"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" - directed by Francis Lawrence
Lionsgate played smart and pulled off quite the coup in securing the rights to the Hunger Games books and it paid off in a huge way.
The $78,000,000 budget for last years first filmed book "The Hunger Games" generated almost $700,000,000 in box office receipts.
By splitting the third book into two they have all but guaranteed that they will end up somewhere north of three billion dollars by the time the final credit rolls in a couple of years.
I liked the first film a fair bit but truthfully it was mainly down to a combination of being a massive Jennifer Lawrence fan and the relief that it wasn't another Twilight level embarrassment.
I was at the midnight screening on opening day and as the lights dimmed I heard the excited screams of what sounded like a football stadium worth of teenaged girls.
I turned to my companion and said -'This thing is going to make a fortune!'.
Hardly a bold prediction I know - the books are immensely popular after all.
Besides- "The Hunger Games" is a well made and exciting movie and I enjoyed it even more on the second viewing on Blu-ray.
"Catching Fire" swaps out director Gary Ross for Francis Lawrence ("Constantine", "I Am Legend") and almost doubles the budget with a reported final spend of $130,000,000
Lawrence will also direct the two remaining films "Mockingjay Part 1" and of course "Mockingjay Part 2".
The fate of the franchise largely rests in his hands then.
So- does he get off to a good start?
"Catching Fire" has the advantage of not having to set the scene up as much as the first film did.
We know the world and the main characters and that provides the script with the ability to focus on the extra little niceties like adding layers to the characters and getting on with the action without wasting too much time setting the scene.
It succeeds very well indeed on both counts but in one way very differently than I had expected.
We find Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) outside the fence again with her bow doing a little hunting.
Slyly a little post traumatic stress is thrown into the mix as we see Katniss flub a (literal) turkey shoot.
The events of the first film have affected her deeply.
The budding romance between her and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) is given a boot up the bum too and we are only ten minutes in.
The plot proper kicks in with a visit from President Snow - a phenomenal Donald Sutherland.
He makes his dissatisfaction with Katniss' new found role as hope of the downtrodden clear to her and instructs her to make the fake romance between her and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) more believable as the pair go off on a nationwide tour to promote how nice and cheery everything in the world is and how great it is to slaughter young people for the edification of the ruling class.
When the pair rail against the scripts handed to them and instead seek to inspire people a new tournament is arranged comprised of the victors from previous 'contests'.
It will be more than half way through the movie at one hour and twenty five minutes before the game of death will begin but everything up to that point is so nicely done and so loaded with great ideas and performances that the lack of 'action' isn't even close to an issue.
I was caught up in this movie from the first scene and my enjoyment only grew with each subsequent one.
The world benefits from the improved effects and frequently pre-World War 2 Nazi Germany is brought to mind with massive rallies and parades overseen by President Snow.
It looks pretty damned slick too- the extra money has come in useful.
All flash and dazzle aside this movie entertains because the characters are so well realised by a cast that is pretty much perfect.
Even smaller roles filled by the likes of Amanda Plummer and the always excellent Jeffrey Wright are filled with nuance and interest.
Philip Seymour Hoffman chews every line up with relish and is one of the highlights for me.
Of course Jennifer Lawrence is front and centre and is in typically charismatic, highly skilled form.
She was an inspired choice for this role bringing intensity and likeability in equal measure.
The real standout for me however is Woody Harrelson who gets the bulk of the laughs (such as they are).
It is his seemingly effortless ability to bring drunken, down and out figures to life that makes Haymitch my favourite character.
Already half a dozen fine performances and we haven't got to Jena Malone, Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci and a surprisingly sympathetic Effie courtesy of the underrated Elizabeth Banks.
I love Effie in this one.... I did not see that coming.
Ditto for Josh Hutcherson who gets a lot more to do here and makes the absolute most of his screen time.
The chemistry displayed with Lawrence as they become closer is terrific.
Performances are one thing but what made "Catching Fire" so enjoyable for me was the amount of truly great ideas that the story presents.
Beyond the nicely created dystopian world filled with evil characters and their despicable underlings is a slickly written action adventure tale.
The heroine is a wonderful character as smart as she is courageous and honourable.
Katniss' ultimate flash of genius is just that- genius (no spoilers but it is goooood).
There is an abundance of clever twists and turns that kept me on my toes - not having read the books I didn't know who to trust or what they wanted.
As the body count rises so does the level of the action.
The tree, the clock, the fog and the wildy tense baboon attack are all wonderfully imaginative, exciting ideas that director Lawrence makes superb use of.
The man knows how to use special effects to weave an exciting action scene and he has several pretty damned killer ones here.
The entire second half of the movie is an all out assault of intensity and excitement and on the few instances when I started to feel that the pace was slowing it picked right back up and topped the scene before it.
I am genuinely stunned by how much I enjoyed this film on so many levels.
Heck, I can't recall the last time that I was aware of how good the costume design in a movie was but this one has some incredible work.
Katniss has a centrepiece dress that is a doozy but even down to the one piece outfits that the contestants wear in the game of death the detail is exceptionally good.
"Catching Fire" is superior to "The Hunger Games" in absolutely every way.
The scale, effects, casting, performances, script and overall production from cinematography, costume design and of course direction are several notches up the scale better.
It is darker than the first film and even if the violence isn't graphic the tone is pretty dark a lot of the time.
Yes- the ending could rightly be called anti-climactic and is reminiscent of "The Matrix Reloaded" in more ways than one.
But I like the ending- certainly far better than the wtf finale of the second Matrix movie.
It promises some excitement in the movies to come and even if it feels a little sudden the thought of what it is setting up is excitement enough for me.
A terrific movie- smart, exciting and brilliantly acted all round by one of the finest casts ever to grace a mainstream popcorn flick.
The $78,000,000 budget for last years first filmed book "The Hunger Games" generated almost $700,000,000 in box office receipts.
By splitting the third book into two they have all but guaranteed that they will end up somewhere north of three billion dollars by the time the final credit rolls in a couple of years.
I liked the first film a fair bit but truthfully it was mainly down to a combination of being a massive Jennifer Lawrence fan and the relief that it wasn't another Twilight level embarrassment.
I was at the midnight screening on opening day and as the lights dimmed I heard the excited screams of what sounded like a football stadium worth of teenaged girls.
I turned to my companion and said -'This thing is going to make a fortune!'.
Hardly a bold prediction I know - the books are immensely popular after all.
Besides- "The Hunger Games" is a well made and exciting movie and I enjoyed it even more on the second viewing on Blu-ray.
"Catching Fire" swaps out director Gary Ross for Francis Lawrence ("Constantine", "I Am Legend") and almost doubles the budget with a reported final spend of $130,000,000
Lawrence will also direct the two remaining films "Mockingjay Part 1" and of course "Mockingjay Part 2".
The fate of the franchise largely rests in his hands then.
So- does he get off to a good start?
 |
| The relationship between Peeta and Katniss is far better developed this time. |
We know the world and the main characters and that provides the script with the ability to focus on the extra little niceties like adding layers to the characters and getting on with the action without wasting too much time setting the scene.
It succeeds very well indeed on both counts but in one way very differently than I had expected.
We find Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) outside the fence again with her bow doing a little hunting.
Slyly a little post traumatic stress is thrown into the mix as we see Katniss flub a (literal) turkey shoot.
The events of the first film have affected her deeply.
The budding romance between her and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) is given a boot up the bum too and we are only ten minutes in.
The plot proper kicks in with a visit from President Snow - a phenomenal Donald Sutherland.
He makes his dissatisfaction with Katniss' new found role as hope of the downtrodden clear to her and instructs her to make the fake romance between her and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) more believable as the pair go off on a nationwide tour to promote how nice and cheery everything in the world is and how great it is to slaughter young people for the edification of the ruling class.
 |
| Jennifer Lawrence.... great - of course |
It will be more than half way through the movie at one hour and twenty five minutes before the game of death will begin but everything up to that point is so nicely done and so loaded with great ideas and performances that the lack of 'action' isn't even close to an issue.
I was caught up in this movie from the first scene and my enjoyment only grew with each subsequent one.
The world benefits from the improved effects and frequently pre-World War 2 Nazi Germany is brought to mind with massive rallies and parades overseen by President Snow.
It looks pretty damned slick too- the extra money has come in useful.
All flash and dazzle aside this movie entertains because the characters are so well realised by a cast that is pretty much perfect.
Even smaller roles filled by the likes of Amanda Plummer and the always excellent Jeffrey Wright are filled with nuance and interest.
Philip Seymour Hoffman chews every line up with relish and is one of the highlights for me.
Of course Jennifer Lawrence is front and centre and is in typically charismatic, highly skilled form.
She was an inspired choice for this role bringing intensity and likeability in equal measure.
The real standout for me however is Woody Harrelson who gets the bulk of the laughs (such as they are).
It is his seemingly effortless ability to bring drunken, down and out figures to life that makes Haymitch my favourite character.
Already half a dozen fine performances and we haven't got to Jena Malone, Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci and a surprisingly sympathetic Effie courtesy of the underrated Elizabeth Banks.
I love Effie in this one.... I did not see that coming.
Ditto for Josh Hutcherson who gets a lot more to do here and makes the absolute most of his screen time.
The chemistry displayed with Lawrence as they become closer is terrific.
 |
| Along with some old favourites some great new characters are introduced. |
Beyond the nicely created dystopian world filled with evil characters and their despicable underlings is a slickly written action adventure tale.
The heroine is a wonderful character as smart as she is courageous and honourable.
Katniss' ultimate flash of genius is just that- genius (no spoilers but it is goooood).
There is an abundance of clever twists and turns that kept me on my toes - not having read the books I didn't know who to trust or what they wanted.
As the body count rises so does the level of the action.
The tree, the clock, the fog and the wildy tense baboon attack are all wonderfully imaginative, exciting ideas that director Lawrence makes superb use of.
The man knows how to use special effects to weave an exciting action scene and he has several pretty damned killer ones here.
The entire second half of the movie is an all out assault of intensity and excitement and on the few instances when I started to feel that the pace was slowing it picked right back up and topped the scene before it.
I am genuinely stunned by how much I enjoyed this film on so many levels.
Heck, I can't recall the last time that I was aware of how good the costume design in a movie was but this one has some incredible work.
Katniss has a centrepiece dress that is a doozy but even down to the one piece outfits that the contestants wear in the game of death the detail is exceptionally good.
 |
| The scale and execution of the special effects has been ramped up considerably courtesy of a substantially larger budget |
The scale, effects, casting, performances, script and overall production from cinematography, costume design and of course direction are several notches up the scale better.
It is darker than the first film and even if the violence isn't graphic the tone is pretty dark a lot of the time.
Yes- the ending could rightly be called anti-climactic and is reminiscent of "The Matrix Reloaded" in more ways than one.
But I like the ending- certainly far better than the wtf finale of the second Matrix movie.
It promises some excitement in the movies to come and even if it feels a little sudden the thought of what it is setting up is excitement enough for me.
A terrific movie- smart, exciting and brilliantly acted all round by one of the finest casts ever to grace a mainstream popcorn flick.
| Rated: | M for mild but intense violence |
| Running Time: | 146 minutes (2hrs, 15mins without end credits) |
| Starring: |
| Jennifer Lawrence | --- Katniss Everdeen |
| Liam Hemsworth | --- Gale Hawthorne |
| Josh Hutcherson | --- Peeta Mallark |
| Donald Sutherland | --- President Snow |
| Woody Harrelson | --- Haymitch Abernathy |
| Paula Malcolmson | --- Katniss' Mother |
| Willow Shields | --- Primrose Everdeen |
| Elizabeth Banks | --- Effie Trinket |
| Lenny Kravitz | --- Cinna |
| Stanley Tucci | --- Caesar Flickerman |
| Jack Quaid | --- Marvel |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman | --- Plutarch Heavensbee |
| Jeffrey Wright | --- Beetee |
| Amanda Plummer | --- Wiress |
| Sam Claflin | --- Finnick Odair |
| Toby Jones | --- Claudius Templesmith |
| Jena Malone | --- Johanna Mason |
No comments:
Post a Comment