The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The second film of the series. Katniss won and is not comfortable. She has to tour the districts as a victor and reads a prepared speech at every stop. She sees something on the tour. People are using a gesture she made in the arena as a sign, and in some districts a rising has begun. The president wants it stopped. A new rule is announced: this year's games will be played by people drawn from the past victors. So Katniss goes back, and this time the people opposite her are experienced. From there the film divides in two. The first part is preparation and politics; the second is the arena. The arena this time is designed like a clock. There are twelve segments, each with its own hazard, and each hazard runs at a given hour. What the narrative is interested in is not survival but organisation: at the end it becomes clear that some of the people in the arena were running another plan from the start. The alliances among the competitors are the best written part, and most of the characters are built in a single scene. The tone is darker than the first film. The camera is calmer, the violence is shot with less shake, and the political line has moved forward. The arena sections were shot in large format and the frame grows in some venues during those scenes. The film cuts off at the end and continues in the next one. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone and Donald Sutherland are in the cast. Francis Lawrence directed. Who it is for: anyone who has seen the first film; the narrative grows here. Who it is not for: anyone expecting closure; the film ends in the middle.