The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games saga continues with this disappointing and thoroughly underwhelming entry that follows Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen as she’s once again forced to battle for her life, with the movie detailing Katniss’ ongoing efforts at staying alive alongside one-dimensional characters like Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta Mellark, Jeffrey Wright’s Beetee, and Sam Claflin’s Finnick Odair. It’s clear immediately that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, in certain respects, marks a vast improvement over its immediate predecessor, with, especially, filmmaker Francis Lawrence’s decision to jettison the inept visuals of the first installment (eg no more shakycam!) instantly ensuring that the movie possesses an appreciatively (and palpably) cinematic feel. Lawrence’s slow-going sensibilities, however, prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly connecting to either the characters or the storyline, although, to be fair, it’s clear that the movie benefits substantially from the inclusion of several stand-out sequences – including a surprisingly moving scene in which Katniss attempts to pay tribute to a fallen fellow competitor. It’s only as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire rolls into its overlong and padded-out midsection that one’s attention begins to seriously flag, as the movie has been suffused with a series of less-than-engrossing training sequences that pave the way for an action-packed third act that’s neither exciting nor particularly interesting (ie there’s too much running and hiding in the dark). And although the film improves in its climactic stretch, there is, finally, a sense of energetic urgency that’s otherwise absent, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, anchored by star Lawrence’s charmless performance, ultimately comes off as a misguided and hopelessly bloated (two and a half hours!) blockbuster that’s rarely, if ever, as entertaining as its source material.

** out of ****