Friday, November 22, 2013

Catching Fire will set fire to all US box office records...

Let me start off by saying I haven't read Catching Fire (yet) the second book in the arguably best teen style trilogy of all-time, but that actually made me enjoy the movie more.  I didn't know what was coming, especially the ending.  A few of the things were obvious like Katniss giving hope to all the districts and the uprisings that start to take place  (a sign of things to come very soon) to her surviving the 75th Hunger Games, spoiler alert I guess.
 
The roles were all done amazingly this time, perhaps even better.  The bit parts done by Elizabeth Banks (Effete Trinket) who stole every scene she was in,  Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) who stole every scene he was in, Lenny Kravitz (Cinna) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy) were great.  And Elizabeth and Stanley should get consideration for best supporting actor and actress, they were just. that. great.  Donald Sutherland aka one of the best villians ever played on screen (President Snow) stole the overall show and set up the finale(s)? perfectly.

It starts off after the 74th Hunger Games finish and Peeta and Katniss need to make their "love story" real during the celebration tour.  All is not well though throughout the districts, Katniss and Peeta's act of defiance is the spark of something big, so big President Snow knows he needs Katniss gone.  How does he plan to do that?  By making the 75th Hunger Games like no other.  Fast forward to the end of the games and Katniss has nothing left, and that makes her a very dangerous person.  The story is to be concluded over the next two Thanksgivings.  And sometimes, lets just say some of the events hit a little too close to home...

The cinematography was great the story flew by and my only gripe as I sit here writing away at 3:30am is that 5-10 minutes probably could have been cut but that said great movie.  Oh and like I said this will own the box office in this country for weeks to come.

My rating: 9.5/10
IMDB: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%