Manchester City Left Back Conundrum

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013): Another View

Dir. Francis Lawrence

The first instalment of this franchise was entertaining and placed us within a dystopian future whereby the national sport is a gladiatorial exercise for survival called the Hunger Games. Further, the social classes are segregated into ‘Districts’ and a male and female contestants are picked from each of the 12. This sense of oppression and inequality created another political satire fibre within the narrative.

After Lawrence’s Katniss offered herself in place of her younger sister to participate in the first film and then won with her counterpart Peeta (Joel Hutcherson) which was highly irregular and now we have Catching Fire.

We are placed soon after the Games have finished and see how the victors visit each District and praise the dead participants. However revolution is occurring against Panem and hope is slowly rising. President Snow (played by the low pitched menace Donald Sutherland) and new character Plutarch (Again played by a malevolent PSH) both explain how Katniss has become a newly found symbol of hope for Panem and must be eradicated but not in the sense of imposing martyrdom. What is then decided is to celebrate the new Hunger Games by bringing back selected previous winners of the tournament to participate in an ultimate challenge.

The political and media satire become more apparent as the narrative progresses with Ceaser (Stanley Tucci) the main televised speaker for the tournament and its rumour mill. With multiple quotes and scenarios being exposed that replicate the modern day but in a more extravagant and vivid manner. These moments are manipulated by Katniss and Peeta who both attempt to stop this abnormal year of Games after they believed when they won the traumatic Games that would be it.

Firstly, what makes this film so much better than the previous picture is that even with the political satire, the narrative started to show more complex elements to it with the ‘love triangle’ between Katniss, Peeta and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) starting to show more ambiguity. Further, the a grittier narrative has started to materialise with the Capitol’s actions start becoming more aggressive with storm troopers showing violent actions toward rebellious individuals.

So even with a fan base from the books and a cinematic adolescent audience, the film takes courage in the fact it deals with more grown up problems and narrative strings that adults have more possibilities of dissecting through the satirical and realistic subject matter.

Finally, Jennifer Lawrence absolutely dominates the screen with her ferocious and manipulative persona, which is incredibly displayed in the final sequence. She puts a performance of the highest quality, even more so than in Silver Linings and indeed this performance does create real promise for her upcoming parts in Days of Future Past and American Hustle. With her supremacy on screen it takes nothing away from the supporting cast but her quality certain appears to raise everyone else’s game and especially solidify the quality of this film.

This assembly of elements from political satire to Jennifer Lawrence’s presence on screen, certainly places Catching Fire as a prime example of a brilliant ‘Bridge’ film, along with the like Two Towers and The Dark Knight but of course not exactly on that level, mainly to explain ‘bridge’ film predecessors. Even though the next book has been segmented into two films, the franchise is setting up for an awkward quadrilogy but I’m sure if JL maintains this kind of quality and Francis Lawrence keeps up his end of the bargain being at the directorial helm, I’m certain this franchise will flourish cinematically and financially.