Visually amazing, and follows book well, but feels like the first one.

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2013)

One of the things that first leaped out to me about this movie is it's stunning visuals. The beautiful shots of capitol and the game landscape are amazing. Capitol is sort of like a mix between Las Vegas and Los Angeles with many bright lights with loads of celebrity like influence. Catching Fire also gives you a good connection to the characters. During one moment in the movie, I was rubbing my neck and cringing at how painful certain parts felt.
One problem with Catching Fire as a book though is that it feels too similar to the first book. Catching Fire seems in many ways like the first movie shot in different ways with slight plot changes and this makes you feel like the author used this book to milk the franchise rather than actually have more substance. While this is reviewing the book rather than the movie, I feel this is important because one good thing about the movie is how well it does follow the book. Those are however, the original creator's faults and the director has no control over that.
As a book this particular story has issues, but in my mind the director and screen writer did their best with this movie and it turned out great.