We’ve discussed the trials and tribulations of building a better sequel here before; but how do you follow a story like The Hunger Games and not repeat yourself? Numerous follow-ups have played the “oh no, not again” card in order to offset a similar reaction from audiences – Hell, Die Hard 2 made John McClane’s disbelief that he was in yet another terrorist situation part of the ad campaign – but there was always a feeling that author Suzanne Collins and the filmmakers behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire were in danger of getting caught between a rock and a hard place.
Obviously, as the film is called The Hunger Games, the titular event has to go ahead, but how do you plonk Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta Mellark in the exact same situation as before and not just end up becoming some soulless retread? Simple – you up the scale, up the stakes and play every hand you have lurking within your dystopian deck of cards.
After both Katniss and Peeta both managed the unlikely event of surviving a game where there is only supposed to be one winner and lots of dead people, they’ve been living off their winnings, but barely had any communication despite the fake love story they spun for the viewers. However, Katniss knows that her acts of defiance during the 74th Hunger Games has put her in the cross hairs of the despotic President Snow. As the legend of Katniss spreads across the twelve Districts, Snow is noticing that an uprising could be worryingly imminent, and so with new Head Gamemaker Plutatch Heavensbee (these fucking names) , they reorganise the Games in order to take Katniss out of the equation.
Under the guise of the Hunger Games entering its 75th year, the big switcheroo is that this time the 24 tributes will now be comprised of previous winners from all the Districts, which means that Katniss is screwed either way as she’s the only girl from District 12 who has won. Peeta, noble as ever, volunteers to keep the famously burnt-out Haymitch out of the arena by volunteering, but as the pair go back through the pageantry of preparing for the big day, Everdeen can smell a set-up from a mile off.
Once again, she has to feign the romance with Peeta that made them such favorites the last time around, but despite the fact she still has the dashing form of Gale Hawthone waiting for her back home, she finally starts to feel herself drawn to the mild-mannered, but heroic baker. Still, as the day approaches, Katniss realises that not only is her life at risk, but the life of her loved ones are in peril too if Snow doesn’t get the show he wants. But after returning to the arena and amassing valuable allies, can Katniss and Peeta do the double and walk away from their second murder game? Even if they do, the ramifications it could have on the nation of Panem could be revolutionary…
With Gary Ross sitting out the second round, we find the director’s chair now filled by Francis Lawrence, the former music video director who gave us both Constantine and I Am Legend, and thanks to the first film already introducing this cruel universe to us only a year before, it gives Catching Fire the vital breathing room it needs to deliver that which all sequels demand – be the same, but be different. The result is an arguably superior sequel that manages to expand on things while still keeping the vital ingredients intact. To the uninitiated, Catching Fire is arguably the same movie – we start in the simple slums of District 12, we experience the Reaping and we’re off to the Capitol for training, interviews and the like before the final hour or so is dedicated to the titular games itself. However, it’s when you look at the connective tissue that holds all these familiar aspects together, you find that we have a more mature movie that shifts everything to another level.
The secret here is the effect that the leads and their acts of defiance are now having on the nation of Panem, with Katniss inadvertently causing dissection here, there and everywhere. Be it the violent put down of an act of insolence in District 11, to outrage in the Capitol when Peeta drops controversial fake news during an interview with Stanley Tucci’s Turkey toothed television host; the film may be aimed somewhere are the teen market, but that doesn’t mean it can’t push it’s family friendly rating pretty hard when it comes to showing the cruelties inflicted by nervous men in power. It’s this willingness to show the duplicitous, machiavellian practices of Donald Sutherland’s Snow and Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s newly introduced Plutatch Heavensbee, over saturating the film with the continuing central love triangle, that gives the sequel the edge that makes this world feel even more alive and dangerous.
However, while we get the same servings of flaming dresses, edgy politics and sweaty training as we did in the first film (only more eloquent) Lawrence (the director, not the star) manages to make the actual Hunger Games this time around an improvement over the original. Be it the decision to switch to IMAX for the entirety of the arena scenes (the actual transition between screen ratios is magnificent), or the fact that the section itself is far neater and to the point means that if flows far better and the various obstacles (lightning, floods, acid mist, big fuck-off baboons) means it’s a far more action packed affair. Making Katniss and Peeta form a team with other tributes proves to work well too, thanks to the likes of Jena Malone’s axe swinging brat and Jeffrey Wright’s intense brain box once again ensuring that matters are the same, but noticably better.
It’s just a shame that the ending falls foul of an unavoidable bout of sequel baiting that renders the climax not only confusing, but fairly unsatisfying. While I appreciate that the appropriate feelers have to be put out to pave the way for the next installment, so many characters – even major ones – are simply abandoned with minimal explanation, but while it’s hardly the end of the world considering that the release of Mockingjay was an absolute lock, a bit of more rounded closure would have been nice.
That stumble at the final hurdle thankfully doesn’t require canons to be sounded at the sequel’s rare missteps, and as a whole, Catching Fire stands tall as a part 2 that outshines it’s predecessor. However, none of it would mean anything if Lawrence (the star, not the director) didn’t similarly step up to the plate and deliver a performance that falls in line with the more complex, adult glance at authoritarian dictatorships and the power of missued mass media.
Bigger, better and more refined, the franchise’s leap from teen dystopia sci-fi to box office conquering phenomenon truly begins here. While some of the connective tissue for future installments proves to be as flimsy as the lifespan of a Head Gamemaker to a casual viewer, The Hunger Games continues to run rings around that other, teen-centric, love-triangle obsessed novel series that also was doing the rounds at the time. Dystopia is so in with the kids right now.
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