Visually captivating and action packed, but...

Rating: 7/10 (10 December 2013)

I really like Hunger Games franchise for being what it is - tightly packed with action, always very visual, and with some very deep theme underneath a simple dystopian flick. Catching Fire is the second movie in the series and follows the source material quite closely but few necessary alterations. And it is what it should be - an action packed movie to catch your eyes on the screen and sit on the edge of the seat, right? Yes and no. It is very visual and beautiful, the action sequences are great, even the new cast members are great, the arena's even better than I'd imagined it to be, but... Oh, unfortunately there's a 'but' here, and quite a big one - Katnis Everdeen. While in the first movie her inner struggle translated quite decently to the screen language, in this one it fell quite hard. I've read the books, and I know what was going on inside her head and all, but my friend, who joined me to the movie, and who've never read those books, and only saw the first and now the second movie, was way too much puzzled on what kept Katnis tick and tock, and all. So I just say, that what we have here is a strong 2nd movie of total 4, and it's good on all levels but catching one on fire emotionally.