Film franchises based off of teen novels often get a bad rap since the “Twilight Saga” came and went, and for good reason. While the first “Hunger Games” was better than typical teen novel faire, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” pulls the series even further over the typical “Mortal Instruments”, “Percy Jackson”, and “Beautiful Creatures” schlock to reach heights previously held by Harry Potter.
“Catching Fire” opens with main character Katniss Everdeen still traumatized from her experiences in the first film. This and many other scenes in the film serve as a showcase to actress Jennifer Lawrence’s skill on the silver screen.
Lawrence took home a well-deserved Academy Award earlier in the year for her performance in “Silver Linings Playbook”.
While it is far more likely that she will be nominated again for the upcoming film “American Hustle”, Lawrence’s performance here would also be deserving of an Oscar.
While Katniss is the focus of the film, the rest of the returning cast is given their time to shine, with the exception of Liam Hemsworth. It’s not that Hemsworth, who plays Gale, is a bad actor, it’s more that he isn’t given much to do.
For an actor who is given top billing alongside Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, he’s only on screen for maybe 30 minutes of the films 146 minute runtime.
Hutcherson, as Peeta, has grown more into the role since the first film, and at the very least has become less inept at survival skills.
Of the new cast additions, the most impressive are Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Sam Claflin.
To be fair, Hoffman isn’t assimilated that well into the universe of The Hunger Games, and as a result sticks out like a sore thumb.
While Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks are dressed in the increasingly bizarre outfits typical of citizens from the capitol, Hoffman, as game-maker Plutarch Heavensbee, consistently looks as if he just stumbled into shot from the craft services table. This doesn’t matter so much though when you’re as good of an actor as Hoffman, as he plays Heavensbee with smug self righteousness that feels just as much like a facade as everything else in this world.
The real star player in the new additions however is Claflin as District 4 tribute Finnick Odair. Claflin, who acts with his eyebrows enough to embody a young Micheal Keaton, fits the role perfectly and plays the cocky character with just enough humanity, a role which could have easily become cartoonish in another actors hands.
The biggest improvement however from the previous film comes from the change in directors.
While “Hunger Games” director Gary Ross did a fair enough job, his former directing credits only including “Pleasantville” and “Seabiscuit” don’t exactly scream action. This showed in “Hunger Games” over reliance on shaky-cam, which often resulted in action scenes more incoherent than they were thrilling. “Catching Fire” director Francis Lawrence (no relation to Jennifer Lawrence) however wisely keeps the camera static for most scenes.
While his previous films (“Constanine”, “I Am Legend”) may not instill confidence in moviegoers, Lawrence brings the material to greater heights than Ross did and is clearly a more confident action director.
If you had any interest in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” you’ve probably already seen it, as the film has already made close to 300 million dollars domestically, but it goes without saying that the film does great service to it’s source material, and will likely become the next beloved book-based film franchise, if it hasn’t already.