Catch of the Day

The Hunger Games was one of the better movies of last year, a solid adaptation of the original book, and I was looking forward to the sequel. Unfortunately, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (as the film version has been cumbersomely titled) wasn't able to reach the same high mark as the first movie.

The book itself was in a similar position, owing largely to its two distinctly different parts. The first half of the novel was an intriguing expansion of the series' world, a web of political intrigue in which the heroine Katniss had become ensnared. The second half was an unsatisfying retread of the first book, a trip back into the arena that failed to thrill as much as the original novel.

Interestingly, the movie has the opposite problems. The first part of the film, which chronicles Katniss' attempts to mollify the infuriated President Snow, is slowly paced and lacking in memorable scenes. There's a strong early confrontation between Katniss and Snow, effective in large part due to Donald Sutherland's carefully caged villainy, and then little of consequence for the next hour. Scenes with Gale fall flat, leaving his relationship with Katniss lacking in sufficient weight. Scenes with Katniss' family fail to reestablish the strong connection between them. Scenes with Haymitch are too few and far between, not giving enough of a glimpse of the fighter beneath the washed-out drunkard (which is a big shortcoming, given where the story eventually goes).

Yet when things transition back to the arena, the film picks up tremendously. Far more than in the first film, this arena feels truly dangerous. Several of the other competitors are more effectively presented than the characters of the first half, and the geography of the arena itself is established better than the first film. The stakes feel high, and the actions sequences are tense. As great as the first movie was in handling this material, this new movie is better.

Ultimately, this is a great demonstration of the differences between a book and a film, and the types of storytelling that can be handled better by one medium or the other. But that intellectual exercise isn't really enough. The jarring switch mid-movie and the lack of a gratifying climax (this story serving mainly just to set up the next one) make this a rather disappointing follow-up. It's not "bad," but I think it only worth a B- overall -- quite a step down from the top notch original.