Review: THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE  (ACTION-ADVENTURE/SCI-FI)
Three and a Half out of Four Stars
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Sam Claflin, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jena Malone, Willow Shields, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, Jeffery Wright, Lynn Cohen
PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language.
Verdict: While distinctly different from its predecessor, CATCHING FIRE is as strong a film and a highly-engaging two-and-a-half hours.
YOU MAY ENJOY THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE IF YOU LIKED:
THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)
I AM LEGEND (2007)
WINTER'S BONE (2010)
BATTLE ROYALE (2000)

The last time we saw Katniss Everdeen (newly-minted Academy Award-winner for Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence), she had just defied the authority of the tyrannical Capitol by forcing a tie in the infamous gladiatorial competition, The Hunger Games, with her co-victor Peeta Melark (Josh Hutcherson).  Now, the seeds of rebellion have been sewn across the impoverished and oppressed districts of the dystopian nation of Panem, and not without the notice of President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who is eager to destroy the symbol that Katniss has become.  Meanwhile, Katniss is torn between Gale (Liam Hemsworth), her longtime sweetheart, and what began as an act with Peeta for public appeal, but is beginning to turn real.  All of this rising tension comes to a head as Snow announces the 75th Annual Hunger Games, in which Katniss and Peeta will once again be forced to enter the arena, but this time up against a roster of victors from previous years, all experienced veterans of the arena.
Taking up the director's reins from Gary Ross, who directed the first film, is Francis Lawrence, best known for his experience in music videos and for I AM LEGEND and WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, and the shift in directorial vision is prominent.  Gone is the handheld cinematography and the raw, earthy aesthetic, and the overall tone is altered.  Also, now that the anxieties of depicting the gory details of the books into a PG-13 rating have been satisfied with a first installment, F. Lawrence maintains the brutality factor while not worrying much about the blood quotient.  Now that I've given you a false start though, I'll now point out that while the film is a notably different experience from its predecessor, it's just as good as the original in its own way.

Like the original though, even in the course of all the action, it maintains a strong sense of the horror in killing, and this time around, each of the competitors have more distinct and varied personalities, so there are not nameless deaths for the sake of cheap thrills.  Instead, the thrills are based almost purely in the imperilment of the clearly-defined and mostly benevolent characters.  In CATCHING FIRE, the games are less primal and less grounded, but more nightmarish.  And while the first film showed us much about the mechanics of the games as Capitol operators manipulate the situations in a satire of reality television, here the attention is all based in the arena-bound characters.
The second part of a three-part franchise (even when part three has been split in two parts to technically make it a four-film franchise) is typically the "dark one," as the stakes must be raised higher, but without the reassuring conclusion to come in the final chapter, but while CATCHING FIRE certainly raises the stakes and makes more prominent many of the story's dark themes (but the first film was about kids killing kids, for gosh sakes), there's also more humor this time around.  While most of her roles seem to run the way of ultra-serious, J. Lawrence's public personality is well known for her sense of humor, and a certain elevator scene makes fabulous use of her comedic sensibilities.
The greatest weakness to the film lies in the fact that in being part of a whole, it lacks a resolution in order to set the stage for the upcoming parts one and two of MOCKINGJAY, but in a two-and-a-half hour-long movie where there's hardly a dull minute, that ought not to be a deterrent.