The Friday before SMSU’s thanksgiving break I had the opportunity to go to Catching Fire. I was genuinely impressed overall with the movie. Catching Fire stars the amazing Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen and the impressive Josh Hutcherson.
I thought that the special effects were really amazing especially when they rendered the mocking jay dress as well as the baboons. But what truly impressed me about this movie was the cast. I had some doubts with casting Josh Hutcherson but I think he was much better in his second showing as Peeta Mellark. I was worried that Philip Seymour Hoffman, a new member to the cast as Plutarch Heavensbee, and Donald Sutherland, as President Snow, would steal the show with some heavy dense dialogue. But that wasn’t the case. They used him sparingly and I think it worked to their advantage. I am sure that he will have a bigger part in the upcoming movies, but in Catching Fire he had the right amount of screen time.
The movie never felt that it was progressing too fast and for the most part they stayed pretty close to the book which for most Hunger Games fans is a good thing. The fighting scenes seemed toned down at times simply because they didn’t show so many children dying or perhaps it was because you didn’t directly see so many people die. One of the most gripping scenes was exactly like that: Katniss and Peeta are traveling after winning the last hunger games. At one of the stops an elderly man raises his hand in protest against the games and is quickly executed on the spot on national television. Jennifer really sells the scene based on her reactions. And of course you can’t forget about the ever charming Woody Harleson, who returned to play Haymitch Abernathy, a former winner of the hunger games who is the “coach” to Peeta and Katniss. He does an excellent job again playing a quirky drunken man, or that’s what you think up till the end. I don’t want to much of the movie for those who have not seen it or read the books.
Overall it was a fantastic movie. With fantastic actresses and actors and film crew, who all came together to make possibly the biggest movie of the year.
