Catching fire is what The hunger games should have been — tense, gritty, action-packed and with characters that leave you in awe

From the opening shot of the film you know that this movie is ticking all the right boxes, at least for fans of the book.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is back in District 12 and living a life of comparative luxury, as is befitting a victor of the brutal Hunger Games, but the trauma of the games is a living thing as is made clear in the first few minutes of the film.

Katniss tries to hunt game — something she has been doing for a very long time — but the game turns into one of the competitors at the Hunger Games and she is instantly transported back to the arena.

Where it scored over the first film:

The Katniss of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire fits the bill more than she did in The Hunger Games where she looked too well-fed and polished to be from a District that lives in abject starvation.

You finally start looking up to Katniss as someone capable of leading a revolution or, at least, becoming a symbol of one.

Under a different director (Francis Lawrence), Catching Fire has become what The Hunger Games should have been — a gritty, fast-paced, action-packed film that takes time to develop characters and delve deep into some of the thoughts and themes of the series. Hats off to Lawrence for turning the middle book, which is basically a filler between the first and the third, into a gripping film.

Josh Hutcherson is a revelation as Peeta and it no longer feels like we are being forced to champion a person who is the most boring and the most unimpressive hero in all of Panem. You finally start seeing the Peeta that Katniss is finally going to choose over Gale (Liam Hemsworth) at the end of the third book.

We get to see some of the Districts in Panem as the victors go on tour paying their respects to the fallen tributes. We get to see the disconnect that the Districts feel with the Capitol and the conditions they are forced to live in.

The way the stirring of unrest is depicted in the film through glimpses of graffiti on walls or unguarded monitors of security officers steers the film in the proper direction without taking attention away from the main protagonists.

For the first time you don’t feel sorry that the hunky Liam Hemsworth has so little to do in the franchise and Josh Hutcherson so much to do.

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) with her outrageous hairdos and outlandish costumes has so much more to do this time around and we are so glad.

Sam Claflin as the tribute Finnick Odair is a sight for sore eyes in a film where all the male protagonists are either too old and boring or good looking and never there.

Where it maintained status quo:

Katniss Everdeen still steals the show, even though all the other actors have upped their game.

The game itself, the Quarter Quell this time, was as good as it was in the first with director Lawrence choosing to stick to the successful picturisation of the way the games were formulated and run.

Chandreyee Chatterjee

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is better than The Hunger Games because... tell t2@abp.in