A film for intelligent and open minded people.

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2013)

Hunger Games is clearly one of the best films of the year, and without a doubt it's an excellent film. I must say that it's finally a breath of fresh air in this fast food generation of people that only bothers to go to theaters to see things exploding and an insane use of CGI on every single shot. Not saying that HG: Catching Fire has nothing of this; of course it has, but i am only saying that it bothers in also pledging the viewer with a good and intelligent story. Though nothing in it is subtle or anything, but still a great mental satisfaction to watch it.
I must say that it is the only serious and compromised blockbuster done since The Dark Knight. Of course, is not that hard either to make a story with more content than 'The avengers' or 'Thor 2', but again , is a great breath of fresh air and it definitely has an above average storytelling for nowadays established standards.
I simply loved the references to the Roman Empire on it, such as the fact that the rich people threw up to can taste all the types of food in the party, while the poor people were starving fighting for a piece of bread. I also liked how a new and entirely fictional world can offers such a strong allegory to OUR real solid world. The allegory presented in this film shows the human history since day one, until perhaps nowadays, or even until a near future. In fact, we can see and remind through this film that nothing really changed in the political aspects, because since the days where Rome was a great and powerful Empire, there was tyranny, internal treason and people were always unhappy and poor, though they also were the vast majority. And yeah, sadly this still happening. Again, politically nothing changed. Maybe the thing that really changed was the standards of tyranny and unhappiness, but's all. This sad fate probably won't change in a 'technological' future either.
So, as you can see, HG:Catching Fire puts altogether the medieval times, the present times and a probably futuristic time, doing a great reflection about our civilization. The film also criticizes the strong media manipulation, who is blatantly true nowadays. So, a improbably hero, or better, heroin(to emphasize even more the idea of revolution) rises to put an end in all the tyranny and to give the power to the people. Fantastic.
Talking about the cast, Jennifer Lawrence is the one who is definitely on fire. She is such a talented actress, and is doing one of the best runs ever made by such a young actress. As you see, the combination of good looking skills plus real talent and the right choices of films is turning her in a superstar of cinema and obviously she has a great effect on the box offices of a film, something that really few actresses could do. Woody Harrelson is once again priceless. He definitely adds his crazy acting style to the film, even expanding it's horizons. He definitely steals the scene, even if Jennifer Lawrence or the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman are in the same scene as him. The best actor in the film, in my opinion.
The only couple of things that bothered me were the dialogs, which sometimes were dull, and some cheesy moments in the first sequences of the film. I also don't understood why the protagonist cried so much, but maybe she was just hyper sensitive or whatever. Still, it did hold me back when i was going to give it a perfect 10/10. Anyways, the rest is absolutely top notch.
All in all, an excellent film. Those who have a brain will appreciate this piece of art. 9.0/10