This is one perfectly cast movie, down to people who might even say one line in one scene. Everyone is cast to perfection. Christopher Nolan would be proud. I listed the majority of actors above for one reason: you get a bunch of good character actors together and give them a good storyline and the movie will turn out very watchable. This movie is extremely watchable.
This is how you do a sequel and not only do a sequel but do it much better than the first movie. The main reason this movie is better than the first movie is because the director actually knows how to set up and shoot a scene without resorting the lazy-man's way of directing with shaky cam. I mean I could actually see what was happening in the scenes and got to admire the production and set designs of the scenes without trying to find my bearings because the camera was moving up, down, and sideways all time. This made a huge difference on the communication level of this movie versus the first movie, which felt like I was watching the TV show COPS in the movie theater.
This movie reminded me of Terminator 2. What I mean by this is that it did reuse things from the first movie but it also opened up the world and mythology of the world and let the characters grow from the first film, which is what a sequel is supposed to. And this movie did it beautifully. New characters are added and didn't feel like a gimmick but actually added to the storyline. Characters were allowed to develop and grow from things that happened to them in the first movie. We are allowed to see how actions and decisions made in the first movie have affected this movie, which is something that seems totally lost in Hollywood as sequels and movies are churned out with little passion but for the all mighty dollar. This movie does not feel churned out. Catching Fire also rises the bar on the political landscape of the first movie, making the politics even more threatening and suffocating than they were before.
I will tell you this Jennifer Lawrence has become one of the best young actors acting in movies. I've been following her since I saw her in Winter's Bone (which if you haven't seen you need to go out and see it because it is one amazing low budget, independent film that's actually good - Lawrence is simply amazing in that film) and it seems every film she's in, which is only a handful - but what a handful to sample- she is simply amazing: American Hustle, X-Men First Class, Hunger Games, and Silver Linings Playbook. She fully breathes life into Catniss and not just embodies a character from a book but makes it impossible to ever seen anyone else playing Catniss, ever again. She so fully transforms into her.
As far as big budgets Hollywood movies go this is by far one of the better ones to come out in a long time and I'm looking forward to seeing how they are going to end the series, even though I've read the books, I still want to see what they're going to do with it. I'll also be interested to see if Suzanne Collins is going to do anything more than the series after the last movie comes out because we've seen how Rowling has been affected by her Potter universe. Collins is going to be facing the same sort of thing here in a few years. This series is slowly reaching those same heights with fans that will just have more fans added as the last two movies come out. Demand for more things new with the Hunger Games universe might bring some new supplies, look at what Rowling has been doing with the Potter-verse. I don't think there's anything wrong with this after all it's because of the fans these two worlds have become as popular as they are.
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