Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review

By Robbie Alderman
Staff Writer

There’s no question that movies made from popular teen and young adult novel series hit the silver screen with a bang. Between the Harry Potter series ($7.7 billion worldwide), the Twilight saga ($3.3 billion worldwide), and the first Hunger Games film, these teen flicks have grossed over $11.5 billion.

The expectations for the second installment in “The Hunger Games” trilogy, “Catching Fire,” which hit theaters on Nov. 22, were extremely high, and it lived up to the hype. In its opening weekend, “Catching Fire” grossed $307.7 million worldwide beating out Disney’s “Frozen”.

“Catching Fire” is the second book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of “The Hunger Games.”

The film takes place a year after the 74th annual Hunger Games in which Katniss Everdeen (JenniferLawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) share the victory. The film picks up with the two victors coming back together in order to go on a “victor’s tour” throughout all the districts and ending in the Capitol.

In an early scene of the film, Katniss is visited by Panem’s President Snow. He expresses his frustration with her and the rebellion she has ignited and threatens to destroy everything she knows if she does not cooperate. Cooperation, in this instance, is Katniss embracing her and Peeta’s title as “star-crossed lovers,” which they adopted in the first film.

“Catching Fire” contains an interesting plot twist. Instead of selecting from the usual pool of 12-18-year-old boys and girls, in celebration of the 75th year of the Hunger Games, the new game maker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman), decides to reap this year’s contestants from the surviving victors.

The film scored an 8.2/10 on IMDB’s website and lives up to the hype. I was a skeptic about these films and books while everyone was raving over them two years ago, but I can honestly say, after seeing this film twice, that I am a supportive fan of “The Hunger Games.”

May the odds be ever in your favor!