Purely Joyful Movie!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games series following Kaniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark after they spark a rebellion when winning the hunger games. These events lead Panem's leader President Snow to gather the victors from previous games to be drawn and entered into a whole new arena where they must fight till the death a second time. Catching Fire is a chilling thrill ride with more twists and suspense as the movie introduces new characters, a rising rebellion, and a whole new plan to take down Panem and their twisted games. Catching Fire may be the best of the films as it takes you deeper into this dystopian society reminding everyone to remember who the enemy is."People are looking to you, Katniss. You've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it." -Gale Hawthorne, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire perpetuates itself to be 'The Empire Strikes Back' of the Hunger Games canon, and on that front I can say it definitely succeeds there: the set-pieces are bigger the perils are raised to the next level and the baddies are hell-bent on destroying the last remnants of hope remaining in Panem.The first of three sequels to the original film, Catching Fire is far and wide the most beautifully shot of the franchise thanks to its utilisation of 35mm and IMAX-65mm celluloid cameras that makes the images on-screen wonderfully realised and applies the scope and scale of the action sequences. It makes you feel like the action is something monumental to behold.As far as sequels go, is this the best one ever made? No, but it's definitely up there for sequels from the 2010s, easily ranking on near-equal footing with other sequels like Skyfall and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

This is such an intense and emotional ride and you better get on. The reason this is my favorite is because I believe Katniss has developed so much in this movie as a character. Spoiler Warning: She ends up having to go to the hunger games again. And when she does she shows that she will not let the Capital defeat her, no matter how many times she gets knocked down. I love the relationship between her and Peeta. He was always my favorite and he develops as a character as well. Spoiler Warning: I love the new addition of the character Finnick and he firsts seems like an enemy but than he turns out to be a good guy. This is such an action packed movie and it has a lot of heart. Really love this movie!

You'd expect a merry-go-round in the sky, almost, the way people are on about Katniss Everdeen. I won the full set in a competition where mine was the winning review, thank you Raru South Africa, I do appreciate, I never would have seen it otherwise, the original box cover artwork of THE HUNGER GAMES reminded me too much of images I have seen of computer- animated Lara Croft and I didn't have this on my list of DVDs to obtain, but when my BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER review took first prize, I was real chuffed for the nifty boxset.Once again though, there's nothing really, really special in here. Come on, people, it's an average performance in a movie coming in well below what it should have been. I hasten to add, in all fairness, that those computer-generated mandrills... Ooh jeepers they made excellent excellent adversaries, the only real high point of the movie. Had the entire flick been that kind of edge-of-your-seat stuff...But Jennifer Lawrence is nothing extra-special in this movie. Do not get me wrong, I am not dissing her, no. But worthy of all this acclaim, for this... This? People, you are seeing way more in this than there actually is. Take another look at it. What it does do, is deliver a theme of televised blood sport, and this is what enthralls you lot. There is bound to be more. Of this (the DIVERGENT series aside) with better performances, and you'll see, though I most likely wouldn't, I prefer other kinds of story lines, I wouldn't be salivating over the blood games to follow.Notice that the poster artwork got recognition. Yeah, where are the days of the great poster artwork, like THE GAUNTLET, and the Roger Moore James Bond movies?In closing, I repeat, I do not mean it is a weak movie/weak performance. It is just, this is the first movie since THE EXORCIST where a movie with an actress headlining the show tops the box office. For this? Weren't there so many, many others so far, far more worthy?