Catching Fire Movie Review

As said in my previous post, I was going to watch the movie, Catching Fire from the Hunger Games series. Catching Fire is the second book in the hunger games saga.

Movie Poster

 A little intro to Hunger Games story: The story is set to a settling where the place is divided into 12 districts with each district focusing on one thing like for district 7, it focus on plantation. The name of the story basically is as said a game. The game functions in a way that every year, two people from each district, one male and one female will be chosen to be sent to participate in this game. Before you think that all games are fun and everything, then you're very wrong. Hunger game is something like battle royale in which the participants have to kill each other with the last one standing as the victor. From the number of districts, if you do the maths, there are a total of 24 participants and only one can come out of the game alive... You can see how twisted the society to be suggesting such a game.
I'm not going to say more and spoil it to people who have not read... If you're curious to know more, just go to this LINK.        

With that, I'll start the movie review then... 

Spoilers ahead if you've not read or watch Hunger Games... 

Catching Fire starts off with the main character, Katniss Everdeen, hunting with her Boyfriend, Gale Hawthorne. At this point, this may give the impression that maybe the main character is able to enjoy some peace after being in a horrible game where killing is second nature to all the participants.

However, this impression was quickly shot down; just as when Katniss was going to shoot down her prey, a turkey, she saw Peeta and she shot him down with her arrow. At this point, the audience could be thinking, how and why on earth was Peeta there? Well, it is basically Katniss' delusion and her boyfriend, Gale, had to calm her down from that trauma. It is hardly surprising and even less, given that Katniss is a girl, that she will suffer some mental trauma from that killing game. It will be a little unrealistic if she don't and more so since she is not one who kills...

The two hunters decided to call it a day and headed back in which there was a small kissing scene between them before they went their separate ways...

When Katniss reached her house, she was greeted by people in suits that meant business when she saw President Snow,  paying a visit to lament about his displeasure of her act since it is considered an act of rebellion in Snow's viewpoint... Thus to make the outcome works and everything, he pressured or rather threatened Katniss to convince him that both she and Peeta are lovers or else her loved ones will suffer and a projection of the kissing scene earlier between Gale and her was shown, indicating that she was under his close watch. Message: one wrong move and say goodbye to your loved ones... That pretty much ends the 'peaceful' life Katniss thought she would have after the game... It also shows why the society was twisted, given such a ruler...

Moving on, there was the practice of victors of the game to give a speech to each district for their killed members in the game... In my opinion, if I were to put in a good note, this practice pretty much could be said to honor those who lost their lives to that game but to have the victors making the speeches... I think it was just rubbing salt on the wounds of the people, especially the families of the killed members... Something like laughing in their faces and I bet that was what the practice was for...

The practice of giving the speeches...

 However, as expected from the main character, the practice, instead of having that effect, drove people further to rebel against the Capital when she expressed her own feelings on the game. Katniss witnessed first hand of what happen to people who rebel; they were killed on the spot... Being the soft girl she was, she felt responsible for it and decided to follow the script given than give her own but it did not help much as people continue to rebel... This somewhat foreshadowed that Katniss has became the rebellion icon...

Of course, this angers one person very much; President Snow... He pretty much want Katniss to be dead but with a good reason or else the injustice of her death without reason will bring more uprising... To do so, the 75th Hunger Game will have participants from existing victors instead of the regular tradition of choosing new participants from each district. You can see how unfair this is. It is like the victors had experienced a torture to survive that hellish game and thought they were finally free... And now, they had to come back and compete just b'cos 75th game is considered special since it is the third quarter game or something... The main character is once again thrown into that game again... And you wonder how cruel Fate can be...

Before the announcement of the 75th hunger games, due to the threat, Katniss decided to marry Peeta to 'convince' President Snow of their 'love'. It's sad in a way since it is a forced love but in the perspective of people who only watch or read until catching fire... I'm not going to say too much to spoil everything but at this point, putting myself in the shoes of those who have not read the last book, a forced love will not bring happiness...

THE GIRL ON FIRE!

Following that, it is the standard procedure where participants will showcase themselves and there's the return of the girl on fire! Then, there's the training session where there are some interactions between the participants and the introduction of the concept of force field. Before long, it is the interview of the participants where they showed their displeasure over been chosen AGAIN for the game...   

The interview

Finally(for me that is), the starting of the hunger games!- I know it is nothing to be happy about but I am one for action genre so the starting somewhat bored me a bit but I am not going to dislike it; the starting is necessary for the build-up after all! The arena this time... If I was one of the participant, I am long dead... The participants started at a platform and the surrounding is all water with some land... In other words, if you can't swim, that's pretty much the end for you... Of course, as if the main character will be beaten down by such a obstacle, once the game, she dived in and rushed to get her weapon, a bow. Since the participants are existing victors, the first day of the game already had 8 dead.-One third of the participants just got wiped off...

The game is just like before; there are many traps. The game works in a way like a clock. A lightning will struck a particular tree. This is a signal for the upcoming trap. From the movie, there were poison gas, aggressive monkeys and hot blood bath... Each trap is deadly and to kill the participants... The best part is the implementation of the force field that almost cost Peeta's life. I'm always amazed at the force field thing since it is like a transparent barrier... Excuse my fantasy... The story didn't ended with a victor as Katniss, being the daredevil she was, tied the copper wire(if I'm not wrong) that conducted the electricity from the lightning onto her arrow and shot at the force field when the lightning was going to strike. The impact was huge and you wonder if she survive...

Being the main character... It is hardly a surprise that she survive but what is surprising is the news she got when she saw the game master, her mentor and another participant having some meeting and telling her to be the icon of rebellion... After everything, any people would break down on the spot and gone crazy... Sigh... The next news was even worse as Katniss learned that her hometown is gone when Gale told her that District 12 is no more or rather there are no more district except one... District 13... Can you imagine yourself being sent to overseas for studying or something and come back to learn the news that your country or your hometown is gone?-That's pretty much how Katniss would have felt at that moment of truth... With that, the story ends and I await the next and last installment of the hunger games series, Mockingjay.

Overall, it is a decent movie though for me who is sucker for action, it is boring in the first half with all the talking before it gets interesting... The graphics are fine to me but the theme song this time does not appeal to me; I prefer Hunger games theme song, Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift! In my opinion, I would say Hunger games would be a better movie than Catching fire... Then again, a book adapted movie would not give much satisfaction since readers like me already know what will happen... The situation the characters were in and the problem they had will not daze the readers since they know how it will all end... I can't say much but if I am to give a rating out of ten, being the lenient me, I will give a 7 out of 10!    

Well then, that's pretty much what I want to say and man, this is tiring. The next post will be on the anime movie review, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Rebellion! Look Forward to it! Going to go work on my story then! Ja ne! This is Will signing off!

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