Catching Fire certainly has better production values - that's what they call a left-handed compliment - but there is precious little plot. Katniss is going on her victory tour - which seems to take forever, given she's on a bullet train - and like the heroine of that other Young Adult multi-film franchise, she seems to spend a lot of time agonizing over which boy she has the strongest feelings for - and that's about the sum total of her entire character. We're halfway into the sequel before more running and bow-drawing occurs. The cinematography is remarkably unremarkable and never establishes a very convincing or textured world. Everything is lit with a sunny genericism. For the life of me, I can't figure out what Stanley Tucci is doing in this thing. Donald Sutherland does everything but twirl his mustache - and knowing that this is one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last films is just...depressing. I'm pretty sure I heard my wife exlcaim, "It's like Logan's Run meets Flashdance." Good one, honey.
It really seems to be Battle Royale expanded into dystopia light. Now don't get me wrong - I love a good post-apocalyptic totalitarian state as much as the next guy - and I have nothing against watching young actors fight to the death. But with all the truly smart franchises out there these days, I was really kind of surprised at how unengaging Catching Fire was. I'm obviously not the target demo they're aiming for here - but given the boatloads of profit the film's pulled in, I expected something a lot better. Like maybe The Handmaid's Tale meets Twilight better.
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