after the game was over. The districts felt that the winning of Katniss and Peeta was a hope to against Panem. Besides of that, people of Panem felt suspicious about the love story that made by Katniss and Peeta. To control the situation, President Snow threatened Katniss. Katniss must show her feeling in love to Peeta in public, so the pople of Panem believed. He also wanted to take control on Katniss and Peeta.

Katniss and Peeta in Parade

President Snow organized a tour series for Katniss and Peeta. They have to visit all the districts and deliver messages to other participants who have died in the 74th Hunger Games competition. They should show their romance and spoke according to the script already set by Panem during the tour. At first visit, they did not follow the rules and spoke as they want. The districts people get emotional and gave a sign of solidarity by their finger. It has made Panem angry and killed them who tried to fight Panem. Since of that, Katniss and Peeta canceled their plan to act as they want.

President Snow tried to spread terror to the districts to prove his power back. But Katniss and Peeta spirit made them dare to oppose Panem. A close friend and Katniss lovers, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) must receive a public flogging for having against Panem. Katniss did not accept it and helped Gale. Presiden Snow was getting angry and organized a Quarter Quell competition. Quarter Quell is similar competition, but the participants selected from the winners of Hunger Games competition.

Peeta and Katnis in Tour Series

Gale Hawthorne

In Quarter Quell, Panem has made a wider game arena with heavier difficulty level than before. Katniss and Peeta must compete with skilled opponents, because they are the winners of Hunger Games.

I was very excited when going to watch this movie because I like the first one. The reviews and scores in some movie portals about this movie also showed a positive response. This film also was able to survive for a long time in the cinema. Some friends talk about this movie with enthusiasm and suggested me to watch it. So a few days ago I took a time to watch it and the result is so sorry, very disappointed. This film was not according with my estimate and I prefer the first one.

This sequel had a long duration, approximately 140 minutes. But the long duration was not supported with an interesting story and a good conflict. The thrill impression in the Hunger Games, I did not find here. The game started after 90 minutes movie goes. The game was also filled with a lot of dialogue and tired faces of participants who overwhelmed by arena. The scene in game that I liked is only when they have to kill each other, ran and swam out of the arena in the middle of lake, right when the game begins. 

Quarter Quell

There were some details missing in this time. The characters of participant were not reviewed well as before. I got a little confused when recognizing for Katniss and Peeta opponent in competition. All participants introduced by Haymitch (Katniss and Peeta mentor) only for three minutes, when they arrived for Quarter Quell. The pople of Panem seemed to be busy or not in their places to watch the game, so they were not useful as a sponsor like before.

There were no lot of new things which surprise here, mostly still repeated from the first. There are parade horse chariot, costume wrapped in fire, live interview for participants and skill performance before competition. The only thing that is new is the romance story which is getting pretty much portion in this time. Katniss also be very fickle. Katniss had a romance with three men at once. Wooow!!. My friend called her as Hungry for Love. I really hate Katniss in this sequel.

At that time, I watched this movie in theaters and still did not help make this movie enjoyable to watch. 140 minutes felt very long. We were bored. Just a suggestion, if you want to watch this movie, you should watch the first one, because I still confused to understand some part of the story even though I have watched the first one. Getting closer to the end of film, the story was not clear, a bit odd. I also did not like the dialogue of "Tick Tock", not cool. The surprise at the end of film also failed delivered properly. My watching partner gave score 6.5 for this movie and I agreed. Thank you for accompanied me to watch this movie \^0^/