The Hunger Games Retrospective: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the second film in the original Hunger Games series. It is seen as the best film but does it live up to that reputation?

Despite winning the Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta are facing scrutiny from President Snow. Violence and disorder are spreading across Panem and Snow threatens to kill Katniss’ family if she doesn’t convince the nations that her love story with Peeta is real. Even worse for Katniss and Peeta, Snow and the head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) plan a special Hunger Games where previous winners will compete.

The first Hunger Games film was a big hit and the books were popular, but Lionsgate did act with caution since the sequels were only greenlit after The Hunger Games’ box-office success. This meant there was an 18-month gap between the release of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and there were changes behind the camera. Francis Lawrence replaced Gary Ross as director and Academy Award-winning writers Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) adapted the novel.

The Hunger Games was a solid start to the film series but it was limited in scope. That film’s focus was on Katniss’ survival in the Hunger Games arena. Catching Fire was an expansion of the story and the world of The Hunger Games. Catching Fire took Katniss and Peeta to other Districts of Panem and they saw the embers of rebellion. Katniss and Peeta saw the powder keg going off in District 11 when a riot broke out and Katniss saw the man who incited it getting shot. It was close to how it was written in the book.

The film aimed to show the contrast between the Districts and the Capitol. The most obvious was the wealth divide and oppression. People in the Districts were starving and suffering from violent repression like Gale getting publicly flogged in District 12, whilst The Capitol’s resources were so plentiful that citizens took drugs that allowed them to vomit and eat more. There was social commentary in the first half of the film since The Capitol’s residents were oblivious to chaos beyond their city and they hail Katniss as an icon, unaware of her status in the Districts. It was like middle-class people in the West who have Che Guevara paraphernalia, unaware of what he did or stood for. One of The Hunger Games’ greatest strengths has been its social commentary. This helped The Hunger Games stand above its YA dystopia rivals.

Catching Fire did seem to fall into the sequel trap: do the same plot as the first film where the heroes have to compete in the Hunger Games again. Catching Fire does up the ante by making all the tributes former winners: they were also adults and had to kill to survive. This meant Catching Fire could be more violent than its predecessor since it was adults killing adults, not kids fighting to the death. Catching Fire also had a political dimension that added a bit of spice to the story since Snow and Plutarch were looking for a way to bring Katniss down. A lot of the actions were framed in the context of people protecting or attacking Katniss.

Catching Fire had a bigger budget than The Hunger Games. This was partly due to contracts needing to be renewed and bringing in more stars. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Jeffrey Wright added a lot of gravitas to the film, especially Hoffman who won an Oscar and was one of the best characters in Hollywood. The other major actors were Sam Claflin, who was a rising star due to his roles in Pirates and the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White and The Huntsman, and Jena Malone as two of the younger tributes in the Third Quarter Quill. Alan Ritchson had a small role as one of the tributes and he has gone on to have a successful career, playing Raphael in the 2010s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and leading Amazon Prime’s Reacher.

Hoffman played the most interesting character in the film since he was playing one of Snow’s main advisors. He was a calm and cunning man who seemingly spoke with authority, even when his plans went wrong. Plutarch’s argument was ‘stay the course.’ People who have never read the book would be surprised by the reveal of Plutarch’s true intentions, however, it did make his action seem high risk. Catching Fire did cut a scene where Hoffman destroyed the real Quarter Quill proposal. It was wise to cut that scene since its omission made Plutarch a more ambiguous character.

Catching Fire saw a new director take over the series. Francis Lawrence came from a different background to Gary Ross since he started his career as a music video director. His best-known films before working on The Hunger Games franchise were Constantine and I Am Legend which were special effects-heavy pictures. He brought that blockbuster energy to Catching Fire since it had a grander scale, like when the character arrived in Panem, and was more action-packed. A key scene showing this was when Katniss goes into a training simulation and showed off how badass she was with a bow. The threat in the arena wasn’t just the other tributes, it was environmental hazards like mutated mandrills and a flesh-eating fog. It added to the scene of peril.

Catching Fire was a faithful adaptation, for the most part, but there were some big admissions. Like with The Hunger Games, some admissions were understandable since it would have been hard to incorporate into the film. A detail I liked in the book was Katniss revealing her family’s poverty and that she considered prostituting herself for food, but it couldn’t be incorporated into the film and didn’t move the main story. Two bigger admissions involved Katniss and Peeta watching the Second Quarter Quill and Katniss discovering the truth about District 13.

The admission of the Second Quarter Quill meant that there was some important information about Haymitch. This was the Hunger Games Haymitch won but he ended up embarrassing the realm and they punished Haymitch by killing his whole family. This was why Haymitch was a bitter alcoholic. It also set up the power of forcefields which became important in Catching Fire’s climax. In the books, the people of Panem believed District 13 was destroyed after the first rebellion. However, Katniss discovered evidence that District 13 might still exist and it should have been in the film since it would have set up the sequels.

Catching Fire was a great sequel. It continued to have what worked in the first film, improved on the weaker elements, and expanded the story. It was the high point for the YA dystopia sub-genre.