Reviewed in terms of Style, Story, and Substance.

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2013)

Style - Catchy effects and musical score. The overall presentation. Story - You know what that is. Substance - Outright or subliminal themes or messages.
Continuing a budding film franchise is tricky work. Especially if the first project is considered a decent piece of cinema. The job is made much more difficult when the original director has absolutely nothing to do with the follow-up to his own film. Catching Fire is an excellent accomplishment for Francis Lawrence- the series current (and contractual) director. While Gary Ross, who handled the first film, made the responsible decision not to sign onto direct a sequel with a mere year-and-a-half's production time, Francis Lawrence made an equally wise choice by maintaining much of the style that Ross' instituted originally. There is still a shift in filmmaking style, but this is not a bad thing. In fact, I wish more series would allow a hand-off between competent individuals. It makes each installment feel more unique.
There are no outright flaws in the visual effects. Explosions and creatures look as natural as ever and do not detract from the strong points of the film - the acting and architecture. Catching Fire broadens the scope of The Hunger Games, and we get to see much more of Districts 11, 12 and the Capitol. All is faithful to the original art, and is expertly elaborated on. The acting has also done nothing but improve, and thankfully, no cast members have been swapped. If anything is a much more noticeable improvement, it's that the musical score does contribute to the experience more than the first.
While the books are much more focused on Katniss (being written as a First Person narrative), the movies utilize the opportunity to elaborate on the setting and story. If nothing else, the make it much more interesting while carefully avoiding contradictions with the source material. The Hunger Games was very contained in itself, revolving around District 12, the Training Center, and of course, The Games themselves. Catching Fire broadens the setting, progresses the story, and develops the characters - some more than others, but at least it covers good ground. The story successfully makes the jump from "Katniss trying to survive through the Hunger Games", to; "Katniss trying to kiss up to the government to stay alive". Another underlying plot comes to the fore as full on civil war becomes unavoidable. Needless to say, that sounds super exciting.
When the story arc takes our hero jumps from the role of gladiator to that of pop idol, we will not ask ourselves a lot of the moral question that the first film raised. When you go to a movie that is set in a world where kids killing kids is an acceptable pastime, you can't help but be bothered by that fact that you just paid money to watch it as well. Of course, the presentation is different, but it highlights the moral ambiguity of warfare and sanctioned killings. Catching Fire's storyline just doesn't prompt the same degree of deep moral reflections. However, we still have some subtle themes regarding politics and the media that one could read into when they watch Catching Fire.
For whatever this movie might lack when compared to the original, it makes up for. In fact, most would agree that it surpasses The Hunger Games in most every way. I prefer to be happy with the fact that they are each different, but at the same time good. I'm thrilled that each movie has done its part toward turning a popular book series into a great film franchise.