The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—Better Than The First One

 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, directed by Francis Lawrence

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games. It stars Jennifer Lawrence at Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne.

This film takes place after the events of the first film. Katniss and Peeta have won the Hunger Games. They now live in the Victor’s Village in District 12. Because of their stunt with the poisonous berries, Katniss and Peeta have started a rebellion.

Katniss and Peeta at a speaking engagement in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Katniss and Peeta travel to the other districts to say a few words about their competitors in the Hunger Games. When they go to District 11, they go off script and say nice things about Rue. A fight breaks out in the crowd, and a man is killed.

Pretty soon, Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) find out that there will be another Hunger Games. This Hunger Games, however, will only include past victors. Katniss and Peeta are chosen to compete again. (District 12 only had three past victors: Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch.)

Before the Hunger Games start, Katniss and Peeta meet up with their stylists. Katniss’s stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) makes a wedding dress for Katniss. When Katniss twirls around on stage, the dress turns into a different dress. The new dress is a dress that looks like it’s made of fire. Katniss’s nickname is “The Girl on Fire.” Katniss and Peeta did not actually get married; they are just pretending that they did. During the interview with Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), Peeta says that Katniss is pregnant. This is also not true.

Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Katniss and Peeta go through training with the other victors. They meet Finnick Odair (a blond Sam Claflin) and Johanna Mason (a very funny Jena Malone). Finnick is a flirt and seems like a nice guy. Johanna is a very angry young woman who does not want to be competing in the Hunger Games again. Katniss wants to join forces with Mags, Beetie, and Wiress.

Once the Hunger Games start, Katniss and Peeta find out that many of the other competitors want to help them win. At first, Katniss and Peeta are working alone. Later, they run into Finnick and Mags. Mags gets killed. Even later, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick meet up with Johanna, Beetie, and Wiress. Wiress keeps saying “tick-tock.” At first, everyone thinks she’s speaking nonsense, but then Katniss realizes that Wiress is speaking of a clock. The different obstacles change based on the time of day.

Beetie forms a plan, which involves placing coils in the water. This will electrocute the other tributes. Johanna knocks Katniss out by taking out her tracer. The Hunger Games ends quickly after Katniss shoots the force field, which knocks out the power on the TV screens.

Katniss, Finnick, and Beetie are taken to District 13. After being healed, Katniss receives a visit from Gale, who says that Katniss’s mother and sister are safe in District 13. He says most of the people from District 12 got out and went to District 13. District 13 supposedly does not exist. Katniss gets up and goes into another room where she finds Finnick, Haymitch, and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) talking. Plutarch is the New Gamekeeper for the Hunger Games. He is secretly working against the Capitol with Finnick and Haymitch. Peeta and Johanna have been taken to the Capitol. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 will deal with Katniss trying to find Peeta.

Jena Malone as Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I really liked The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. My favorite characters are Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), Caesar Flickerman, Finnick Odair, and Johanna Mason. I thought the action was really good as were the special effects. The acting was good, especially Jennifer Laurence’s portrayal of Katniss. There was a lot of humor, courtesy of Johanna Mason.

I would recommend The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to fans of The Hunger Games books, fans of The Hunger Games film, and fans of action /adventure films. I would give The Hunger Games: Catching Fire an A because it was a really good movie.

X-Men: First Class: Great Prequel to the X-Men Franchise

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the X-Men films.  It starts out in Poland in 1944.  Erik Lensherr is separated from his mother. He separates the gates and is taken in by a scientist, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who does experiments on him because he has special abilities.  When he is unable to show off his abilities, Shaw kills Erik’s mother in front of him.

Charles Xavier has an easier life. As a boy, he wakes up one night thinking there’s an intruder in the house. Instead, he finds a young girl named Raven who is trying to steal food because she’s hungry. Raven grows up with Charles as his sister.

Charles and Erik in X-Men: First Class

While Erik (Michael Fassbender) longs to kill Sebastian Shaw for what he did to him, Charles (James McAvoy) goes to college and becomes a professor. Maura,  a CIA agent meets with him to learn whether or not there are other mutants out there. Soon, Charles, Raven, and Erik create a team of mutants.  (Erik was saved by Charles when he (Erik) was attempting to go after Sebastian.)

I liked the montage of Charles and Erik meeting mutants to form their team. Later, when all the mutants are together, they show each other what their powers are.  Meanwhile, Sebastian and his cronies are trying to start a war between Russia and Cuba. (This is the real -life Cuban missile crisis of 1962.)  President Kennedy is shown multiple times talking about Russia and Cuba.

Scene from X-Men: First Class

There is a lot of action in X-Men: First Class. There is also some humor and romance.  Some people may have a problem with Sebastian Shaw not aging, but there was one line where he explained why he doesn’t age;  this did not bother me because I was paying attention and heard that line.  Also, in the beginning of the film, Sebastian Shaw was speaking with a German accent, but later he didn’t have the German accent.  There were a lot of subtitles in the film, specifically German and Russian. I don’t like reading subtitles much because I think they’re distracting.

Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr / Magneto in X-Men: First Class

I liked X-Men: First Class a lot. I thought the action, special effects, acting, etc. was well done.  X-Men: First Class is as good as the other X-Men movies.  I thought Sebastian Shaw was a good villain.  To me, Erik was a one-dimensional character. He seemed to only care about getting his revenge on Sebastian Shaw.  Plus, having seen the X-Men movies, I knew that he would turn into Magneto.

I had read that in the battle at the end of the film, Charles becomes paralyzed. Having read that, the surprise was kind of spoiled. I knew that eventually, he would be paralyzed, use a wheelchair, and become Professor X.  I would recommend X-Men: First Class to fans of the X-Men movies, fans of action movies, fans of superhero movies, and fans of the X-Men comic books.  Although, there were some flaws in this movie, I would give it a grade of A.