Catching Fire (2009)

*Premise spoilers*

Rolling on through to Catching Fire. I’m really loving this reread, all the little details that are jumping out in hindsight. Let’s get into it!

After the events of The Hunger Games, Katniss is back home struggling with how to move forward. Her bold move in the Arena is fanning sparks of rebellion in a number of districts, and on the eve of her shared “Victory Tour” with Peeta—with whom she has to continue the ruse to the Capitol that they’re madly in love—the president personally lets her know that the lives of everyone she loves will be on the line if she can’t do her job as Capitol puppet and pacify the masses.

Look, Catching Fire is just that girl. She really is. For my money, this is the most uneven book in the series. The great parts are positively scintillating, the type of story and characters that itch my brain so good! If it was like that all the way through, it’d be duking it out hard with Sunrise on the Reaping as my favorite. But there’s a stretch in the middle, between the Victory Tour and the announcement of the Quarter Quell for the 75^th Hunger Games, where it feels like the book is spinning its wheels. I understand Katniss’s conflict as she feels stuck between her fear of the Capitol and her guilt at not using her position/influence to make more of a difference, but the narrative result is kind of clunky. We spend several chapters watching Katniss change her mind back and forth, and it’s all tied up in a bunch of love triangle stuff, which is a weak point of the trilogy anyway. It works a little better for me on reread, but the middle section’s issues still stand out to me.

My first time reading it, I remember that it took me a long time to figure out what the book was actually about. Early on, I figured it’d be about the Victory Tour, but that wraps up so quickly and we hit the wheel-spinning stretch. It’s not until the Quarter Quell announcement that it really zeroes in on its direction, at least for me. But once it does, everything slots into place and the book is basically firing on all cylinders from there. It’s fascinating to see how this Games differs from the one in the first book, from the pre-Games events to the tributes to the Arena itself.

I’d already liked so many of the characters in the first book, and this one introduces a whole host of interesting new ones. It’s also cool to spend significant time getting to know characters from other districts. In The Hunger Games, we mainly know the District 12 crew, some of the Capitol folks, and Rue, getting much smaller glimpses of everyone else. But here, there’s a lot of neat stuff for Finnick and Mags, for Beetee and Wiress, and for Johanna. I love all these characters, and that love has only grown over time. They’re not just functions of Katniss’s journey either—we learn details of some of their backstories, and we’re able to make our own emotional connections with them.

Catching Fire is probably the book I was most excited to revisit this time around, for obvious reasons. It’s so neat to return to our introductions to characters who play such major roles in Sunrise on the Reaping, to look at them through the lens of what I’ve learned about their pasts. For that reason—and the Quarter Quell in general—I’m guessing this one will wind up being my favorite of the reread.

Warnings

Violence (including against teens,) strong thematic elements, disturbing images, sexualization of teenagers, and drinking/drug references.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013, PG-13)

(The usual Buster Monday post is being saved for later in the week; we have another 100 Years of Buster Keaton anniversary coming up!)

Even though it certainly still has its flaws, watching Catching Fire was like a sigh of relief for me after The Hunger Games.  As I said in my Hunger Games review, it’s improved for me on rewatch, but I still find Catching Fire a much more exciting, watchable film that, for me, is a lot more successful at what it sets out to do (premise spoilers for this film, as well as some from The Hunger Games.)

After the events of The Hunger Games, Katniss is back home struggling with how to move forward.  Her bold move in the Arena is fanning sparks of rebellion in a number of districts, and on the eve of her shared “victory tour” with Peeta – with whom she has to continue the ruse to the Capitol that they’re madly in love – the president personally lets her know that the lives of everyone she loves will be on the line if she can’t do her job as Capitol puppet and pacify the masses.  Amid the rumblings of dissent across the country, the important 75^th Hunger Games is announced with a very distinctive hook.  All the tributes will be reaped from each district’s surviving victors, and District 12 doesn’t have victors to spare:  Katniss (and either Peeta or Haymitch) will be sent back in.

A lot of the nuts-and-bolts problems I have with The Hunger Games are smoothed over here.  Francis Lawrence’s direction feels a lot tighter and more suspenseful to me, and both the score and the costumes are used to better effect.  Serious stuff goes down in this movie, and the film definitely knows that, an impression I don’t always get in The Hunger Games.  And overall, I’m fairly pleased with the screenplay.  This book covers a lot of ground, and while there are of course wonderful lines, gems of scenes, and perfect character moments that didn’t make the cut (there always are,) I think the film mostly does a good job hitting what’s important in a way that doesn’t feel choppy or rushed.  If I’m going to find nits to pick, I’ll single out the foreshadowing on District 13, which is too skimpy for me.  It also would’ve been nice to work in at least a little bit about Haymitch’s Games, and I’d have liked a bit more with Finnick, just ‘cause I love him as a character.

The new cast members, for my money, all hold their own pretty well.  I especially like Jeffrey Wright, who’s pitch-perfect as Beetee, Lynn Cohen in her understated but affecting role as Mags, and Jena Malone’s fierce turn as Johanna.  Additionally, Amanda Plummer hits the right offbeat notes as Wiress, and while Sam Claflin doesn’t completely sell me on Finnick as a shallow Capitol playboy, he handles Finnick’s greater complexities in the Arena really nicely.  And I know she was in the previous film, too, but Elizabeth Banks’s performance as Effie in this movie made me realize what a gem the franchise has in her.  This is a series that has a lot of great actors all-around, but I think Banks’s Effie might be their secret MVP.

Warnings

Lots of violence, thematic elements, brief implied nudity, alcohol, and language.