A very satisfying sequel

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2013)

"The Hunger Games" can be compared to "His Dark Materials' - two novel trilogies that I have read and enjoyed immensely. Both were written for young adults but have crossed over into popularity with a general readership. Both are set in a world related to ours, but profoundly different, and feature a resourceful female protagonist. But, whereas (sadly) the attempt to film "His Dark Materials" started and finished with the opening novel ("The Golden Compass"), it was always clear that the movie adaptation of "The Hunger Games" was - like the "Twilight" series - going to go all the way. In fact, "The Hunger Games" films are making far more money at the box office than "Twilight" because - in my view - the themes are much more realistic and the central actress, Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, is so accomplished.
The author of the novels Suzanne Collins continues to act as an executive producer and is ensuring that the films are faithful to the books and, as long as she and Lawrence stick with the series, it can only grow and grow. In fact, since the first movie Lawrence - like the heroine she portrays - has become bigger than the Games, as she has now won a well-deserved Academy Award for "Silver Linings Playbook". Meanwhile "Catching Fire" had twice the budget of the original film and the result is superior production values.
In this very satisfying sequel, it is a year on from the opening salvo: Katniss and her co- victor (the rather weak Josh Hutcherson as Peeta) have to go on the Victory Tour, where they find rebellion is in the air, before finding themselves sucked back into the arena as a result of a particularly cruel Quarter Quell which requires all this year's Games contestants to be drawn from previous winners. There is a new Games master (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and new murderous challenges in the gladiatorial battlefield. And, at the end of it all (almost two and a half hours later), the final line of dialogue is identical to that of the book and sets us up brilliantly for Part 3A.