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Hungry for More

The second film in the "Hunger Games" series, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" begins shortly after the first film leaves off. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) have returned to their homes in District 12. They're the sole survivors of an annual government-sponsored battle royale (The Hunger Games) in which children between the ages of twelve and eightteen from each district in PanEm battle to the death. But instead of returning to shacks to live in poverty and squalor as most District 12 residents do, the victors are granted lavish homes, riches, plenty of food, and all the latest conveniences this dystopic post-apocalyptic future has to offer, like telephones and in-air projection televisions.

PanEm's president Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), a brutal dictator with a cultured intellectual outward persona, is not pleased with the pair, due to an act of defiance in the Games arena. Faced with dying or killing each other, Katniss and Peeta decide to share poison berries instead, which would kill them both and rob the game of its victor. At the last moment, the gamemaker steps in and stops the pair from commiting suicide, declaring them them the first joint winners of the Games. This act, televised live to the entire country of PanEm as mandatory viewing, seems to have sparked unrest and resistance in the districts.

A threatening visit by the president to Katniss' home just before the annual Victory Tour makes it clear to Katniss that her life and those of her friends and family are in imminent danger. Katniss must present herself during the televised tour of the districts as a good PanEm citizen, madly in love with her fellow victor (though she is not), or face dire consequences. Snow hopes that convincing the rabble that Katniss acted only out of love and desparation, not out of defiance, might distract the citizens from their subversive desires. But the subversion grows despire Katniss and Peeta's best efforts.

Snow decides that desparate times call for desparate measures so he colludes with the new head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to add a new twist to the games. Instead of drawing contestants from the children of each district, the contestants in this year's games will be drawn from the past victors. This means Katniss Everdeen, as the only living female victor from District 12, will be fighting for her life again, but this time against 22 seasoned killers, and against Peeta.

This second film is grittier and more fleshed out than the first. The decadent Capitol in particular seems more real than it did in the first film. The citizens are all gaudily dressed, with dyed skin and hair and bedazzled appendages, but it feels more tangible compared to the caricature that it was in the first film.

The screenwriters take some liberties with the script -- eliminating some secondary characters from the novel, changing dialogue, condensing time lines -- but they stay true to the spirit of the book.  The book is fairly dense -- more material than can be fully told in a two-and-a-half hour film -- but the same plot points are covered, the same story progression followed. Fans of the novels will notice the differences here, but will probably be OK with the changes.

One element that does carry over from the book is the conflict within Katniss between her pretend lover Peeta (who himself is not pretending) and her long-time friend and potential life partner Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Though young adults might identify with this emotional torture, it gets to be a litte overwrought at times, particularly from a young woman as strong and independent as Katniss. But still, it does help to create tension and to show the complexity of the human heart.

While the first act may be slow at times, the action picks up once we enter the Games arena. Danger and threats lurk everywhere, both human and otherwise. Poison fog, oppressive heat, mutated monkeys, asphixiating blood rain, vicious competitors: there seems to be nowhere to hide untill Katniss and her allies unlock the secret of the Arena and work out a strategy to survive, and to fight back. The time spent in the games arena does seem considerably shorter than in the book, but slowly starving to death or dwindling away from dehydration are not particularly interesting things to watch.

For those viewing the film in IMAX, you'll notice that the full IMAX screen is used in the Arena scenes (the rest of the film will be letterboxed on the IMAX screen in a wider aspect ratio). Director Francis Lawrence wanted these scenes to be spectacular, so he shot them using high resolution IMAX cameras in the IMAX aspect ratio. A full 50 minutes of the film is presented this way. The detail and full use of the massive IMAX screen help to accentuate the viewer's immersion in the film. If you have the option of seeing it in IMAX, do so as it's worth the upcharge.

As with the first film, the casting choices here are outstanding, and carry the film. Though Jennifer Lawrence may be larger in stature and more curvaceous than Katniss in the novel, she carries the role effortlessly, becoming the "girl on fire." She's a powerful but vulnerable young woman doing her best to navigate an impossible situation. Hutcherson nails Peeta's gentle nature and devotion to Katniss, but may lack some of the physical prowess attributed to Peeta in the book. Woody Harrelson plays the drunken mentor Haymitch with aplomb, and Lenny Kravitz personifies Cinna (Katniss' stylist) to a tee. But the newcomers also shine: Sam Claflin struts his stuff as Finnick Odair, and Jena Malone sinks her teeth into the role of Johanna Mason, a vocal dissident, unafraid to speak out against the Games' brutality and unfairness. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman provides the necessary gravitas and charisma as the new gamemaker.

As with the first film, the PG-13 rating takes a bit of the edge off the violence. There is violence, of course (it is about a battle to the death, after all), but there is little in the way of graphic violence or gore. I wouldn't recommend bringing young children, but it's a far cry from blood-fests like the "Final Destination" or "Saw" films.

And if the ending seems abrupt, it's because it is. This is the second book in a trilogy, so closure is not in the cards this time around. Like the "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" series before it, the final episode in the trilogy is being broken up into two films. There's certainly enough source material. Let's hope the screenwriters can break the rest of the tale into two self-contained and satisfying movies. As far as the ending of "Catching Fire" goes, it's no cliffhanger, but it does get the audience pumped up for what is to come. The battle may be over but the war has just begun.